Beit Hagai
Encyclopedia
Beit Hagai is an Israeli settlement
located in the southern Hebron
hills in the West Bank
. The settlement population was 460 in 2004, according to a classified government document published by the Haaretz
newspaper, and lies within the municipal jurisdiction of the Har Hebron Regional Council
. The religious
Jewish community's name, Haggai, is an acronym of the given name
s Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman, three Nir Yeshiva
(Kiryat Arba
) students killed in an attack on May 2, 1980. The community rabbi
for Beit Hagai is Rabbi Moshe Eliezer Rabinovich (HaLevy). The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
. In 1989, the residents of Beit Hagai founded a special needs
children's village which has provided a home, education, and services for dozens of young people.
In 1991 the Israeli state, through the World Zionist Organization's land settlement unit, granted Beit Haggai a 49-year lease to operate the largest stone quarry in the West Bank, and quarry royalties constitute 80 percent of the community's revenues.
During the First Intifada
Beit Haggai was targeted by the Palestinian uprising. Refusing to evacuate the settlement, several residents were killed in shooting attacks by Palestinians near the village. In the years of the Second Intifada, another three settlers were killed on the roads leading into and out of Beit Hagai. Israeli settlers living in Beith Hagai were also responsible for violence against Palestinians. The population of the village doubled between the years 2001 and 2007, and today there are approximately 95 families in the settlement.
In the summer of 2006, the village welcomed a group of families who had been evacuated from Kfar Darom
, Gush Katif
, as a part of Israel's disengagement from the illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip. The group established a new settlement, and also reopened the kollel
for dayanim
which had operated in Kfar Darom. The Kollel is named Or Yosef (Light of Joseph) after Yossi Shuk, a resident of the village, who had been killed during the Palestinian uprising in December 2005.
Also in 2006, an additional new settlement was established. This initiative was part of the building plan of the village. Likewise, further Palestinian land was illegally occupied to build an observation point in memory of Yossi Shuk on nearby Rehavam Hill (named after Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi).
On August 31, 2010 four residents of Beit Hagai—Yitzhak and Tali Ames, Kochava Even Haim and Avishai Schindler—were shot dead by local Palestinian militants while driving a car near the settlement. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
, the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas
, claimed responsibility for the attack.
. Some of the residents work in the youth village
. There are approximately 15 yeshiva students (In Hebrew, avreichim) who live in Beit Hagai.
The community maintains a close connection with the families of the three boys for whom the village is named, and every year, on the anniversary of their murder, "Shabbat Hagai" is commemorated in memory of the three. Their families are hosted for that weekend by the community.
Central buildings in Beit Hagai are; a central synagogue
, a Sephardic synagogue, children's daycare centers and an infant daycare center, a medical clinic, a mikvah
, a celebration hall, a Bnei Akiva
branch and more.
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
located in the southern Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
hills in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. The settlement population was 460 in 2004, according to a classified government document published by the Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
newspaper, and lies within the municipal jurisdiction of the Har Hebron Regional Council
Har Hebron Regional Council
The Har Hevron Regional Council is an Israeli regional council in the southern Judean Hills area of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The headquarters are located adjacent to Otniel. The council was established in 1983...
. The religious
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
Jewish community's name, Haggai, is an acronym of the given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman, three Nir Yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
(Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba , lit. "Town of the Four," is an Israeli settlement in the Judean Mountains region of the West Bank on the edge of Hebron. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000...
) students killed in an attack on May 2, 1980. The community rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
for Beit Hagai is Rabbi Moshe Eliezer Rabinovich (HaLevy). The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
International law and Israeli settlements
The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law, but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the...
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
History
Beit Haggai was established in 1984 on occupied Palestinian land by former classmates of the victims and their families, with assistance from the Amana organization, the settlement branch of the Israeli extrem-right organization Gush EmunimGush Emunim
Gush Emunim was an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. While not formally established as an organization until 1974 in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, encouraging...
. In 1989, the residents of Beit Hagai founded a special needs
Special needs
In the USA, special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. For instance, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International...
children's village which has provided a home, education, and services for dozens of young people.
In 1991 the Israeli state, through the World Zionist Organization's land settlement unit, granted Beit Haggai a 49-year lease to operate the largest stone quarry in the West Bank, and quarry royalties constitute 80 percent of the community's revenues.
During the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
Beit Haggai was targeted by the Palestinian uprising. Refusing to evacuate the settlement, several residents were killed in shooting attacks by Palestinians near the village. In the years of the Second Intifada, another three settlers were killed on the roads leading into and out of Beit Hagai. Israeli settlers living in Beith Hagai were also responsible for violence against Palestinians. The population of the village doubled between the years 2001 and 2007, and today there are approximately 95 families in the settlement.
In the summer of 2006, the village welcomed a group of families who had been evacuated from Kfar Darom
Kfar Darom
Kfar Darom was a kibbutz and an Israeli settlement within the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip.-Original kibbutz:Kfar Darom was founded on 250 dunams of land purchased in 1930 by Tuvia Miller for a fruit orchard on the site of an ancient Jewish settlement of the same name mentioned in the Talmud...
, Gush Katif
Gush Katif
Gush Katif was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. Gush Katif was specifically mentioned by Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who fell victim to an assassin in 1995, as essential to Israel's security border. In August 2005, the Israeli army moved the 8,600...
, as a part of Israel's disengagement from the illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip. The group established a new settlement, and also reopened the kollel
Kollel
A kollel is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim and learning sedarim ; unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kollel are all married men...
for dayanim
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
which had operated in Kfar Darom. The Kollel is named Or Yosef (Light of Joseph) after Yossi Shuk, a resident of the village, who had been killed during the Palestinian uprising in December 2005.
Also in 2006, an additional new settlement was established. This initiative was part of the building plan of the village. Likewise, further Palestinian land was illegally occupied to build an observation point in memory of Yossi Shuk on nearby Rehavam Hill (named after Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi).
On August 31, 2010 four residents of Beit Hagai—Yitzhak and Tali Ames, Kochava Even Haim and Avishai Schindler—were shot dead by local Palestinian militants while driving a car near the settlement. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...
, the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Community
Most inhabitants of the settlement work in Kiryat Arba or in the surrounding Har Hebron area. Some, however, even travel as far north as Jerusalem or south as Be'er Sheva to work. Many of the settlers are involved in educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. Some of the residents work in the youth village
Youth village
A youth village is a boarding school model first developed in Mandate Palestine in the 1930s to care for groups of children and teenagers fleeing the Nazis...
. There are approximately 15 yeshiva students (In Hebrew, avreichim) who live in Beit Hagai.
The community maintains a close connection with the families of the three boys for whom the village is named, and every year, on the anniversary of their murder, "Shabbat Hagai" is commemorated in memory of the three. Their families are hosted for that weekend by the community.
Central buildings in Beit Hagai are; a central synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, a Sephardic synagogue, children's daycare centers and an infant daycare center, a medical clinic, a mikvah
Mikvah
Mikveh is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism...
, a celebration hall, a Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 37 countries. It was established in Mandate Palestine in 1929.-History:...
branch and more.