Petza'el () is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

and

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 center of the Jordan Valley, 34.5 kilometers from the Green line, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Bik'at HaYarden'', ''lit.'' Jordan Valley Regional Council), also Aravot HaYarden (''lit.'' Jordan Plains), is a regional council covering 21 Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley in the ...

. In it had a population of . It is named for

Phasael Phasael (died 40 BCE; ,; ; from ), was a prince from the Herodian Dynasty of Judea. Name Origins and early career Phasael was born in the Hasmonean Kingdom to a Jewish aristocratic family of Edomite descent. His father, Antipater the Idumaean ...

, older brother of

Herod the Great Herod I or Herod the Great () was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea. Among these works are the rebuilding of the ...

, for whom he had named a city nearby in ancient times. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli and US governments dispute this.

Name

History

During the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, King

Judaea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the prese ...

established a new city in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho, which he named Phasaelis (, ''Phasaēlís''), in dedication to his elder brother

. Its remains were identified in the area (more at Fasayil: History and archaeology).

Modern Petza'el

Petza'el was established near

Ma'ale Efraim Ma'ale Efrayim (, lit. ''Ascent of Ephraim'') is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, organized as a secular settlement and a local council, located along the eastern slopes of the Samarian mountains in the Jordan Valley. It was founded in 19 ...

in 1970 by former soldiers who were members of the

Moshavim Movement The Moshavim Movement (, ''Tnu'at HaMoshavim'') is one of the main Settlement movement (Israel), settlement movements in Israel, whose members are cooperative villages organized as moshavim and moshav shitufi, moshavim shitufiim. History Founded i ...

. The settlement was initially administered as both a moshav and a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

. In 1975 the settlement moved to a location in the valley where the agricultural fields of the members were located. According to ARIJ, in order to construct Petza'el

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

confiscated land from two

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

villages: 1,242

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s from

Fasayil Fasayil or Fasa'il (), ancient Phasaelis, is a Palestinian village in the northeastern West Bank, a part of the Jericho Governorate, located northwest of Jericho and about southeast of Nablus. The closest Palestinian locality is Duma to the ...

, 176 dunams from Al-Jiftlik In recent years, the settlements has absorbed around 30 new families, mostly the children of the founding members.Hareuveni, Immanuel; ''Eretz Yisrael Lexicon'';

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

796
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Economy

Most of the settlement's residents earn their living from agriculture. The younger members work in both agriculture and other jobs. Fatzael 7 039

In the 2013 the settlement had 3,960 dunams of cultivated land, of which 2,700 dunams was used for

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

s, 800 for vineyards, 400 for vegetables (mostly peppers) and 60 for flowers. Most of the agricultural output is designated for export. There are conflicting views about the builder of a race track near the settlement.

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

reported the illegal race track was built by the west bank regional council by using public funds.

Community and civic services

The settlement operates two kindergartens, several clubs for the members, a synagogue, pool, grocery store and recreation sites. Some of the electricity is created by solar panels in the settlements and some residents also use solar panels for their personal use.

References

{{Authority control Moshavim Israeli settlements in the West Bank Populated places established in 1970 1970 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Salome I