Karnei Shomron (, lit. "Rays (of light) of

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

") 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 local council established in 1977 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 ...

, east of

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...

. Karnei Shomron is located northeast of

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 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 ...

. 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 and archaeology

Confiscation of Palestinian land

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from four 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 of in order to construct Karnei Shomron: *713

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 Jinsafut *512 dunams from Deir Istiya * 229 dunams from Kafr Laqif *216 dunams from Hajjah.Hajja village profile
ARIJ, p. 17

Local Council neighborhoods

In 1991, several Israeli settlements were merged to become a single municipality called Karnei Shomron Local Council: *''Karnei Shomron'' – established in 1977, 450 families *''Ginot Shomron'' – established in 1984, 850 families *''Neve Menachem/Neve Oramin '' – established in 1991, 220 families *'' Alonei Shilo'' – established in 1999, 25 families Also part of Karnei Shomron are: *'' Mitzpe Tzvaim'' *'' Midreshet Shilat'', a ''

midrasha A ' (Hebrew: ; : ), typically, is an institute of Torah study for women of post-high-school age, somewhat equivalent to a men's yeshiva; most are located in Israel. The midrasha is also somewhat parallel to a "women's seminary" (Hebrew "semin ...

'' for girls *'' Ramat Gil'ad'' *'' Neve Aliza'', a religious neighborhood of American-style homes founded by new immigrants from the United States and Canada in 1985

Nature

The town borders Wadi Qana, a

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

marking the border between lands that are believed to have been the territory of the tribes of

Ephraim Ephraim (; , in pausa: ''ʾEp̄rāyīm'') was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph ben Jacob and Asenath, as well as the adopted son of his biological grandfather Jacob, making him the progenitor of the Tribe of Ephrai ...

and Manasseh (Menashe) in biblical times. Wadi Qana (Hebrew name: Nahal Kana), is administered by the

Israel Nature and Parks Authority The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (, ; ) is an Israeli government organization that manages nature reserves and national parks in Israel, the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank. The organization was founded in April 1998, merging two o ...

and is defined as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

Leadership

The chief rabbi of Karnei Shomron is Yitzhak HaLevy. Igal Lahav is the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.

2002 mall attack

During the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

, on 16 February 2002, two people were killed and 30 people were wounded, six seriously, when a

suicide bomber A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

blew himself up at a pizzeria in Ginot Shomron shopping mall in Karnei Shomron. Rachel Thaler, aged 16, died of her wounds on 27 February. The

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

(PFLP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Notable residents

* Michael Ben-Ari (b. 1963), politician * Moshe Feiglin (b. 1962), politician * Shmuel Sackett (b. 1961), activist

References

External links

Karnei Shomron website
{{Authority control Israeli settlements in the West Bank Mixed Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1977 1977 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate