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Revision as of 15:21, 13 November 2011 by Nableezy (talk | contribs) (rv changes to section, mv back up, clarify the meaning of J+S A)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Place in Judea and Samaria Area, Israel| Alon Shvut אַלּוֹן שְׁבוּת | |
|---|---|
 Alon Shvut oak tree | |
| Etymology: Oak of return | |
| Country | Israel |
| District | Judea and Samaria Area |
| Council | Gush Etzion |
| Region | West Bank |
| Founded | 1970 |
Alon Shvut (Template:Lang-he-n) is an Israeli settlement located southwest of Jerusalem, one kilometer northeast of Kfar Etzion, in the West Bank, in the area under Israeli military administration known as the Judea and Samaria Area. Established in June 1970 in the heart of the Etzion bloc, Alon Shvut became the prototype for Jewish settlements in the region. It is administered by the Gush Etzion Regional Council and neighbors the settlements of Neve Daniel, Elazar and Efrat. In 2010, Alon Shvut had a population of 700 families. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, although the Israeli government disputes this.
Etymology
Alon Shvut, literally "oak of return," is a reference to the return of the Jews expelled from Gush Etzion by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948 following the Kfar Etzion massacre. A 700-year old oak tree sacred to the Arabs with the name Ballutet el Yerzeh (oak of Yerzeh) was a central feature of Gush Etzion and became known as "lone oak". The town was constructed adjacent to the oak, which is considered a symbol of renewal and continuity. The oak is incorporated in the municipal emblem.
History
Alon Shvut is located on the site of the Battle of Beth-zechariah, fought between the Maccabees and the Seleucid army after the defeat of the Seleucids in Jerusalem. The ancient town of Beth Zecharia, in northern Judea, is identified with the ruins of Khirbet Zechariah, less than a kilometer north of Alon Shvut. It was considered the nearest area to Jerusalem whose topography could be exploited by the Maccabees to block the northward advance of the Seleucid army, after the Maccabee defeat in the Battle of Beth-Zur.
Alon Shvut sits on the ancient road to Jerusalem, which is still marked by Roman milestones. Many mikvehs believed to have been used by pilgrims on the way to the Temple in Jerusalem have been found in the surrounding hills. Dozens of ancient grape and olive presses, as well as cisterns hewn out of the bedrock, testify to a long history of agriculture.
The hill at the east end of Alon Shvut is known as Khirbet Beit Sawir (ruins of Beit Sawir) or in recent times Giv'at HaHish. An excavation by Yuval Peleg found a columbarium, a winepress and a ritual bath (mikveh) from the Hellenistic or Roman period. In 1596, Beit Sawir appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 8 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives or vines or fruit trees, and goats or beehives. The much larger Arab village of Fagur was nearby to the north-east. In the late 19th century, Beit Sawir was reported as abandoned and Fagur (Beit Fejjar) was also abandoned by 1922. To the south of Beit Sawir was the remains of a megalithic stone tower of great antiquity but unknown purpose.
Alon Shvut was founded in 1970 as a residential quarter for families associated with the then-nascent Yeshivat Har Etzion hesder yeshiva. It developed as a communal and service center in a predominantly agricultural region. For many years Alon Shvut housed the only health clinic, grocery, post office and bank in the area.
Legal status
The international community considers Israeli settlements a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory and are as such illegal under customary international law. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected as without basis in international law by the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Peace Now reports that private Palestinian property makes up 24.13% of the land that Alon Shvut, along with the nearby Israeli outpost of Givat Hahish, is built on.
Geography
Located in the northern Judean Hills at about 950 m above sea level, Alon Shvut is a cool and dry in summer. Winters are mild, with rainfall and a few inches of snow about once a year. The old and new neighborhoods are contiguous and lie on a northwest–southeast axis along the ridge of a hill, with a gradual plain descending to its south and dramatic gullies dropping to its north. The Givat HaHish neighborhood is on an extension of the ridge which abuts a gully to the northeast of the town.
Alon Shvut is located a few hundred meters west of the Gush Etzion Junction, where Route 60, the north–south artery which roughly follows the watershed from Nazareth through Jerusalem to Beersheba meets Route 367, which descends west into the Elah Valley to the coastal plain and Tel Aviv area. Travel time to Jerusalem is approximately 15 minutes.
