Sha'ar Binyamin ( he, שער בנימין) is an Israeli light industrial park in the
occupied
' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...
West Bank, built in 1998 over land expropriated from the
Palestinian villages of
Jaba' and
Mukhmas
Mukhmas ( ar, مُخماس), in the Spanish transcriptions Mujmas, is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northeast of Jerusalem, in the center of the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, th ...
.
It is located the
Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, Israeli-occupied West Bank, located 2km north of
Geva Binyamin
Geva Binyamin ( he, גֶּבַע בִּנְיָמִין. ''lit.'' Benjamin Hill), also known as Adam (), is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, built over land expropriated from the Palestinian village of Jaba'. It is organised as a communit ...
on
Route 60
The following highways are numbered 60:
International
* Asian Highway 60
* European route E60
Australia
* Bruxner Highway
* Dawson Highway (Rolleston to Gladstone) - Queensland State Route 60
Brazil
* BR-060
Canada
* Alberta Highway 60
* ...
and about 5 minutes drive from
Pisgat Ze'ev in Jerusalem. The park covers an area of 606 dunams (150 acres).
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank
illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
History
According to
ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from two nearby
Palestinian villages in order to construct Sha'ar Binyamin:
*545
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s from
Jaba',
[Jaba' Village Profile]
ARIJ, p. 17 and
*28 dunams from
Mukhmas
Mukhmas ( ar, مُخماس), in the Spanish transcriptions Mujmas, is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northeast of Jerusalem, in the center of the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, th ...
.
[Mikhmas village profile](_blank)
ARIJ, p. 16
It was established by the Regional Council's "Industrial Zones Authority," which promotes development in its area. The Israeli
Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry also invested about 20 million Israeli new shekel in developing the region. The park was granted "
National Priority Area A" status in 2002 for a 13-year period enabling tax benefits to create jobs for residents of the Jewish and Arab communities in the region. Public transportation is provided by buses along Route 60.
Like other industrial parks in the West Bank, many Israelis and Palestinians coexist and work side by side in factories and stores at Sha'ar Binyamin.
One of the big draws is a
Rami Levy supermarket. There are also
bakeries (including a bakery which is experimenting in baking
showbread
Showbread ( he, לחם הפנים ''Leḥem haPānīm'', literally: "Bread of the Faces"), in the King James Version: shewbread, in a biblical or Jewish context, refers to the cakes or loaves of bread which were always present, on a specially-de ...
as was used in the
Temple in Jerusalem), furniture stores, clothing stores, hardware and housewares stores, auto leasing, auto repair shops, a computer store, a winery, an optician, and a dental clinic.
Offices of The Jewish Agency's Settlement Division, an events hall and a section designated for high-tech businesses can also be found in the park.
The industrial park is located above the drainage basin of the
Nahal Prat Nature Reserve and is therefore subject to rigorous standards on soil and water pollution. A water purification facility processes the park's waste water and the establishment of polluting heavy industry is prohibited.
References
External links
Sha'ar Binyaminon Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor website
Sha'ar Binyaminon Mateh Binyamin Regional Council website
Plot map of Sha'ar Binyamin(opens as Word Document)
{{Mateh Binyamin Regional Council
Economy of Israel
Industrial parks in Israeli-occupied territories
Mateh Binyamin Regional Council
Israeli industrial parks in the West Bank