Barkan ( he, בַּרְקָן) 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 ...

in the northern

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, about 8 km west of the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

city of

Salfit Salfit ( ar, سلفيت) pronounced "Salfeet" is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, and the capital of the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine. Salfit is located at an altitude of , adjacent to the Israeli settleme ...

, under the administrative local government of the

Shomron Regional Council The Shomron Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית שומרון, ''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 Isra ...

. In its population was . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History

Founded in June 1981 by secular Israelis from the

Beitar The Betar Movement ( he, תנועת בית"ר), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. Chapters sprang up across Europe, even during World War II. After ...

and

Herut Herut ( he, חֵרוּת, ''Freedom'') was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. History Herut was founded by Menachem Begin ...

movements, Barkan is part of a chain of settlements built along the Trans-Samaria Highway, and adjacent to the

Barkan Industrial Park The Barkan Industrial Park ( he, איזור התעשיה ברקן, lit. Barkan Industrial Area) is located about 25 kilometres east of Tel Aviv in the West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġa ...

. The park, established in 1982, has 120 businesses and factories manufacturing plastics, metal-work, food, textile, and more. Of the 5,000 workers, 90% are

Palestinian Arabs Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

. According to ARIJ, Israel

confiscated Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, o ...

land from two

villages in order to construct Barkan: 167

dunams A dunam (Ottoman Turkish language, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic language, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman units of measurement, Ottoman unit of area eq ...

from

Qarawat Bani Hassan Qarawat Bani Hassan ( ar, قراوة بني حسان) is a Palestinian town in the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine, located thirty kilometers southwest of Nablus and 8 kilometers northwest of Salfit in the northern West Bank. Accordin ...

,Qarawat Bani Hassan Town Profile
ARIJ, p. 17 and 353 dunams from

Sarta Sarta ( ar, سرطّه) is a Palestinian town located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 22 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 3,382 in 2 ...

. "Barkan" is called after the Hebrew name of the Syrian thistle. The original name of the town was Beit Abba after

Abba Ahimeir Abba Ahimeir ( he, אב"א אחימאיר, russian: Аба Шойл Гайсинович; 2 November 1897 – 6 June 1962) was a Russian-born Jewish journalist, historian, and political activist. One of the ideologues of Revisionist Zionism, ...

, a leader of the Lehi.

Archaeology

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and ...

east of the town contains remnants of an

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

settlement during the time of the first and second

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

References

External links

Menachem Brody's photos of Barkan
{{Shomron Regional Council Non-religious Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1981 1981 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Israeli settlements in the West Bank

History

Archaeology

See also

References

External links