Israeli heritage minister raises flag at Hasmonean site in Jordan Valley

The flag of the Jewish state was raised for the first time at Mount Sartaba in the Jordan Valley, the site of an ancient Hasmonean fortress, during a ceremony led by Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu on Monday.

The ministry’s move was part of a series of symbolic actions across Judea and Samaria aimed at strengthening Israel’s hold on heritage sites in the historically Jewish but often disputed area.

“We are raising the flag in Sartaba, one of the most significant points for controlling the Jordan Valley,” Eliyahu said in a video posted to social media.

“From here, our ancestors entered the Land of Israel. From here, the Hasmoneans guarded the border, the gateway to the land—security for the Jordan Valley. Here we tell the story of this people,” he continued.

“We at the Heritage Ministry, together with the [Defense Ministry Civil Administration’s] Archaeology Unit, are not only content with words, but take action,” the minister said. “When there is presence, there is Jewish strength.”

Sartaba, or Alexandrium in Latin, is an ancient hilltop fortress located approximately 2,100 feet above sea level, between Beit She’an in the north and the capital Jerusalem, and built by the Hasmoneans in the first century BCE.

During the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, Mount Sartaba served as a key station in a chain of beacon fires used to signal the sanctification of the new month from Jerusalem to Jewish communities in Babylon, a practice dating back to the Second Temple period (539 BCE–70 CE).

“The message is that we are retaking what is ours,” Eliyahu told JNS.

The minister said that on the first day of the month of Nissan, which this years falls on March 19, he plans to “renew on the summit the custom of lighting torches as in the days of the Mishnah: lighting a fire that, then and now, conveys a clear message to the Jews of the world: The people of Israel are alive, and they are marching throughout their historic land.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has headed an unprecedented drive to expand Israel’s hold on Judea and Samaria.

As of Jan. 1, 2026, 529,704 Jews lived in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the Jewish state’s population. Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over the region, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29, 2025.

Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a survey the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11, 2025.