Har Amasa ( he, הַר עֲמָשָׂא, ''lit.'' Mount Amasa) is a

Moshav shitufi A moshav shitufi ( he, מושב שיתופי, lit. ''collective moshav'', pl. ''moshavim shitufiim'') is a type of cooperative Israeli village, whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation ...

in the south of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located near the

Yatir Forest Yatir Forest ( he, יער יתיר) is a forest in Israel on the edge of the Negev Desert. The forest covers an area of 30,000 dunams (), and is the largest planted forest in Israel. History The first trees were planted in 1964 by the Jewish ...

20 kilometres south of

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...

and 14 km northwest of Arad, it is the only member of the

Tamar Regional Council The Tamar Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית תמר, ''Mo'atza Ezorit Tamar'') is a regional council in Israel's Southern District, on the south and western edges of the Dead Sea along the Arava valley. The council was established i ...

to be located in the highlands outside the

Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ''Bīrʿāt haYardēn'', ar, الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr),, date=November 2022 also called the Syro-African Depression, is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, and Jordan. This g ...

. In it had a population of . It was named after the nearby Mount Amasa (859 m), which was in turn named after Amasa son of Ithra the Israelite (2 Samuel 17:25).

History

The village was founded as a kibbutz of the

United Kibbutz Movement The Kibbutz Movement ( he, התנועה הקיבוצית, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made ...

on June 30, 1983. However, gradually changed its character over the next 20 years. In 2003, it was transferred to the authority of the

Agricultural Union The Agricultural Union ( he, האיחוד החקלאי, ''HaIhud HaHakla'i'') is a settlement movement in Israel for agricultural villages, which includes several moshavim and community settlement. It also has a youth movement founded in 1978. Me ...

movement, and it was preparing to expand to include many new residents in a less formal framework, while still preserving its social fabric. In 2006,

Ynet Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...

reported that five families in the kibbutz were undergoing a religious conversion through

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic grou ...

. According to certain members of the kibbutz, the reason was that they were abandoned by the Kibbutz Movement that purposely kept their status as a "kibbutz under construction" in order to receive its funding. The movement denied the allegations and stated that the religious converts were new residents. In 2006, the kibbutz members sent a petition to the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

to transfer the village's administration to them and remove the "under construction" status, instead of being administered by the Kibbutz Movement. In 2021 the village had 50 families, defined itself as an ecological, secular

moshav shitufi A moshav shitufi ( he, מושב שיתופי, lit. ''collective moshav'', pl. ''moshavim shitufiim'') is a type of cooperative Israeli village, whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation ...

and was accepting new families.

Climate

Har Amasa has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''BSk''). The average annual temperature is , and around of precipitation falls annually.

References

External links

Official website
{{Tamar regional council Former kibbutzim Community settlements Agricultural Union Populated places established in 1984 Tamar Regional Council Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1984 establishments in Israel