Beit Aryeh-Ofarim ( he, בֵּית אַרְיֵה-עֳפָרִים) is an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

and local council in the northern

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. It is located north of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and east of Tel Aviv, near the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village of

al-Lubban al-Gharbi Al-Lubban al-Gharbi ( ar, اللبّن الغربيّ) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 21 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statisti ...

, 3.8 km kilometers east of the Green line. It is situated on the Palestinian side of the

Israeli West Bank barrier The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Israeli–Palestinian c ...

, on 8,500 dunams of land. In it had a population of . Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History

Established in 1981, Beit Aryeh was recognised as a local council in 1989. In 2004, it merged with Ofarim. Beit Aryeh was named for former

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

member

Aryeh Ben-Eliezer Aryeh Ben-Eliezer ( he, אריה בן אליעזר, 16 December 1913 – 29 January 1970) was a Revisionist Zionist leader, Irgun member and Israeli politician. Biography Aryeh Ben-Eliezer (born Lipa Zabrowsky) was born in Vilnius in the R ...

, a prominent

Revisionist Zionist Revisionist Zionism is an ideology developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who advocated a "revision" of the "practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann which was focused on the settling of ''Eretz Yisrael'' ( Land of Israel) by independent ...

leader who was amongst the founders of

Herut Herut ( he, חֵרוּת, ''Freedom'') was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. History Herut was founded by Menachem Begin ...

. According to ARIJ, the land for Beit Aryeh-Ofarim was confiscated by

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

from two nearby

villages:

Aboud Aboud ( ar, عابود, ''ʿĀbūd'') is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, northwest of Ramallah and 30 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Nearby towns include al-Lu ...

and

Al-Lubban al-Gharbi Al-Lubban al-Gharbi ( ar, اللبّن الغربيّ) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 21 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statisti ...

. In 2011, the Israeli Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with the municipality of Beit Aryeh approving the construction of 100 homes and a bypass road between Beit Aryeh and Ofarim. In 2020, Beit Aryeh-Ofarim was one of several Israeli settlements that dumped its untreated sewage onto lands of the nearby

village of

Deir Ballut Deir Ballut ( ar, دير بلّوط) is a Palestinian town located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, south west of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 3,195 in 2007. In 1870 ...

.'Paradise lost': How Israel turned the West Bank into a sewage dump for its settlements
By Shatha Hammad, 21 October 2020,

Middle East Eye Middle East Eye (MEE) is a London-based news website covering events in the Middle East and North Africa. MEE describes itself as an "independently funded online news organization that was founded in April 2014." MEE seeks to be the primary porta ...

Notable residents

Doron Matalon Doron Matalon ( he, דורון מטלון, born 20 May 1993) is an Israeli beauty pageant titleholder who won the title of Miss Israel 2014 for Miss Universe 2014. She represented her country at the Miss Universe 2014 pageant. Personal life Dor ...

Aleks Tarn Aleksey Vladimirovich Tarnovitski (born 20 February 1955), better known as Aleks Tarn, is a journalist and author who was born in the Russian Far East, Primorsky Krai. He grew up, studied and worked in Leningrad. Since 1989, he has lived in Beit ...

Neil Druckmann Neil Druckmann ( he, ניל דרוקמן; born December 5, 1978) is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer who has been co-president (alongside Evan Wells) of the video game developer Naughty Dog since 2020. He ...

References

External links

Local council website
Local councils in Israel Israeli settlements in the West Bank 1981 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Populated places established in 1981 {{Palestine-geo-stub