Argaman () is an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

organized as a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Located in the Jordan Valley, eight kilometres north of the Damia Bridge with an area of 4,500

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Bik'at HaYarden'', ''lit.'' Jordan Valley Regional Council), also Aravot HaYarden (''lit.'' Jordan Plains), is a regional council covering 21 Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley in the ...

. In , its population was . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Etymology

The moshav's name is an acronym for Arik Regev, and Gad Manela, two

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

commanders who were killed there in a clash with Arab militants.

History

Initially established in 1968 as a

Nahal settlement Nahal settlements () were Israeli settlements established by Israeli soldiers of Nahal in both Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. Supporting the growth and expansion of Israeli Jews was once the main focus of Nahal troops of the Israe ...

by the

Betar The Betar Movement (), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionism, Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. It was one of several right-wing youth movements tha ...

movement, Argaman was converted to a civilian moshav in May 1971. Before the establishment of Argaman,

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

, then Israeli Minister of Defense, was opposed to the installment of settlements in the center of the

Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ( ''Bīqʿāt haYardēn'', Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr), is an elongated endorheic basin located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, Palestine. This geographic region includes the entire length o ...

as it would show too explicitly that the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank were being separated from the Arabs east of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

. To construct Argaman, Israel confiscated land from three

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

villages: *645 dunums from Al-Jiftlik, *509 dunams from

Marj Al-Ghazal Marj Al-Ghazal (, ) is a Palestinian village in the Jericho Governorate in the West Bank, located north of Jericho. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Marj Al-Ghazal had a population of 243 in the 2017 census. Loc ...

,Marj Al-Ghazal Village Profile
ARIJ, 2012, p. 15 *48 dunams from Az-Zubaidat.Az Zubeidat Village Profile
ARIJ, p. 17

References

{{Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council Moshavim Nahal settlements Israeli settlements in the West Bank Populated places established in 1968 1968 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate