Carmel, Mount Hebron
Carmel (Hebrew: כרמל Karmel) is an Israeli settlement and Religious Moshav in the south-east Mount Hebron (Har Hevron in Hebrew) area of the West Bank, close to the Palestinian Bedouin from the village of Umm al-Kheir, who settled there several decades ago after Israel expelled them from the Arad desert, and who purchased the land from residents in the Palestinian village of Yatta.[2] According to David Shulman, Carmel lies on lands appropriated from the Bedouin of that village.[3] It falls under the jurisdiction of the Har Hevron Regional Council and associates ideologically with the Amana settlement movement. In 2019 it had a population of 437.
Carmel כרמל | |
|---|---|
Carmel | |
| Coordinates: 31°25′54″N 35°10′58″E / 31.43167°N 35.18278°ECoordinates: 31°25′54″N 35°10′58″E / 31.43167°N 35.18278°E | |
| District | Judea and Samaria Area |
| Council | Har Hevron |
| Region | West Bank |
| Affiliation | Amana |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Population (2019)[1] | 437 |
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[4]
Etymology
The name Carmel was chosen due to the moshav's close proximity to the location of biblical Carmel (Joshua 15:55).[citation needed][clarification needed] Carmel is mentioned in 1 Samuel 25:2 as a place where Nabal of Maon had property.[2]
History
From biblical Carmel to 19th century
Moshav
The moshav was founded in 1980, next to the land on which the Hadaleen Bedouin tribe live,[2] as a Nahal military-establishment, and was "civilianized" in 1981.
Reuta Beth midrash was established in 2001[5] which is also a hesder yeshiva.
According to Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, writing in 2014, Carmel is "a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business."[6]
Umm al-Kheir Bedouin village
The New York Times article compares the moshav with the Bedouin village next to it: "Beyond its barbed wire fencing, the Bedouins of Umm al-Kheir in shanties are denied connection to the electricity grid, barns for their livestock and toilets, and all attempts to build permanent dwellings are demolished. Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, noted that the chickens of Carmel's poultry farm get more electricity and water than the Palestinian Bedouin nearby."[6]
Haaretz noted about this in 2011: "Right next to the stately country homes - complete with air-conditioning, drip-irrigation gardens and goldfish ponds - a few extended families including old men, old women and infants live in dwellings made of tin, cloth and plastic siding, though there are a few cinder-block structures, too. They tread on broken, barren ground. They have no running water. They are not connected to the power grid that lights up every settlement and outpost in this remote region. They have no access road."[2]
Frictions between Arabs and Jews
In September 2022, two Arab terrorists entered the settlement and wounded a Jew. One of the terrorists was captured.[7]
References
- ^ "Population in the Localities 2019" (XLS). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d Ilana Hammerman, 'West Bank settlement is outdoing its neighboring Bedouin village,' Haaretz 11 November 2011
- ^ David Shulman, Truth and Lies in South Hebron, 2018-11-03 at the Wayback Machine Jewish Quarterly 18 June 2013. 'Um al-Khair, a ramshackle collection of tents and huts and simple stone houses and sheep-pens and corrugated shacks that borders, tragically, on the settlement of Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. Or rather, historically, Carmel borders on Um al-Khair, since the lands appropriated for the settlement in the early 80s all belonged to the Bedouin goat-herders and farmers who live on this rocky hill..'
- ^ "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
- ^ About August 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Reuta
- ^ a b Nicholas Kristof, 'The Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence,', The New York Times 30 June 2010.
- ^ West Bank: Shooting in Mount Hebron, civilian wounded