Karnei Shomron (lit. "horns of Samaria

Samaria

Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...

") is an Israeli settlement

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...

 and local council

Local council (Israel)

Local councils are one of the three types of local government found in Israel, with the other two being cities and regional councils. As of 2003, there were 144 local councils in Israel, these being settlements which pass a minimum threshold enough to justify their operations as independent...

 established in 1977 in the northwestern 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...

, east of Kfar Sava. It is 48 kilometres (29.8 mi) north-east of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 and 85 kilometres (52.8 mi) north of Jerusalem. In 2006, the population of Karnei Shomron was 6,300. 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

In 1991, several Israeli settlements merged with Karnei Shomron:

• Karnei Shomron - established in 1977, 450 families
• Ginot Shomron - established in 1984, 850 families
• Neve Menachem - established in 1991, 220 families
• Alonei Shilo - established in 1999, 25 families

Mitzpe Tzvaim; Midreshet Shilat, a midrasha for girls; and Ramat Gil'ad are also part of Karnei Shomron. Neve Aliza is a religious neighborhood of American-style homes founded by new immigrants from the United States and Canada in 1985.

The chief rabbi of Karnei Shomron is Rabbi Yitzhak Halevi. Herzl Ben-Ari is the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.

Israeli-Arab conflict

On February 16, 2002, two teenagers were killed and 30 people were wounded, six seriously, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a pizzeria in the Karnei Shomron shopping mall. A third teenager died of her wounds on February 27. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...

 claimed responsibility for the attack.

Geography

The town borders Nahal Kana, a wadi

Wadi

Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...

 marking the border between lands that are believed to have been the territory of the tribes of Efraim and Menashe in biblical times.

External links

• Karnei Shomron website