Carmei Tzur
Encyclopedia
Karmei Tzur, or Carmei Tzur is a communal settlement
and Israeli settlement
in the West Bank
located north of Hebron
in the Judean hills between the Palestinian
towns Beit Ummar
and Halhul
. The National Religious community with a population of 725 (2010) is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council
. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords
of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
, Karmei Tzur was designated Area "C"
under full Israeli civil and security control.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
According to a Peace Now-report of 2006, 27 percent of the land Karmei Tzur is built on, is privately owned, all or most of it by Palestinians. According to Israeli law, settlements on privately owned Palestinian land are illegal.
in Alon Shvut
, and was named after the nearby Hasmonean
fortress of Beth-Zur
.
, 8.3 kilometers from the Green line
in the Judean hills north of Hebron, 22 kilometers from Jerusalem. The settlement has a total area of about 420.000 square meters.
, Peru
, who have been housed there as part of an absorption program. The settlement is home to Yeshiva students, educators, academics, army officers, traders, and doctors. Most of the residents work in Gush Etzion
, Kiryat Arba
, or Jerusalem.
and resident of Karmei Tzur of English origins who was killed after Palestinians shot him while driving home on February 1, 2001 during the Second Intifada. The name was chosen by Gillis′ widow. “Shalem”, meaning “whole”, shares some of the letters of Gillis′ first name “Shmuel”, and the word “tzur”, meaning “rock”, is one of the names for God and also symbolizes strength and steadfastness. The outpost with more than twenty caravan
s and 13 families is located to the west of Karmei Tzur and has views of the Shephelah
Region.
terrorists, possibly assisted by Islamic Jihad
men, infiltrated the Tzur Shalem outpost and killed Ayal Sorek and his 9-month-pregnant wife Yael along with reserve soldier Shalom Mordechai from Nahariya
.
In 2007, Israeli, Palestinian and international activists blocked the road to Karmei Tzur with barbed wire in protest of the limitations of movement imposed upon the Palestinians in the area.
As B'Tselem
reports, in October 2011, settlers from Karmei Tzur attacked residents of the Palestinian village Beit Ummar who demonstrated against the theft of their land for the benefit of Karmei Tzur and against denial of their access to the land forming the so called “special security area” (SSA), a buffer strip that surrounds the settlement without being part of the settlement. The SSA around Karmei Tzur is primarily composed of privately-owned land of Palestinian residents of Beit Ummar and Halhul. Settlers can enter these areas freely, while the Palestinian landowners must obtain special permits to enter, and these are given sparingly. During the demonstration, settlers entered the SSA and threw stones at the Palestinian demonstrators outside it, assisted by armed security and military personnel.
Communal settlement (Israel)
A community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer....
and Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
in the West Bank
West 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...
located north of Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
in the Judean hills between the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
towns Beit Ummar
Beit Ummar
Beit Ummar is an Arab town located eleven kilometers northwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007, the town had a population of 13,348 inhabitants. Over 4,800 residents of the town are under the age of 18...
and Halhul
Halhul
Halhul is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 22,108 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007.- History :...
. The National Religious community with a population of 725 (2010) is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council
Gush Etzion Regional Council
The Gush Etzion Regional Council is a regional council in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the settlements in the Gush Etzion region, as well as others nearby...
. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
, Karmei Tzur was designated Area "C"
Administrative divisions of the Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords created three temporary distinct administrative divisions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until a final status accord would be established...
under full Israeli civil and security control.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
International law and Israeli settlements
The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law, but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the...
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
According to a Peace Now-report of 2006, 27 percent of the land Karmei Tzur is built on, is privately owned, all or most of it by Palestinians. According to Israeli law, settlements on privately owned Palestinian land are illegal.
