Yitzhar
Encyclopedia
Yitzhar is an Israeli settlement
located in the West Bank
south of the city of Nablus
just off Route 60, north of the Tapuach
Junction. The predominantly Orthodox
Jewish community
with a population of 895 (2009) is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council
. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords
of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
, Yitzar was designated Area "C"
under full Israeli civil and security control.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
, but the Israeli government disputes this. According to a Peace Now report of 2006, 35 percent of the land Yitzhar is built on, is privately owned, all or most of it by Palestinians. Settlements on privately owned Palestinian land are illegal according to international and Israeli law.
The inhabitants of Yitzar have a reputation as being among the most extreme Israeli settlers and regularly clash with members of the Israeli security forces and local Palestinian civilians. The settlement is at the forefront of the settler movement's so called "price tag" policy which calls for attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for actions of the Israeli government against West Bank settlements.
military outpost and demilitarized a year later when turned over to residential purposes in 1984 with the assistance of Gush Emunim
's settlement organization Amana. The settlement continously grew from a population of 200 in 1994 to almost 400 in 2002, and reached a population of 895 in 2009, predominantly strictly religious Jewish settlers.
The Nahal settlement was called 'Rogen', a play on words from the Hebrew root meaning 'annoyance'. The Hebrew term 'yitzhar' is a biblical term, meaning "high quality olive oil
", and derives from one of the region's major industries.
, 20.5 kilometers from the Green line
in the mountain-range area about 10 km southwest of Nablus. One of the Jewish settlements ringing the city of Nablus, Yitzhar is built on the ridge of Salmen al Parsi, a mountain 808 meteres above sea level south of Mount Grizim.
Yitzhar has several outposts, considered illegal also by Israeli law:
Lehavat Yitzhar, established in 1998 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has ten families and five caravans and six permanent structures.
Shalhevet Farm (Yitzhar West), established in 1999, has eight families and thirteen caravans and nine permanent houses.
Hill 725, established in 2001 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has 23 inhabitants and six caravans and two permanent structures.
Mitzpe Yitzhar, established in 2002 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has six structures and was dismantled in May 2004 for the third time, but in early 2005 it was reestablished.
Shalhevet Ya has three permanent houses and a caravan.
The settlement has a total area of 1,663 dunams, 35 percent of which is privately owned Palestinian land, according to Peace Now, and is zoned for over one thousand families in single family homes.
, and the Od Yosef Chai (Joseph Still Lives) institutions headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira
, comprising the Dorshei Yichudcha yeshiva
high school, a post-high school yeshiva gedola, previously located in Joseph's Tomb
Nablus
, headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg, and a kollel
. The yeshiva, built illegally according to the IDF military prosecutor, supports the so called "price tag" policy, and senior rabbis of the yeshiva are suspected to encourage students to attack Palestinians and Palestinian property and the Israeli security forces. Several students affiliated with the yeshiva were forbidden to enter the West Bank on "well-founded suspicions that these students had been involved in attacks on Arabs, including "price tag" attacks on Arab property".
In 2003, rabbi Ginzburg who is a member of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, was indicted for incitement to racism in his book "Tipul Shoresh" ("Root Treatment"), which contains calls for the Arabs to be expelled from Israel and for the land to be "cleansed" of foreigners and compares the Arabs to a cancer. Previous demands to indict Ginzburg had been rejected by Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein
in 2001 and following the 1998 publication of Ginzburg's book "Baruch Hagever" ("Baruch the Man"), which praised the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein
. Ginzburg was offered an end to all criminal proceedings against him in return for his explicitly and publicly retracting his offensive statements about Arabs.
In January 2010, rabbi Shapira was arrested for alleged involvement in the torching of a Palestinian mosque in the village of Yasuf, after five of his students had been arrested on suspicion of torching the mosque's carpet and book closet and obstructing the investigation. Shapira, who refused to say which of his students had taken part in the attack, was released a day after his arrest.
According to Haaretz, Israeli security service Shin Bet is urging the Education Ministry to stop funding the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar. In 2009, the yeshiva high school received NIS 468,000 and the yeshiva gedola received NIS 847,000 from the Education Ministry. The yeshiva also got NIS 707,000 from the Social Affairs Ministry for a project to rehabilitate ultra-Orthodox drop-outs, and an additional NIS 156,000 to operate a dormitory. In January 2011, it was decided not to transfer funds to the yeshiva gedola, but after political pressure was applied, the yeshiva received a letter saying funding would be restored. Od Yosef Chai, for its part, is preparing to petition the High Court of Justice if its funding is halted.
