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Kfar Etzion (lit. Etzion Village) is a religious Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement

Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis in territory that was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, which is partially under Israeli military administration and partially under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, and in the Golan Heights, which are under Isr...
 and kibbutz
Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a Intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The kibbutz is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism....
 located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 and Hebron
Hebron

Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is home to some 166,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Israelis....
 in the southern West Bank
West Bank

The West Bank is the eastern Part of the Palestinian territories on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel....
. It falls under the jurisdiction of Gush Etzion Regional Council
Gush Etzion Regional Council

The Gush Etzion Regional Council is a Regional council in the northern Judean hills, or rather, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the settlements in the Gush Etzion region, as well as others nearby....
.

kibbutz was originally founded in 1927 by Yemenite
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
 immigrants, and was initially called Migdal Eder (lit. Flock Tower). However, it was abandoned in 1929 as a result of the Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots

The 1929 Palestine riots 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....
. It was resettled in 1934, but had to be abandoned again in 1939 during 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.






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Encyclopedia


Kfar Etzion (lit. Etzion Village) is a religious Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement

Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis in territory that was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, which is partially under Israeli military administration and partially under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, and in the Golan Heights, which are under Isr...
 and kibbutz
Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a Intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The kibbutz is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism....
 located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 and Hebron
Hebron

Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is home to some 166,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Israelis....
 in the southern West Bank
West Bank

The West Bank is the eastern Part of the Palestinian territories on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel....
. It falls under the jurisdiction of Gush Etzion Regional Council
Gush Etzion Regional Council

The Gush Etzion Regional Council is a Regional council in the northern Judean hills, or rather, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the settlements in the Gush Etzion region, as well as others nearby....
.

History

The kibbutz was originally founded in 1927 by Yemenite
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
 immigrants, and was initially called Migdal Eder (lit. Flock Tower). However, it was abandoned in 1929 as a result of the Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots

The 1929 Palestine riots 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....
. It was resettled in 1934, but had to be abandoned again in 1939 during 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. In 1943 Kfar Etzion was settled for the third time, and three other kibbutzim were established nearby; Masu'ot Yitzhak
Masu'ot Yitzhak

Masu'ot Yitzhak is a moshav shitufi in southern Israel. Located near Ashkelon. It belongs to the Shafir Regional Council. It was originally founded as a kibbutz in Gush Etzion, but the kibbutz was destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the inhabitants relocated....
 in October 1945, Ein Tzurim
Ein Tzurim

Ein Tzurim is a religious kibbutz in southern Israel. Located south of Kiryat Malakhi, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council, and is a member of the Religious Kibbutz Movement....
 a year later and Revadim
Revadim

Revadim is a kibbutz in the Israeli coastal plain in south-central Israel. It belongs to the Yoav Regional Council. It is located about five km southeast of Gedera and just east of Highway 3 ....
 in February 1947. Together, they formed the Etzion Bloc
Gush Etzion

Gush Etzion refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of Jerusalem on the northern part of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank, and destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
. When it was founded, Kfar Etzion was at 965 metres the highest Jewish town.

Far outside the boundaries of the proposed Jewish State
Jewish state

The terms "Jewish state" and "homeland of the Jewish people" are used to describe the Zionism and the Israel and refer to its status as a nation-state for Jews....
 under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the residents had the choice of evacuating their four settlements or living subject to an Arab sovereignty. They chose to hold their ground and were subsequently attacked by Arab forces.

The kibbutzim held off the attacks for ten days until Kfar Etzion fell and was subject to what became known as the Kfar Etzion massacre
Kfar Etzion massacre

The Kfar Etzion massacre was an act committed by Arab armed forces on May 13, 1948, the day before the Declaration of Independence of the state of Israel....
 on May 14th, in which all but four of the defenders were summarily executed by Arab Legion
Arab Legion

The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th Century....
 and irregular forces. The other three kibbutzim surrendered and their residents were taken prisoners of war and released nine months later.

Later in 1967 following Israel's victory in the Six-Day War
Six-Day War

In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
, and its subsequent occupation of the West Bank
West Bank

The West Bank is the eastern Part of the Palestinian territories on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel....
, previous residents of Kfar Etzion moved back and built new houses in the former community. Today Kfar Etzion houses a museum
Museum

A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and entertainment", as defined by the International Coun...
 which documents the history of Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion

Gush Etzion refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of Jerusalem on the northern part of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank, and destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
.

Today Kfar Etzion is a thriving kibbutz and community of over 400 residents. While many of the residents work in Jerusalem and surrounding areas the kibbutz is financially sound with most of its revenue earned from agriculture, tourism and hi-tech resources. The kibbutz houses a museum and archives which documents the history of Gush Etzion as well as a sound and light show which presents an audio visual presentation of its history past and present.

The valley onto which the kibbutz descends is believed by archaeologists to be the site of the Battle of Beth-zechariah
Battle of Beth-zechariah

The Battle of Beth-Zechariah was fought between the Jewish Maccabeans and Greeks forces during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire....
.

External links