Atarot
Encyclopedia
Atarot was a moshav
in Mandatory Palestine, north of Jerusalem along the highway to Ramallah
. The village was captured and destroyed by the Jordan
ian Arab Legion
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
. Atarot Airport
and Jerusalem's largest industrial park
are now located there.
. In 1914 the tract was settled by Zionist youth of the Second Aliyah
who prepared the rocky soil for agriculture. Among the settlers was Levi Eshkol
, a future Prime Minister of Israel
.
After the outbreak of World War I
, the project was abandoned until 1922, when a group of workers returned to the area to continue reclamation and planting work. This group leased some of the land to local Arabs and acquired more tracts for settlement. The plan was to ready the land for sale to individuals and groups. When the venture proved unsuccessful, the Jewish National Fund
bought 375 dunam
s of the best land. It was on this land that Atarot was established. The village was named for the biblical town of Ataroth
believed to be located nearby.
In 1925, Atarot was joined by Neve Yaakov
, creating a bloc of Jewish settlement in the area. In 1931 the British Mandatory government expropriated 200 of the 375 dunams to construct a small airfield, in the process demolishing homes and uprooting fruit orchards, and harming the village's growth. The PLDC sold more of the land such that the moshav members were left with only 14 dunam per plot, while 30 dunam was considered to be the minimum necessary for sufficient income. Water shortages also plagued the village, as the locally constructed reservoir could not satisfy the needs, and so it was necessary to purchase water from neighbouring Arab villages as well as from the expensive British-built Jerusalem municipal pipes.
Some of the moshav's fields were located at a distance, which created a security problem during the 1929 Palestine riots
and 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine when it residents were shot at, robbed, and besieged.
Concentrating on dairy farming
and supplying Jerusalem's produce and dairy needs, by the 1940s Atarot was home to 150 residents.
ian Arab Legion
's 1948 Siege of Jerusalem
. The Haganah
command for the Jerusalem area finally decided to evacuate the remaining defenders; they left on 17 May, 1948. The Jordanian forces looted and burned the village, turning the land into an extension of Kalandia Airport
.
The refugees maintained their desire to remain organised as an agricultural cooperative, and in August of that year they were resettled in the former Templer
village of Wilhelma, which they named Bnei Atarot
in remembrance of their original home.
. The area was annexed into the expanded Jerusalem Municipality
, and an industrial park
was developed alongside the airport, renamed for the former village.
The park housed over 200 companies including Coca-Cola
, Mercedes-Benz
, Israel Aircraft Industries
, and many Arab-owned and joint enterprises. Some 4,000 people were employed prior to 2000, Arabs from Jerusalem and the West Bank comprising about two-thirds.
, leading to the closure of the airport.On February 27, 2000, a young businessman, Gadi Rejwan, who owned a factory in Atarot, was shot to death by one of his Arab workers.
's linking the park to the nearby Route 443 expressway to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
and Begin Expressway to central Jerusalem. The park, which has surpassed Har Hotzvim
to become the largest industrial park in Jerusalem, now houses 160 factories in a variety of industries.The industrial park is managed by a non profit organisation, which successfully lobbied the Jerusalem Municipality
for the right to handle security, previously carried out by private firms.
Israeli author Esther Streit-Wertzel was commissioned in 2005 by the original families to write a chronicle
of the village; she ultimately produced a novel on the topic.
Moshav
Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...
in Mandatory Palestine, north of Jerusalem along the highway to Ramallah
Highway 60 (Israel)
Highway 60 is a north-south intercity road in Israel and the West Bank that stretches from Beersheba to Nazareth.-Route:The route is also known as the "Route of the Patriarchs" since it follows the path of the ancient highway that runs along the length of the central watershed, and which...
. The village was captured and destroyed by the Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. Atarot Airport
Atarot Airport
Atarot Airport , is a small airport located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. It was the first airport in Mandate Palestine. It has been closed since the Second Intifada.-History:...
and Jerusalem's largest industrial park
Industrial park
An industrial park is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development...
are now located there.
Early years
In 1912, the Palestine Land Development Corporation (PLDC) purchased land in the hills north of Jerusalem from the neighbouring Arab village of KalandiaKalandia
Kalandia also Qalandiya is a Palestinian village and a refugee camp located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. In 2006, 1,154 people were living in the village of Kalandia according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics...
. In 1914 the tract was settled by Zionist youth of the Second Aliyah
Second Aliyah
The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen....
who prepared the rocky soil for agriculture. Among the settlers was Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
, a future Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
.
After the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the project was abandoned until 1922, when a group of workers returned to the area to continue reclamation and planting work. This group leased some of the land to local Arabs and acquired more tracts for settlement. The plan was to ready the land for sale to individuals and groups. When the venture proved unsuccessful, the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
bought 375 dunam
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s of the best land. It was on this land that Atarot was established. The village was named for the biblical town of Ataroth
Ataroth
Ataroth means "crowns" in Hebrew.The Mesha Stele from about 840 BC was erected commemorating Mesha's victory over the "son" of Omri, but he fails to say which one. He states that he massacred all the Israelites at Ataroth as satisfaction for the blood lust of Chemosh and Moab...
believed to be located nearby.