In November 2011, Israel's Education Ministry decided to withhold funds from the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva and close down the Dorshei Yehudcha Yeshiva high school. The decision was based on information received from the defense establishment of extensive involvement by students and rabbis in violent acts against Palestinian residents and Israeli security forces.
entered the illegal Yitzhar-outpost Shalhevet, set fire to an abandoned building and stabbed a nine-year-old boy who had spotted him and tried to call for help, wounding him lightly. Dozens of settlers from Yitzhar responded by marching through the adjacent Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya
where the attacker was thought to live, using live fire and wounding eight people and torching dozens of Palestinian homes and buildings, with Israeli soldiers present, in what then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
called a "pogrom". One week later, a forteen year old teenager from Asira al-Qibliya, was shot dead by Israeli border police while walking toward Yitzhar, intending to throw a Molotov cocktail
at the settlement. Police later said they had identified him as the attacker of the boy, thanks to forensic evidence.
Four inhabitants of Yitzhar were arrested on 14 June 2011 on suspicion of "attacks on public order", including arson attacks on Palestinian property.
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 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...
south of the city of Nablus
Nablus
Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
just off Route 60, north of the Tapuach
Kfar Tapuach
Kfar Tapuach is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, founded in 1978. It sits astride one of the major traffic junctions in the West Bank. The executive director of the village council is Yisrael Blunder. As of December 2007, it had 800 residents...
Junction. The predominantly Orthodox
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
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
with a population of 895 (2009) is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council
Shomron Regional Council
The Shomron Regional Council is a regional council in the northern Samarian hills, in the northern part of the West Bank. The offices of the regional council are located in the Barkan Industrial Park. This regional council provides various municipal services for the 30 Israeli settlements within...
. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
, Yitzar was designated Area "C"
Administrative divisions of the Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords created three temporary distinct administrative divisions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until a final status accord would be established...
under full Israeli civil and security control.
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. According to a Peace Now report of 2006, 35 percent of the land Yitzhar is built on, is privately owned, all or most of it by Palestinians. Settlements on privately owned Palestinian land are illegal according to international and Israeli law.
The inhabitants of Yitzar have a reputation as being among the most extreme Israeli settlers and regularly clash with members of the Israeli security forces and local Palestinian civilians. The settlement is at the forefront of the settler movement's so called "price tag" policy which calls for attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for actions of the Israeli government against West Bank settlements.
History
The settlement was originally established in 1983 as a pioneer NahalNahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
military outpost and demilitarized a year later when turned over to residential purposes in 1984 with the assistance of Gush Emunim
Gush 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...
's settlement organization Amana. The settlement continously grew from a population of 200 in 1994 to almost 400 in 2002, and reached a population of 895 in 2009, predominantly strictly religious Jewish settlers.
The Nahal settlement was called 'Rogen', a play on words from the Hebrew root meaning 'annoyance'. The Hebrew term 'yitzhar' is a biblical term, meaning "high quality olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
", and derives from one of the region's major industries.
Geography
Yitzhar is situated east of the Israel-Westbank separation barrierIsraeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...
, 20.5 kilometers from the Green line
Green Line (Israel)
Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
in the mountain-range area about 10 km southwest of Nablus. One of the Jewish settlements ringing the city of Nablus, Yitzhar is built on the ridge of Salmen al Parsi, a mountain 808 meteres above sea level south of Mount Grizim.
Yitzhar has several outposts, considered illegal also by Israeli law:
Lehavat Yitzhar, established in 1998 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has ten families and five caravans and six permanent structures.
Shalhevet Farm (Yitzhar West), established in 1999, has eight families and thirteen caravans and nine permanent houses.
Hill 725, established in 2001 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has 23 inhabitants and six caravans and two permanent structures.
Mitzpe Yitzhar, established in 2002 outside the boundaries of the parent settlement Yitzhar, has six structures and was dismantled in May 2004 for the third time, but in early 2005 it was reestablished.
Shalhevet Ya has three permanent houses and a caravan.
The settlement has a total area of 1,663 dunams, 35 percent of which is privately owned Palestinian land, according to Peace Now, and is zoned for over one thousand families in single family homes.
Economy
The settlement has vineyards, a winery and wheat fields. Only Jewish labor is employed, and all private homes, community buildings, and internal roads and development are done by Jews only, mainly residents of the settlement itself, according to the Shomron Regional Council's website.Education
Education is a priority of the community and several institutions operate locally: a daycare center, preschools, the boy's Zilberman Talmud TorahTalmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
, and the Od Yosef Chai (Joseph Still Lives) institutions headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira
Yitzhak Shapira
Yitzhak Shapira is an Israeli rabbi who in 2009 published a book in which he writes that it is permissible for Jews to kill non-Jews who threaten Israel...
