Naharayim

Naharayim (Hebrew: נהריים‎‎ literally "Two rivers") or Baqoura (Arabic: الباقورة‎‎) is a site on the border between Israel and Jordan where the Yarmouk River flows into the Jordan River. An hydroelectric power-plant had operated at Naharayim from 1932. The plant, established by Pinhas Rutenberg, produced much of the energy consumed in the Mandatory Palestine until the 1948 Palestine war. The canals and dams built for the power-plant created a man-made island.

Pinhas Rutenberg, a Russian-born Zionist and engineer immigrated to Palestine in 1919. After submitting a plan to the Zionist movement for the establishment of 13 hydroelectric power stations and securing financing for the plan, he was awarded a concession from the British Mandatory government to generate electricity, first from the Yarkon River near Tel Aviv, and shortly thereafter, utilizing all the running water in western Palestine.

The Naharayim site was chosen for the strong water flow and the possibility of regulating the flow through storage in the Sea of Galilee during the winter rainy season and release of the water reserves in the summer. Construction began in 1927 and continued for five years, providing employment for 3,000 workers. The site was named Naharayim, Hebrew for "Two Rivers."

Tel Or (Hill of Light) was a residential neighborhood built near the plant to house employees. Employees of the power station also farmed thousands of dunams of land and sold some of the produce at a company workers’ supermarket in Haifa.

In the days before Israeli independence, Naharayim was the proposed venue for two meetings between Golda Meir and king Abdullah, in an attempt by the Jewish leadership to head off Jordanian participation in the war.

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