In 1925, Atarot was joined by Neve Yaakov
Neve Yaakov
Neve Yaakov also Neve Ya'aqov, , is a neighborhood located in northeastern Jerusalem, north of Pisgat Ze'ev and south of al-Ram. Established in 1924 during the period of the British Mandate, it was abandoned during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
, creating a bloc of Jewish settlement in the area. In 1931 the British Mandatory government expropriated 200 of the 375 dunams to construct a small airfield, in the process demolishing homes and uprooting fruit orchards, and harming the village's growth. The PLDC sold more of the land such that the moshav members were left with only 14 dunam per plot, while 30 dunam was considered to be the minimum necessary for sufficient income. Water shortages also plagued the village, as the locally constructed reservoir could not satisfy the needs, and so it was necessary to purchase water from neighbouring Arab villages as well as from the expensive British-built Jerusalem municipal pipes.
Some of the moshav's fields were located at a distance, which created a security problem during the 1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, , or the Buraq Uprising , refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
and 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine when it residents were shot at, robbed, and besieged.
Concentrating on dairy farming
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
and supplying Jerusalem's produce and dairy needs, by the 1940s Atarot was home to 150 residents.
From 1948
Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence and attack of five Arab armies, the villages withstood repeated attacks and acted as a bulwark during the JordanJordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
's 1948 Siege of Jerusalem
Siege of Jerusalem (1948)
The Battle for Jerusalem occurred from 30 November 1947 to 11 June 1948 when Jewish and Arab population of Mandatory Palestine and later Israeli and Jordanian armies fought for the control of the city....
. The Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
command for the Jerusalem area finally decided to evacuate the remaining defenders; they left on 17 May, 1948. The Jordanian forces looted and burned the village, turning the land into an extension of Kalandia Airport
Atarot Airport
Atarot Airport , is a small airport located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. It was the first airport in Mandate Palestine. It has been closed since the Second Intifada.-History:...
.
The refugees maintained their desire to remain organised as an agricultural cooperative, and in August of that year they were resettled in the former Templer
Templers (religious believers)
Templers are members of the Temple Society , a German Protestant sect with roots in the Pietist movement of the Lutheran Church. The Templers were expelled from the church in 1858 because of their millennial beliefs. Their aim was to realize the apocalyptic visions of the prophets of Israel in the...
village of Wilhelma, which they named Bnei Atarot
Bnei Atarot
Bnei Atarot is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Yehud, around 15 kilometres east of Tel Aviv, it is situated in fertile plain at the eastern rim of Tel Aviv metropolitan area next to Ben Gurion Airport and falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council...
in remembrance of their original home.
Industrial park after 1967
Following the 1967 Six Day War, the airport and site of the former village were captured by Israel along with the rest of the West BankWest Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. The area was annexed into the expanded Jerusalem Municipality
Jerusalem Law
The Jerusalem Law is a common name of Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel passed by the Knesset on July 30, 1980 .It began as a private member's bill proposed by Geula Cohen, whose original text stated that "the integrity and unity of greater Jerusalem in its boundaries after the Six-Day War...
, and an industrial park
Industrial park
An industrial park is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development...
was developed alongside the airport, renamed for the former village.
The park housed over 200 companies including Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Israel Aircraft Industries
Israel Aircraft Industries
Israel Aerospace Industries or IAI is Israel's prime aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial systems for both military and civilian usage. It has 16,000 employees as of 2007...
, and many Arab-owned and joint enterprises. Some 4,000 people were employed prior to 2000, Arabs from Jerusalem and the West Bank comprising about two-thirds.
Second Intifada
During the violence of the Second Intifada, the park and airport suffered Palestinian attacks due to their proximity to RamallahRamallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
, leading to the closure of the airport.On February 27, 2000, a young businessman, Gadi Rejwan, who owned a factory in Atarot, was shot to death by one of his Arab workers.
Today
With the ebbing of violence, the Atarot industrial park has seen renewed activity, and several new companies have begun to move in, aided by the new Highway 45Highway 45 (Israel)
Highway 45 is the official designation of a 3.4 km stretch of highway forming a continuous conection between Route 443 from Lod via the Ben Shemen Interchange and Route 404 to central Jerusalem...
's linking the park to the nearby Route 443 expressway to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
Gush Dan
The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area , or Gush Dan , is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel. The area is closely linked to the city of Tel Aviv through social, economic, and cultural ties. It is located along the Israeli Mediterranean coastline...
and Begin Expressway to central Jerusalem. The park, which has surpassed Har Hotzvim
Har Hotzvim
Har Hotzvim , also Campus of Science-Rich Industries is a high-tech industrial park located in northwest Jerusalem, Israel. It is the city's main zone for science-based and technology industries, among them Intel, Teva, Amdocs, NDS, Ophir Optronics, Sandvine, Radware and IDT Global Israel...
to become the largest industrial park in Jerusalem, now houses 160 factories in a variety of industries.The industrial park is managed by a non profit organisation, which successfully lobbied the Jerusalem Municipality
Safra Square
Safra Square is Jerusalem's city hall public square named after Jacob and Esther Safra, parents of Edmond J. Safra, a Jewish philanthropist who contributed generously to the renovation of downtown Jerusalem.-Location:...
for the right to handle security, previously carried out by private firms.
Israeli author Esther Streit-Wertzel was commissioned in 2005 by the original families to write a chronicle
Chronicle
Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...
of the village; she ultimately produced a novel on the topic.