Kfar Etzion (, ''lit.'' Etzion Village) 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 ...

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 ...

, organized as a religious

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

located in the

Judean Hills The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills (, or ,) are a mountain range in the West Bank and Israel where Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and several other biblical sites are located. The mountains reach a height of . The Judean Mountains can be div ...

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

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

in the southern

, established in 1927, depopulated in 1948 and re-established in 1967. It is located 4.7 km east of the Green Line and falls under the jurisdiction of

Gush Etzion Regional Council The Gush Etzion Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Gush Etzion'') is a Regional council (Israel), regional council in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the Israeli settlements, se ...

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

History

Migdal Eder

In January 1927, the Zikhron David society, a group of

Orthodox Jews Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tr ...

from the Mea Shearim neighborhood of

, established a small farming community, Migdal Eder, on land near to the present site of Kfar Etzion. The name was taken from a verse in the Bible,

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

35:21, which referred to a

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

of the same name. A group of 15 families, including 12 Yemenite families, settled on the land. The farming outcomes were very disappointing and pleas for help from the Zionist Executive and the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association were rejected. After one year, only 7 families remained. At the onset of the 1929 Palestine riots, the remaining settlers fled and local Arabs destroyed the buildings. Residents of the neighboring

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 Beit Ummar sheltered the farmers, but they could not return to their land.

El haHar

The El haHar ("to the mountain") settlement company was founded by Shmuel Zvi Holzmann in 1933. Holzmann bought land, mostly from Migdal Eder, and leased land from a nearby Russian convent. The intention was to found three settlements: Kfar Etzion, Pri-Amal and Ya'ar Etzion. The name "Etzion" was a play on Holzmann's own name, as "Holz" means "wood" in German and Yiddish, while "etz ()" means "wood" in Hebrew. However workers preparing the site left in 1936 due to the beginning of the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

. Much of the land was purchased by the

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

to keep it in Jewish hands.

Old Kfar Etzion

In the early 1940s, additional land in the area was purchased by the Jewish National Fund, including some from a Benedictine monastery and some from Arabs (despite the 1939 White Paper's ban on land sales to Jews in the area). The site of Kfar Etzion was settled in 1943 by Kvutzat Avraham of the religious

Hapoel HaMizrachi File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair rect 450 88 717 265 Non Partisans rect 721 86 995 243 Poalei Zion rect 152 316 373 502 HaPoel HaMizrachi rec ...

movement. During the next four years, three additional kibbutzim were founded in the area, creating what became known as the Etzion bloc. All of them were destroyed in the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

, and the entire area came under

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian rule. The kibbutzim held off the attacks for ten days until Kfar Etzion fell on 14 May 1948. In the fighting, 157 Jewish defenders died, including a number who were the subjects of the Kfar Etzion massacre, killed after surrendering. The other three kibbutzim surrendered. The inhabitants there were taken as prisoners of war and released nine months later. File:The four kibbutzes of the Gush Etzion Bloc (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on the 1943 Survey of Palestine map of Beit Fajjar.jpg, The four kibbutzes of the

Gush Etzion Gush Etzion (, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural villages that were founded in 1943� ...

at the time of the 1948 war (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on a 1943 Survey of Palestine map File:PikiWiki Israel 7264 Kfar Etzion water tank in 1943.jpg, Kfar Etzion water tank, 1943 File:Surif 1945.jpg, Kfar Etzion (Kefir 'Etsyon) 1945, 1:250,000 File:כפר עציון - עבודת יעור-JNF001375.jpeg, Kfar Etzion 1945 File:כפר עציון - נוה עובדיה-JNF045374.jpeg, Neve Ovadia library exterior 1946 File:כפר עציון - אולם קריאה בבית נוה עובדיה ע"ש אברהם כץ חבר כפר עציון שנהרג ביום העליה לחניתה.-JNF045375.jpeg, Kfar Neve Ovadia reading hall File:כפר עציון - מראה חלקי.-JNF045372.jpeg, Kfar Etzion 1946 File:כפר עציון - בהגנה על כפר עציון-JNF032967.jpeg, Kfar Etzion 1947 File:Kfar Etzion 1947.jpg, Kfar Etzion, 1947 File:Kfar Etzion.jpg, Kfar Etzion 1948

New Kfar Etzion settlement

In 1967 Israel occupied the West Bank in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. The Israeli cabinet decided to re-establish the settlement of Kfar Etzion despite receiving legal advice that establishing such settlements in occupied territory would be illegal under 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 ...

. A key figure identified with Kfar Etzion's reestablishment after 1967 is

Hanan Porat Hanan Porat (; 5 December 1943 – 4 October 2011) was an Israeli Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi, educator and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Tehiya, the National Religious Party, Tkuma (political party), Tkuma and the Nat ...

, who lived on the kibbutz as a child prior to its destruction in 1948. Another figure involved in Kfar Etzion's resettlement is Elyashiv Knohl, a rabbi of the community whose father fought in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

and was captured during the war by the Jordanians. According to Knohl, Kfar Etzion's original settlers were socialists, and members of the kibbutz continue to channel their incomes to a joint account. Today Kfar Etzion houses a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and archive documenting the history of

. In the

2013 Middle East cold snap The 2013 Middle East cold snap, also referred to as Alexa, refers to the winter storm that hit the Middle East region in December 2013, affecting Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt. The storm severely affected millions of poor a ...

a meter of snow fell on the Kfar Etzion area.

Economy

Residents of Kfar Etzion earn their livelihood growing cherries, flowers, olives, almonds, and grapes. Some raise chickens, and others work in Jerusalem. As of 2012 there was a large clothing store on the settlement. In 2012 the price of a 120-square-meter home on the settlement was while the price of a 200-square-meter home was .

References

External links

Official website

Peace Now fact sheet
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Religious Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1927 Populated places established in 1934 Populated places established in 1943 Populated places disestablished in 1948 Populated places established in 1967 Religious Israeli settlements Villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict Jewish villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Gush Etzion Regional Council Yemeni-Jewish culture in Israel 1927 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1934 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1943 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1948 disestablishments in the West Bank Governorate 1967 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Israeli settlements in the West Bank