Ateret () 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

community settlement A community settlement (, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of town or village in Israel and in the West Bank. In an ordinary town, anyone may buy property, but in a community settlement, the village's residents are organized in a cooperative an ...

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 municipal jurisdiction of the

Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Mateh Binyamin Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Binyamin,'' Lit. Council for the Region of the Tribe of Benjamin) is a Regional Councils in Israel, regional council Local government in Israel, governing 47 Israeli settlements and Israe ...

, it is located on a hilltop, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 760 metres, occupying land confiscated by Israel from three nearby

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: Ajjul,

'Atara Atara ( ''Atâra'') is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 15 kilometers north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. It is situated along a mountain ridge line with four peaks and is built upon the second high ...

, and

Umm Safa Umm Safa/Kafr Ishwa () or Um Al-Safa is a Palestinians, Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. Location Umm Safa is located north of Ramallah. It is bordered by 'Ajjul and 'Atara to the east, Deir as Sudan and Ajjul t ...

. In it had a population of . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Etymology

Initially, the locality was called Neve Tzof B, due to its proximity to the existing Neve Tzuf locality . Later, the name "Ateret" was given, in connection with the name of the biblical city "Atarot" in the land of the

Tribe of Ephraim According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim (, ''ʾEp̄rayim,'' in Pausa, pausa: , ''ʾEp̄rāyim'') was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh, together with Ephraim, formed the Tribe of Joseph. It is one of the Ten L ...

. This is due to the proximity to the village of Atara, which preserves this name.

History

The village was founded in August 1981 by a group, led by Tzvi Halamish, of eight families and a few singles.Ateret
/ref> According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from three nearby

villages in order to construct Ateret: *363

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 from Ajjul,'Ajjul Village Profile
ARIJ, p. 17 *163 dunums from

,Atara Village profile
ARIJ, p. 18 and *186 dunams from

.Umm Safa Village Profile
ARIJ p. 16

References

{{Authority control Religious Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1981 Mateh Binyamin Regional Council 1981 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Community settlements Israeli settlements in the West Bank