Ma'ale Rehav'am ( he, מַעֲלֶה רְחַבְעָם) is an Israeli outpost in the

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 ...

, located south of

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

and northeast 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 East J ...

in the northeastern Judean Mountains on Road 3698 in the eastern

Etzion bloc Gush Etzion ( he, גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural ...

. Its mother community, the

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

Nokdim Nokdim ( he, נוֹקְדִים, ''lit.'' Shepherds) is an Israeli settlement organized as a community settlement in the West Bank. Located south of Bethlehem in the northern Judean Mountains, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gush Etzion Regio ...

is administrated by the

Gush Etzion Regional Council The Gush Etzion Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית גוש עציון, ''Mo'atza Azorit Gush Etzion'') is a Regional council (Israel), regional council in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West B ...

, which lists Ma'ale Rehav'am as a separate "community" on its official website. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. However, unauthorized outposts are illegal even under Israeli law. Ma'ale Rehav'am was among the outposts the Israeli government pledged to remove under the 2003

Road map for peace The Roadmap for peace or road map for peace ( he, מפת הדרכים ''Mapa had'rakhim'', ''Khāriṭa ṭarīq as-salāmu'') was a plan to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East: the United State ...

. According to

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

sources, demolition orders have been issued for most of the houses, but development has continued.

History

With assistance from Amana, Ma'ale Rehav'am was founded in 2001 after, and in reaction to, the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

Rehavam Zeevi Rehavam Ze'evi ( he, רחבעם זאבי ; 20 June 1926 – 17 October 2001) was an Israeli general and politician who founded the right-wing nationalist Moledet party, mainly advocating population transfer. He was assassinated by Hamdi Quran ...

for whom it is named, who was an ardent supporter of settlements in the

occupied territories Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...

. Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on land that was declared state land belonging to Nokdim and originally

zoned Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

for that purpose. It is located inside an area designated as a nature preserve. On 16 May 2006, '' Ma'ariv'' ran an article claiming that Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on private Palestinian land. Residents filed a suit for slander, and the Jerusalem court ruled on 25 June 2009 that ''Maariv'' had to publish a correction and compensate the residents with 1 000 shekels each. As its mother settlement Nokdim, the small 'mixed' community of about thirty families (February 2013) stands out in that non-observant and religiously observant Jewish families live together. In general, while large Israeli towns and cities have

heterogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

populations, small communities usually are either

homogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

non-religious or religious. The community is based on the ecovillage model which has taken shape in

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

and

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

groves, a muscat grape

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

, and an

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

growing thirty-five different

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

varieties. Most residents live in mobile homes, but there also are a few permanent structures. On 13 February 2013, six or nine, depending on the sources, mobile homes were torn down in Ma'ale Rehav'am before 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 of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

issued a temporary injunction forbidding the

Israeli Civil Administration The Civil Administration ( he, המנהל האזרחי, '; ar, الإدارة المدنية الإسرائيلية) is the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank. It was established by the government of Israel in 1981, in order ...

from demolishing homes in the outpost. In the riots following the demolition, several protesters were arrested. In a so-called "

price tag A price tag is a label declaring the price of an item for sale. It may be a sticker or attached by twist tie or other means. Some jurisdictions require items (possibly exceptions for bulk good and produce) to be individually marked with the pr ...

" attack, the ancient Muslim

Mamilla cemetery Ma'aman Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery ( ar, مقبرة مأمن الله) is a historic Islam, Muslim cemetery in West Jerusalem that dates back to the Crusades, and lies just to the west of the north-west corner of the walls of the Old City (Jerusal ...

in west

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

was vandalized the following day, apparently in retaliation over the demolitions in Ma'ale Rehav'am. In May 2014, the Israeli government decided to evacuate ten buildings in the settlement while giving Israeli authorization to the remainder.Chaim Levinso
'IDF to evacuate 28 buildings in West Bank settlements,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

14 May 2014.

References

External links

Ma'ale Rehav'am on the Gush Etzion website
* Suzanne Goldenberg
"Sharon's 34 steps towards West Bank domination"
''The Guardian''. 20 March 2002 {{Gush Etzion Regional Council Mixed Israeli settlements Populated places established in 2001 Gush Etzion Regional Council Israeli settlements in the West Bank Israeli outposts