History
Karmei Tzur, meaning “Vineyards (or Olive Groves) of Rock” or “Stalwart Vineyards”, was established in 1984 by a group of students from the Har Etzion YeshivaYeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in Alon Shvut
Alon Shvut
Alon Shvut is an Israeli settlement located southwest of Jerusalem, one kilometer northeast of Kfar Etzion, in the West Bank. Established in June 1970 in the heart of the Etzion bloc, Alon Shvut became the prototype for Jewish settlements in the region. It is administered by the Gush Etzion...
, and was named after the nearby Hasmonean
Hasmonean
The Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
fortress of Beth-Zur
Beth-zur
Beth-Zur is a biblical site of historic and archaeological importance in the southern West Bank. Beth Zur is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible and the writings of the Roman Jewish historian Josephus...
.
Geography
Karmei Tzur is situated east of the Israel-Westbank separation barrierIsraeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...
, 8.3 kilometers from the Green line
Green Line (Israel)
Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
in the Judean hills north of Hebron, 22 kilometers from Jerusalem. The settlement has a total area of about 420.000 square meters.
Population
There are about 120 families living in the settlement with more than 700 people in total. This includes 13 families living in the adjacent Tzur Shalem outpost and eight immigrant families of Inca Jews from TrujilloTrujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, who have been housed there as part of an absorption program. The settlement is home to Yeshiva students, educators, academics, army officers, traders, and doctors. Most of the residents work in Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestinian territories. The core group includes four agricultural villages that were founded in 1940-1947 on property purchased in the 1920s and 1930s, and ...
, Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba , lit. "Town of the Four," is an Israeli settlement in the Judean Mountains region of the West Bank on the edge of Hebron. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000...
, or Jerusalem.
Education
Local children are educated within the settlement until they reach school age. School children are transported to schools in the centre of Gush Etzion. There is a wide variety of after school activities provided in the settlement.Outposts
Karmei Tzur has an outpost, Tzur Shalem, considered illegal also by Israeli law. It was established in 2001 in memory of Dr. Shmuel Gillis, a senior physician at the Hadassah Medical CenterHadassah Medical Center
Hadassah Medical Center is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The hospital was founded by Hadassah,...
and resident of Karmei Tzur of English origins who was killed after Palestinians shot him while driving home on February 1, 2001 during the Second Intifada. The name was chosen by Gillis′ widow. “Shalem”, meaning “whole”, shares some of the letters of Gillis′ first name “Shmuel”, and the word “tzur”, meaning “rock”, is one of the names for God and also symbolizes strength and steadfastness. The outpost with more than twenty caravan
Caravan
-Specific automobile models:*Dodge Caravan*Nissan Caravan*Opel Omega Caravan*Opel Astra Caravan*Chevrolet Caravan -Airplane models:*Cessna Caravan, a utility airplane*C-76 Caravan, an American 1940s medium military transport aircraft-Other:...
s and 13 families is located to the west of Karmei Tzur and has views of the Shephelah
Shephelah
The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level. The area is fertile, and a temperate...
Region.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
In June 2002 HamasHamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
terrorists, possibly assisted by Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad , is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel...
men, infiltrated the Tzur Shalem outpost and killed Ayal Sorek and his 9-month-pregnant wife Yael along with reserve soldier Shalom Mordechai from Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
.
In 2007, Israeli, Palestinian and international activists blocked the road to Karmei Tzur with barbed wire in protest of the limitations of movement imposed upon the Palestinians in the area.
As B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
reports, in October 2011, settlers from Karmei Tzur attacked residents of the Palestinian village Beit Ummar who demonstrated against the theft of their land for the benefit of Karmei Tzur and against denial of their access to the land forming the so called “special security area” (SSA), a buffer strip that surrounds the settlement without being part of the settlement. The SSA around Karmei Tzur is primarily composed of privately-owned land of Palestinian residents of Beit Ummar and Halhul. Settlers can enter these areas freely, while the Palestinian landowners must obtain special permits to enter, and these are given sparingly. During the demonstration, settlers entered the SSA and threw stones at the Palestinian demonstrators outside it, assisted by armed security and military personnel.