Demography
In 2000, a second neighborhood doubled the size of the town to accommodate an increased demand for housing. Among the new residents were those who had been unable to acquire lots in the original neighborhood, as well as many young families that had moved to Israel from abroad ("made aliyah"), especially from the United States. A third neighbourhood is planned for the Giv'at HaHish (גִּבְעֵת הִחִי"ש) area northeast of the town, named after the Haganah's HISH unit's operations there. In 2002, a group of 90 Incan Jewish immigrants from Trujillo, Peru moved into mobile homes on the site.
Educational and religious institutions
Much of Alon Shvut's growth has been tied to the presence of Yeshivat Har Etzion. In addition to the families of faculty, many of its students have made their homes in the town. The yeshiva, housed in a large, white building overlooking the valley, also attracts many English-speaking students from around the world. Its founders are considered of the more moderate educators in the Hesder Yeshiva program and have gained a reputation of tolerance and modernity for the institute. The teachers are respected authorities on biblical commentary, traditional law and Jewish philosophy. Herzog College for Teachers is located in Alon Shvut. Tsomet Institute is a research institute based in Alon Shvut that seeks ways of reconciling Jewish religious law with modern technology to enable hospitals, police, fire departments and the military to carry out their duties on the Sabbath.
Economy
The Lone Tree microbrewery, established in 2010, is located in Alon Shvut. In 2007, the Gush Etzion winery, a modern facility on the road to Alon Shvut, won a gold medal for its Cabernet Franc in the annual Mediterranean International Wine and Spirit Challenge, also known as Terravino.
Local culture
The annual Bible-learning seminar at Herzog College is a 5-day event that attracts thousands of participants from all over the country. In 2010, over 100 leading scholars delivered 150 lectures. In 2011, the seminar drew 5,000 participants and offered 200 lectures in such subjects as Biblical archaeology, hermeneutics, linguistics, poetry, history, geography, kabbalah and Jewish religious law.
Alon Shvut and the neighboring community of Neve Daniel are linked by a path called Derech Ha’Avot (Path of the Forefathers).
See also
References
- Between Jerusalem and Hebron: Jewish Settlement in the Pre-State Period, Yossi Katz, Bar Ilan University Press, 1992, p. 274
- Welcome to Elazar
- ^ Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Guide for Alon Shvut
- "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
- The Survey of Western Palestine, Arabic and English. Palestine Exploration Fund. 1881. p. 388.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|name=ignored (help) PEF map 21. - העץ הבודד Kfar Etzion website
- Trips on the Trail of Trees in Central Israel
- Bezalel Bar-Kochva (1989). Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids. Cambridge University Press. pp. 310–311.
- Katznelson, Natalya (2006). ""Early Roman Glass Vessels from Judea"". AIHV Annales of the 17th Congress. 8. Antwerp University Press: 167.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); External link in|title= - Goren-Rosen, Y. (1999). ""The glass vessels from the miqveh near Alon Shevut"". Atiqot. 38. Israel Antiquities Authority: 85–90. ISSN 0792-8424.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); External link in|title= - Raphael Greenberg and Adi Keinan (2009). Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967–2007; a Sourcebook. Ostracon. p. 124.
- ^ Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 117.
- Hutteroth, loc. cit., p122.
- C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine. Vol. III. London: The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. pp. 303, 351. J. B. Barron, ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- E. J. H. Mackay (1920). "Observations on a megalithic building at Bet Sawir (Palestine)". Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. 1: 95–102.
- The settlers' struggle BBC News. 19 December 2003
- Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory International Court of Justice, 9 July 2004. pp. 44-45
- Opinion of the International Court of Justice B'Tselem
- Breaking the Law in the West Bank - One Violation Leads to Another: Israeli Settlement Building on Private Palestinian Property Peace Now. 2006 October.
- Communities in Israel Alon Shvut, NBN website
- How 90 Peruvians became the latest Jewish settlers
- Accounting for fundamentalisms: the dynamic character of movements, Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, University of Chicago Press, 1994, P. 290.
- The Settlements: Life Between the Lines, Jonathan Neumann,Standpoint Magazine
- Alon Shevut Journal; Thank the Lord for Loopholes: Sabbath Is Safe
- Success is brewing, Jerusalem Post
- Visiting small Israeli wineries
- Annual Bible learning conference kicks off in Alon Shvut
- Biblical rhapsody and regret
- On and Off the Beaten Track in …Gush Etzion/, Jewish Action Magazine
External links
| Gush Etzion Regional Council | |
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| Kibbutzim | |
| Community settlements | |
| Outposts | |
| Judea and Samaria Area | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| Regional committee | ||
| Regional councils | ||
| Local councils | ||
| See also | ||