Rosh Tzurim ( he, רֹאשׁ צוּרִים, eng. Top of the Rocks) is an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

and religious

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

in the West Bank established in 1969. It is located about south of Jerusalem, 3.9 km east of the

Green Line Green Line may refer to: Places Military and political * Green Line (France), the German occupation line in France during World War II * Green Line (Israel), the 1949 armistice line established between Israel and its neighbours ** City Line ( ...

, inside barrier wall. A member of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council. 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 two nearby Palestinian villages in order to construct Rosh Tzurim: 110

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s from Nahalin, and 780 dunams from Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah. The settlement was established in 1969 by members of Bnei Akiva Religious Scouts and

Nahal Nahal ( he, נח"ל) (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training ...

soldiers. The Name originates from the Biblical passage "For from the top of the mountains I see him" (Num 23:9) - just like the neighbouring village

Gevaot Gevaot ( he, גְּבָעוֹת) is an Israeli outpostBen Sales'Israel’s land seizure: political favor or West Bank game-changer?,'Jewish Telegraphic Agency 2 September 2014. located in the West Bank, in the westernmost area of the Gush Etzion ...

. Rosh Tzurim is located on the site of the ancient Beth Zechariah and on a hilltop that had previously been occupied by Ein Tzurim, a kibbutz that was destroyed in the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

by the Jordanian Arab Legion and later re-established in the Lakhish area. Rosh Tzurim went through a privatization process, first through the rental of available houses, and later an additional neighborhood, Nof Tzurim, was built on the kibbutz.

Economy

The kibbutz raises turkeys, produces milk and grows grapes for wine production along with other fruits.

References

{{Authority control Religious Kibbutz Movement Nahal settlements Populated places established in 1969 Religious Israeli settlements Gush Etzion Regional Council 1969 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate