Beit Yatir (), officially Metzadot Yehuda (), 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 southern

Hebron Hills The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judaean Mountains, Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Ban ...

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 ...

, organized as a religious-Zionist

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

. Located on a hill, 900 metres

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, near the Green Line, south of Susiya, and close to 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 as-Seefer,Weibel, Catherin
Seam Zone keeps Palestinian children in limbo, disrupting education

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

21 May 2012] it falls under the jurisdiction of

Har Hevron Regional Council The Har Hevron Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Har Hevron'') is an Israeli regional council in the southern Judean Hills area of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank, administering Israeli settlements. The headquarters are located in the ...

. In , it had a population of . The ruins of the ancient town of

Eshtemoa Eshtemoa (Heb. אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ), meaning obedience or "'place where prayer is heard", was an ancient city in the Judaean Mountains, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. It is also the name of two people mentioned in the First Boo ...

are nearby. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History

Beit Yatir was established in 1979 by students from the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva. In 1983, the moshav was moved southwest from its original location south of the town of

as-Samu As Samu' or es-Samu' () () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017. As-Samu' is located o ...

to its current location in the

Yatir Forest Yatir Forest () is a forest in Israel on the edge of the Negev Desert. The forest covers an area of 30,000 dunams (), and is the largest planted forest in Israel. History The first trees were planted in 1964 by the Jewish National Fund at the i ...

. A visual landmark of the moshav is a high wind turbine. The social make-up of the moshav residents varies between

sabra Sabra may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Sabra (character), a fictional Israeli female superhero in the Marvel Comics universe * Sabra (magazine), a Japanese magazine for men * ''Sabra Command'' the original title of the film ''Warhead'' * ...

s to

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

from various countries, including France, Russia,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and English-speaking countries. The moshav does not require residents to become members of the cooperative.

Education

A Religious Pre-Army Mechina, with several dozen students enrolled, is headed by Rabbi Moshe Hagar.

References

External links

Beit Yatir
Amana

{{Authority control Brazilian-Jewish diaspora Moshavim Religious Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1979 1979 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate French-Jewish culture in Israel Russian-Jewish culture in Israel Israeli settlements in the West Bank