, comprising the Dorshei Yichudcha 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...
high school, a post-high school yeshiva gedola, previously located in Joseph's Tomb
Joseph's Tomb
Joseph's Tomb is a funerary monument located at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, 325 yards northwest of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus, near Tell Balāṭa, the site of biblical Shechem...
Nablus
Nablus
Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
, headed by Rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg, and a 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...
. The yeshiva, built illegally according to the IDF military prosecutor, supports the so called "price tag" policy, and senior rabbis of the yeshiva are suspected to encourage students to attack Palestinians and Palestinian property and the Israeli security forces. Several students affiliated with the yeshiva were forbidden to enter the West Bank on "well-founded suspicions that these students had been involved in attacks on Arabs, including "price tag" attacks on Arab property".
In 2003, rabbi Ginzburg who is a member of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, was indicted for incitement to racism in his book "Tipul Shoresh" ("Root Treatment"), which contains calls for the Arabs to be expelled from Israel and for the land to be "cleansed" of foreigners and compares the Arabs to a cancer. Previous demands to indict Ginzburg had been rejected by Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein
Elyakim Rubinstein
Elyakim Rubinstein was the Attorney General of Israel from 1997 to 2004 and is currently serving as a Judge on the Supreme Court of Israel.Rubinstein, a lifelong Israeli diplomat and civil servant, has had an influential role in that country's internal and external politics, most notably in...
in 2001 and following the 1998 publication of Ginzburg's book "Baruch Hagever" ("Baruch the Man"), which praised the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-born Jewish Israeli physician and mass murderer who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounding another 125....
. Ginzburg was offered an end to all criminal proceedings against him in return for his explicitly and publicly retracting his offensive statements about Arabs.
In January 2010, rabbi Shapira was arrested for alleged involvement in the torching of a Palestinian mosque in the village of Yasuf, after five of his students had been arrested on suspicion of torching the mosque's carpet and book closet and obstructing the investigation. Shapira, who refused to say which of his students had taken part in the attack, was released a day after his arrest.
According to Haaretz, Israeli security service Shin Bet is urging the Education Ministry to stop funding the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar. In 2009, the yeshiva high school received NIS 468,000 and the yeshiva gedola received NIS 847,000 from the Education Ministry. The yeshiva also got NIS 707,000 from the Social Affairs Ministry for a project to rehabilitate ultra-Orthodox drop-outs, and an additional NIS 156,000 to operate a dormitory. In January 2011, it was decided not to transfer funds to the yeshiva gedola, but after political pressure was applied, the yeshiva received a letter saying funding would be restored. Od Yosef Chai, for its part, is preparing to petition the High Court of Justice if its funding is halted.
In November 2011, Israel's Education Ministry decided to withhold funds from the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva and close down the Dorshei Yehudcha Yeshiva high school. The decision was based on information received from the defense establishment of extensive involvement by students and rabbis in violent acts against Palestinian residents and Israeli security forces.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Yitzhar has been called "an extremist bastion on the hilltops commanding the Palestinian city of Nablus ... [where] a local war is ... being waged" by the New York Times. On Saturday, 13 September 2008, a PalestinianPalestinian
Palestinian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Palestine, the Palestinian territories or the State of Palestine*A member of the Palestinian people, also rendered as Palestinian Arabs**Demographics of Palestine...
entered the illegal Yitzhar-outpost Shalhevet, set fire to an abandoned building and stabbed a nine-year-old boy who had spotted him and tried to call for help, wounding him lightly. Dozens of settlers from Yitzhar responded by marching through the adjacent Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya
Asira al-Qibliya
’Asira al-Qibliya is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the town had a population of 2,336 inhabitants in 2007....
where the attacker was thought to live, using live fire and wounding eight people and torching dozens of Palestinian homes and buildings, with Israeli soldiers present, in what then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....
called a "pogrom". One week later, a forteen year old teenager from Asira al-Qibliya, was shot dead by Israeli border police while walking toward Yitzhar, intending to throw a Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
at the settlement. Police later said they had identified him as the attacker of the boy, thanks to forensic evidence.
Four inhabitants of Yitzhar were arrested on 14 June 2011 on suspicion of "attacks on public order", including arson attacks on Palestinian property.