Nofei Prat () 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

community settlement A community settlement (, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of town or village in Israel and in the West Bank. In an ordinary town, anyone may buy property, but in a community settlement, the village's residents are organized in a cooperative an ...

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 ...

. Located near

Ma'ale Adumim Ma'ale Adumim (; ) is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank, seven kilometers () east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was . It is located along Highway 1, whi ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

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 2006 around 90 families were living in the settlement. In 2009 about 140 families lived there. Both religious and secular families live in Nofei Prat. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History

The village was established in 1992 by a group of settlers from

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 ...

. It was named after the nearby Prat Stream. On the morning after the elections for the thirteenth Knesset and

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party (), commonly known in Israel as HaAvoda (), was a Social democracy, social democratic political party in Israel. The party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi (political party), Rafi. Unt ...

victory and before the transition of power was made, a mixed group of mostly single religious and non-religious students from the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

drove east from

to a barren hilltop with a plan to create a mixed community. They erected a flimsy structure which would later that day be followed by twenty-seven

trailers Trailer may refer to: Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Baggage trailer, a large flatbed baggage trolley ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passen ...

Legal Status

Nofei Prat is widely regarded by the international community as illegal under international law according to the Fourth Geneva Convention (article 49), which prohibits an occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to occupied territory. Israel maintains that international conventions relating to occupied land do not apply to the West Bank because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place. This view was 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 ...

. According to the ARIJ, Nofei Prat is located on land confiscated from the Palestinian town of

'Anata Anata () is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, located four kilometers northeast of Jerusalem's Old City. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 'Anata had a po ...

. 'Anata Town Profile
ARIJ, 2012 According to Geoffrey Aronson, Nofei Prat was established as a neighborhood of the settlement of Kfar Adumim in order to circumvent a promise not to construct new settlements.

Transportation

Nofei Prat was one of a number of settlements linked by a road secretly built by settlers in 1995. The road links Anatot to Kfar Adumim, Nofei Prat, and Alon. According to Pinhas Wallerstein, then head of the

, the road was one of a number of secretly built roads under construction in the area. Wallerstein claimed that as council head, he did not need permission to construct roads, but that he would stop construction if the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

told him to. He also said "What are they going to do, tell us to take the road away? If the road is illegal let them take us to court."

Design

The settlement's master plan and its first 33 houses were designed by Jerusalem architect Marcy Goldwasser.

References

{{Authority control Community settlements Israeli settlements in the West Bank Populated places established in 1992 Mateh Binyamin Regional Council 1992 establishments in the Israeli Civil Administration area