Malkishua

Malkishua lies within the Yizre'el subdistrict of Israel's Northern District, in the Beit She'an Basin natural region.[1] Its geographic code in the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics is 1154, and it is administered by the Valley of Beit She'an Regional Council.[1] Mount Malkishua, the peak with which the locality is associated, sits at coordinates 32.4351°N and 35.4133°E, and is assigned the monitoring-station code MML by international treaty-monitoring tables.[2]

The locality is positioned near Jenin on the slopes of Mount Gilboa, a ridge approximately 17 kilometers long with a summit 479 meters high.[3] An archival catalog record dated 1980–1983 lists Malkishua in land-transfer documentation covering a series of localities.[4]

The name Malkishua originates in the Hebrew Bible, where it is borne by a son of King Saul. The genealogy in 1 Chronicles 8:33 lists Saul — son of Kish — as having four sons: Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.[5] An earlier passage, 1 Samuel 14:49, names Saul's sons as Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua, alongside his daughters Merab and Michal.[6]

Malkishua's most prominent appearance in the biblical narrative is his death. According to 1 Samuel 31, the Philistines engaged Israel at Mount Gilboa and killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul, on that same day that Saul himself fell.[7] After the battle, the Philistines found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa and fastened Saul's body to the wall of Beth-shan.[7] The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead traveled through the night, recovered the bodies, brought them to Jabesh, burned them, and buried their bones under a tamarisk tree, observing a fast of seven days.[7]

The account in 1 Chronicles 10 parallels this narrative, likewise recording that the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua at Mount Gilboa and that the men of Jabesh-gilead later buried their bones — though Chronicles places the burial under an oak rather than a tamarisk.[8] The figure is also rendered Melchi-shua and summarized as one of Saul's sons who died in Saul's final battle, with his remains burned at Jabesh before burial.[9]

The modern locality of Malkishua was established in 1976 and began as a Nahal military outpost on Mount Gilboa.[1][10] A Jerusalem Post account of service there in 1980 describes a site with only a few hours of generator-produced electricity per day, an unpaved access road, and no bus service; soldiers relied on hitchhiking, sometimes accepting rides from Arab villagers in the area.[10]

The site was originally expected to transition into a civilian farming community, but this did not come to pass. Instead, it developed into a drug and addiction rehabilitation center, a use for which its remoteness — once considered a hardship — came to be regarded as an asset.[10] The drug-rehabilitation village, known as Malkisuaḥ, was founded in 1990.[3] A few of the original military huts and watermelon fields worked by soldiers during the outpost's early years reportedly survive.[10]

Malkishua's population was recorded as 44 in 1983 and 78 in 1995.[1] By the end of 2019, the total population had grown to 214, comprising 197 residents categorized as Jews and Others — of whom 156 were Jews and 41 were Others — along with 17 Arab residents.[11]

Malkishua operates as a residential substance-abuse treatment facility for young men up to age 18, functioning in a communal setting in conjunction with the Israeli Ministry of Health.[12] Its address is listed as D.N. Gilboa 1917000, with a main telephone number of (04) 6488222 and a 24-hour hotline at 052-3081133.[12]

From 2019 through 2022, an average of 136 male patients per year underwent detoxification treatment at Malkishua.[13] A patient identified as Yossi described the danger of relapse: “It’s so easy to fall back into bad ways. Just one beer can be the trigger.”[10]

Malkishua also manages a related program called Beit Snunit, which provides substance-abuse treatment and educational services for at-risk young women ages 14–18, operating from Kibbutz Cfar Ruppin. Beit Snunit includes a program called "HaBayit BeTira" designed specifically for young women from religious backgrounds.[12]

The name appears in several transliterations. 1 Samuel 14 uses Malchi-shua,[6] while 1 Samuel 31 and 1 Chronicles 10 use Malchishua.[7][8] First Chronicles 8 uses the same spelling.[5] The variant Melchi-shua also appears in a reference overview.[9] These forms refer to Saul's son, with spelling varying by source and passage.[6][9]

The passages also differ in two details. First Samuel 14:49 names Ishvi among Saul's sons, while 1 Samuel 31 and 1 Chronicles 10 name Abinadab among the sons killed at Gilboa.[6][7] The burial site is described as beneath a tamarisk tree in 1 Samuel 31 and beneath an oak in 1 Chronicles 10.[7][8] The passages do not reconcile these differences.