Beit Aryeh-Ofarim () 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 ...

and local council in the northern

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 ...

. It is located north of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and east of Tel Aviv, near the

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 ...

village of

al-Lubban al-Gharbi Al-Lubban al-Gharbi () 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 Statistics, the village had a populatio ...

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

Israeli West Bank barrier The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary securi ...

, 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 ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

member

Aryeh Ben-Eliezer Aryeh Ben-Eliezer (; 16 December 1913 – 29 January 1970) was a Revisionist Zionist leader, Irgun member and Israeli politician. He was acting leader of Herut from August 1951, after Menachem Begin resigned as a result of the 1951 Israel ...

, a prominent

Revisionist Zionist Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River. Developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s ...

leader who was amongst the founders of

Herut Herut () 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. Some of their policies were compared to those of the Nazi party. Early y ...

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

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

from two nearby

villages:

Aboud Aboud (, ''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-Lubban to the no ...

and

Al-Lubban al-Gharbi Al-Lubban al-Gharbi () 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 Statistics, the village had a populatio ...

. 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 () is a Palestinian town 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 3,873 in 2017. Location Deir Ballut is west of ...

.'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 United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

Notable residents

Doron Matalon Doron Matalon (; 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 Doron Matalon was born and r ...

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 B ...

Neil Druckmann Neil Druckmann (; born December5, 1978) is an Israeli–American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the g ...

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