Yakir () 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 ...

, southwest of 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 ...

city of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

, near

Revava Revava (), is an Orthodox Jewish Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Built over land confiscated from the nearby Palestinian cities of Deir Istiya and Haris, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shomron Regional Council. In , it had a populati ...

and Nofim, on Road 5066, roughly between

Barkan Barkan () is an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank, about 8 km west of the Palestinian city of Salfit, under the administrative local government of the Shomron Regional Council. In its population was . The international commun ...

and

Karnei Shomron Karnei Shomron (, lit. "Rays (of light) of Samaria") is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council established in 1977 in the West Bank, east of Kfar Saba. Karnei Shomron is located northeast of Tel Aviv and north of Jerusalem. In it ...

. Organised 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 ...

founded in February 1981 on lands that the Israeli government expropriated from the nearby Palestinian village of

Deir Istiya Deir Istiya () is a Palestinians, Palestinian town of 3,696 in the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, southwest of Nablus. The Built up area, built-up area of Deir Istiya is 74 dunams, and its old city has ab ...

, it sits at 420 metres above sea level and is under the jurisdiction of

Shomron Regional Council The Shomron Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Shomron'', English ''Samaria Regional Council'') is an Israeli regional council in the northern portion of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Thirty-five Israeli settlements fall under its jurisdict ...

. 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.

Etymology

The name is taken from a passage in the

Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah () is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1#Superscription, Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the book as "th ...

(31:20) '''Is

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 ...

a darling (yakir) son unto Me?'''"

History

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated 659

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 of land from the nearby

village of

in order to construct Yakir.Deir Istiya Town Profile
, ARIJ, p. 18 The settlement was established in 1981. As of 2013, the property was being developed to accommodate a growing need for housing in the town. In March 2013, a stone-throwing attack on traffic in the neighbouring village of Kif el-Hares led to the injury of a child, Adele Biton, who later died of her injuries. On June 5th 2024, settlers from Yakir and neighbouring Novim bulldozed Palestinian land to create a fenced buffer zone as part of the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

References

External links

Menachem Brody's photos of Yakir
Religious Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1981 1981 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Israeli settlements in the West Bank {{Israel-geo-stub