Ma'ale Hever () or Pnei Hever () is an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Located in the eastern

Hebron Hills The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judaean Mountains, Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Ban ...

to the east of Hebron at an elevation of , it is organised as a

community settlement A community settlement (, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of town or village in Israel and in the West Bank. In an ordinary town, anyone may buy property, but in a community settlement, the village's residents are organized in a cooperative an ...

and falls under the jurisdiction of

Har Hevron Regional Council The Har Hevron Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Har Hevron'') is an Israeli regional council in the southern Judean Hills area of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank, administering Israeli settlements. The headquarters are located in the ...

. It overlooks the wilderness of Ziff and the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

Valley. In it had a population of . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law. For several decades, the Israeli government has disputed this, claiming the Palestinian territories were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state prior to their capture by Israel during the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967.

History

The settlement was established as ''Nahal Yakin'' on 31 January 1982 as a pioneer

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

military outpost. It was demilitarized when turned over to eleven families on 24 August 1983, after which it was renamed after the nearby Hever Stream. In its early years, the only route leading to the village passed through the Palestinian town of

Bani Na'im Bani Na'im () is a town in the southern West Bank located east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate of Palestine. It is situated at a higher elevation than most localities in the area, with an altitude of . The town is best known as the burial ...

. In 2009, Assaf Ramon, son of Israeli

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Ilan Ramon Ilan Ramon (; , born Ilan Wolfferman (); June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was an Israeli fighter pilot and later the first Israeli astronaut. He served as a Space Shuttle payload specialist on STS-107, the fatal mission of '' Columbia ...

who was aboard the fatal ''Columbia'' mission when the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

exploded, was killed when the

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

he was flying crashed in the vicinity of Ma'ale Hever. In 2019, a new

Kollel A kollel (also kolel) (, , , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced Torah study, study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features Shiur (Torah), shiurim (lectures) and ...

, led by Rabbi Haim Klein, was built to teach necessary courses to rabbis to be community leaders.

Notable Residents

* Gidon Ariel, founder and CEO of Root Source

References

External links

Profile on Amana websitePnei Hever , Maale Hever Site
{{Authority control Nahal settlements Religious Israeli settlements Populated places established in 1982 1982 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Community settlements Israeli settlements in the West Bank Hebron Hills