Hashmonaim (, lit. ''Hasmoneans'') 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 ...

located in the western section of 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 ...

, off Route 443. Hashmonaim is located two kilometers east of

Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut ( ''Mōdīʿīn-Makkabbīm-Rēʿūt'') is a city located in central Israel, about southeast of Tel Aviv and west of Jerusalem, and is connected to those two cities via Highway 443. In the population was . The populati ...

, midway between

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

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

and is part 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 ...

. 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.

History

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from several

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/towns nearby in order to construct Hashmonaim: *945

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

Ni'lin Ni'lin () is a Palestinian people, Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, located west of Ramallah. Ni'lin is about east of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line) bordered b ...

, *186 dunams from

Al-Midya al-Midya () is a Palestinian people, Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the western West Bank, located west of Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of ove ...

, *5 dunams from

Saffa The Schweizerische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit (SAFFA), , was an exhibition that took place in Bern in 1928 and in Zurich in 1958. SAFFA was organized by the Bund Schweizerischer Frauenvereine (BFS, the Federation of Swiss Women's Associations), t ...

. Under Israeli legal rulings, this territory was claimed as unoccupied state land by the prior sovereign entity, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and thus passed to the subsequent sovereign entity in occupation, the state of Israel. Construction of the first homes began in December 1983. A dedication ceremony on June 12, 1984, was attended by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and the Sephardi chief rabbi

Mordechai Eliyahu Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu (; March 3, 1929 – June 7, 2010, on the Hebrew calendar: 21 Adar I, 5689 - 25 Sivan, 5770),

. The first families moved in in August 1987. The name derives from the location of Hashmonaim in a region where the Hasmoneans lived in antiquity. Hashmonaim originally consisted of two neighborhoods: Ramat Modi'in was established in 1983 and

Ganei Modi'in Ganei Modi'in () is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located just over the Green Line to the north of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Mateh Binyamin Regional Council (, ''Mo ...

in 1985. In 1996, Ganei Modi'in became part of

Modi'in Illit Modi'in Illit (; , lit. "Upper Modi'in") is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jewish-Israeli settlement organized as a city council (Israel), city council in the West Bank, situated midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Built on the land of five Palest ...

. In May 2010, three homes in Hashmonaim were demolished by Israeli security forces. The buildings were deemed to be violating a 10-month construction freeze in the West Bank.

Demographics

In 2010, there were 545 families living in Hashmonaim. Around 50% of the residents are native

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

speakers. Most are members of the

religious Zionist Religious Zionism () is a religious denomination that views Zionism as a fundamental component of Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' (), and in Israel, they are most commonly known by the plural form of the fi ...

community. Many residents commute to jobs in the United States or work for American companies.

Status under international law

Like all Israeli settlements in the

Israeli-occupied territories Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prio ...

, the international community considers Hashmonaim to violate the

Fourth Geneva Convention The Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (), more commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1 ...

's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory and are as such illegal under

customary international law Customary international law consists of international legal obligations arising from established or usual international practices, which are less formal customary expectations of behavior often unwritten as opposed to formal written treaties or c ...

. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories. This view has been rejected by the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

and the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

Communal services

There are ten synagogues in Hashmonaim: four

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

, three

Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

, two Yemenite and one

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...

. Hashmonaim has five kindergartens, a religious elementary school, and a high-school

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

, which attracts boys from all over the Binyamin Region. The community also has a clubhouse for young people, a separate

Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva (, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929, advocating the values of Torah and labor. Bne ...

branch, two basketball courts, a baseball field, playgrounds, a library and a fitness center.

Transportation

The drive from Hashmoniam to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv,

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

and

Ariel Ariel may refer to: Film and television *Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award * ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki *, a Russian film directed by Yevgeni Kotov * ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', a 1989 and 1991 ...

, is approximately thirty minutes by car. Bus connection is also available.

Sports

The Hashmonaim Titans are a local baseball team, part of the annual league run by the

Israel Association of Baseball In Israel, there are approximately 1,000 baseball players in 16 cities across the country. Volunteer coaches and donors are instrumental to the growth and development of the sport, as baseball resources are very low. The Israel Association of Base ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Religious Israeli settlements Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Populated places established in 1988 1988 establishments in the Israeli Civil Administration area Community settlements