The Israeli government has designated the country’s Route 60 as the “Biblical Highway.” The route stretches from Nazareth in the north to Beersheba. Both sites are significant to Biblical history, as Nazareth was Jesus’s boyhood home and Beersheba is notable for numerous Biblical moments, including Jewish patriarch Abraham signing a treaty with Abimelech, the Philistine king, and marks the southernmost boundary of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement of the new designation after inaugurating a new neighborhood in Kibbutz Migdal Oz. “This is not merely a road paved with asphalt, it is a road paved with memory, with faith, with promise. Between the spirit of the Bible and the heroic spirit of our generation, the Victory Generation, we reaffirm: The people of Israel have returned home and we will remain here forever, because this is our land,” he said. US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, praised the initiative. “What you’re doing with the heritage of Israel is not just something for Israelis and the Jewish people to appreciate,” Huckabee said. “It is something for the entire world to take recognition of,” he said. “Everywhere you dig in this land, you unearth yet another biblical treasure, another biblical fact, another biblical reality. Here’s what it tells us: This was your land for the past 3,800 years. God is the one who gave you the title deed. No government said that. God did,” he said.

Both men appeared to be referring to the continued tension of Israel’s right to the land amidst continued conflict with Hamas and Iran. Speaking to Fox News Digital, David Parsons, senior vice president and spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, spoke on how the historic sites in Israel pointed to the area’s long-held Jewish history. “You would better understand who the Jewish people are, the special relationship God established with them for the benefit of all mankind, and the fact that this includes a land where they could become a nation and deliver those benefits down through history,” he said. “The more you examine the archaeological record in the Land of Israel, and the more objectively you look at the evidence, the more you realize that the Bible is not a collection of fables and fairy tales, but an accurate account of a people and a land that have given the world ideas and values of universal benefit and inspiration,” he added.

Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron stated the establishment of the Biblical Road “has educational, heritage and tourism value.” “The government views the Bible as an important part of Israel’s identity,” he said. “We’ve been teaching it, we’ve been promoting it, and they’ve embraced the idea. Ahead of the elections, I think they want to show people that they are committed to branding Israel as the land of the Bible.” Connecting Israel to the Bible helped to ward off attempts to establish Israel as a Palestinian state. “The Biblical Highway will enable millions of visitors to bring their faith, heritage, and identity to life by traveling through the very places where the Biblical story unfolded and where the values that continue to shape Western civilization were born,” said Ze’ev Orenstein, Director of International Affairs at City of David. “It is an invitation to experience the Bible not only as a book, but as a living geography, as relevant today as it was millennia ago.”