Ma'ale Adummim
Encyclopedia
Ma'ale Adumim is an 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...

 and a city 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...

, seven kilometers from Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status
City council (Israel)
A City council is the official designation of a city within Israel's system of local government.City council status may be granted by the Interior Minister to a municipality, usually a local council, whose population surpasses 20,000 and whose character is urban, defined as having areas zoned for...

 in 1991. In 2011, the population was 39,000. Ma'ale Adumim is the third largest Israeli settlement 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...

 after Modi'in Illit
Modi'in Illit
Modi'in Illit is a Haredi Israeli settlement and a city in the West Bank, situated midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Modi'in Illit was granted city status by the Israeli government in 2008. It is located six kilometres northeast of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut and is often referred to as Kiryat...

, and Beitar Illit. The city is located along Highway 1
Highway 1 (Israel)
Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...

, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv 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...

. The international community considers Israeli settlements 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. Maale Adumim is mentioned in the Book of Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....

 as the border between the tribes of Judah
Judah
The name Judah can refer to:*Judah , fourth son of the Biblical patriarch Jacob All later individuals, groups and places of this name are directly or indirectly derived from this Judah....

 and Benjamin
Benjamin
Benjamin was the last-born of Jacob's twelve sons, and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. In the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. He died in Egypt on...

. It also is the site of the Good Samaritan parable in the Book of Luke
Luke
Luke is a male given name, and less commonly, a surname.The name Luke is derived from the Latin name , from an Ancient Greek , meaning "man from Lucania". The earliest known recording of the name is from the Bible, The Gospel of Luke, which was written around AD 70 to 90, and it is from here...

.

Etymology

The town name "Ma'ale Adumim" is taken from the Book of Joshua (and 18:17): The boundary [of the tribe of Judah] ascended from the Valley of Achor
Achor
Achor is the name of a valley in the vicinity of Jericho.Eusebius and Jerome implied that they thought it was a valley north of Jericho. In the nineteenth century some writers identified the valley with the wadi al-Qelt, a deep ravine located to Jericho's south...

 to Debir
Debir
A Biblical word, debir may refer to:noun* The debir , the inner-most part of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple.Personal name...

 and turned north to Gilgal
Gilgal
Gilgal is a place name mentioned by the Hebrew Bible. It is a matter of debate how many of the places named Gilgal are identical.-The Gilgal associated peacefully with Joshua:...

, facing the
Ascent of Adumim which is south of the wadi. Literally "Red Ascent", it takes its name from the red rock lining the ascent from the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...

.

History

Ma'ale Adumim was originally a Nahal
Nahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...

 outpost.
It was designed as a planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...

 and suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

an commuter town
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...

 to nearby Jerusalem, to which many residents commute daily. In the early 1970s, Israel's Labor government
discussed a plan to expand the boundaries of Jerusalem eastward by founding an industrial
zone and a workers' village on the Jericho road. In the winter of 1975, on the seventh night of Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE...

, a Gush Emunim
Gush Emunim
Gush Emunim was an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. While not formally established as an organization until 1974 in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, encouraging...

 group of 23 families and six singles erected a prefabricated concrete structure and two wooden huts at the site now known as "Founder's Circle" in Mishor Adumim. The group was evicted several times. In 1977, after Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...

 took office, Ma'ale Adumim was granted official status as a permanent settlement.

The chief urban planner was architect Rachel Walden
Rachel Walden
Rachel Walden is an Israeli architect and city planner. She has planned Israeli towns, including Tzoran.Walden is a graduate of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.-External links:*...

. In March 1979, Maaleh Adumim achieved local council
Local council (Israel)
Local councils are one of the three types of local government found in Israel, with the other two being cities and regional councils. As of 2003, there were 144 local councils in Israel, these being settlements which pass a minimum threshold enough to justify their operations as independent...

 status. The urban plan for Ma'ale Adumim, finalized in 1983, encompasses a total of 35 square kilometers, of which 3.7 square kilometers have been built so far, in a bloc that includes Ma'ale Adumim, Mishor Adumim
Mishor Adumim
Mishor Adumim is an industrial park located in the industrial zone of Ma'aleh Adumim, about 10 minutes from Jerusalem, Israel.Since 1998, the park has been managed by the Ma'aleh Adumim Economic Development Company Ltd...

, Kfar Adumim
Kfar Adumim
Kfar Adumim is a communal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located in the Judean Desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. In 2007 it had a population of 2,500...

, and Allon.

The mayor of Ma'ale Adumim is Benny Kashriel, recently elected to a third term by a large majority.

Geography

The city is surrounded on four sides by the Judean Desert
Judean desert
The Judaean Desert is a desert in Israel and the West Bank that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan...

 and is linked to Jerusalem and Gush Dan
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...

 via Highway 1. Due to its strategic location between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, Palestinians see this as a threat to the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state. This claim is disputed by mayor Benny Kashriel, who claims that continuity would be attained by circling Ma'ale Adumim to the east. Israeli drivers use a bypass road that exits the city to the west, entering Jerusalem through the French Hill
French Hill
French Hill , also Giv'at Shapira is a neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem. It is located on territory occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967, later annexed to Israel under the Jerusalem Law in 1980...

 Junction or a tunnel that goes under Mt. Scopus. These routes were built in the wake of the First
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....

 and Second Intifadas when Palestinian militants shot at motorists and cars were stoned. The previous road passes through Azariya and Abu Dis
Abu Dis
Abu Dis is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate, bordering Jerusalem. Abu Dis is due east of the Jerusalem municipal border. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the town had a population of approximately 12,100 in mid-year 2006.-Ottoman era:Abu Dis was one of the...

.

Land ownership

Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, initially claimed that 86.4% of Ma'ale Adumim was privately owned Palestinian land, basing the figure on data leaked from a government report. After Peace Now petitioned the Israeli courts to have the official data released, the group revised the figure to 0.5%. Palestinians claim lands from the villages of Abu Dis
Abu Dis
Abu Dis is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate, bordering Jerusalem. Abu Dis is due east of the Jerusalem municipal border. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , the town had a population of approximately 12,100 in mid-year 2006.-Ottoman era:Abu Dis was one of the...

, Al Izriyyeh, Al Issawiyyeh, Al Tur and Anata were expropriated for building in Ma'aleh Adumim. Under Islamic land law, the land in question was categorized as arazi mewat, or "dead lands." The 1858 Ottoman Land Law defines it as "Khalz land which is not in the possession of anybody, and, not having been left or assigned to the inhabitants, is distant from town or village so that the loud voice of a person from the extreme inhabited spot cannot be heard, that is about a mile and a half to the extreme inhabited spot, or a distance of about half an hour."

Economy

Many residents of Maaleh Adumim are employed in Jerusalem. Others work in Mishor Adumim
Mishor Adumim
Mishor Adumim is an industrial park located in the industrial zone of Ma'aleh Adumim, about 10 minutes from Jerusalem, Israel.Since 1998, the park has been managed by the Ma'aleh Adumim Economic Development Company Ltd...

, Ma’ale Adumim’s industrial park, which is located on the road to the Dead Sea, about ten minutes from Jerusalem. The industrial zone houses 220 businesses, among them textile plants, garages, food manufacturers, aluminum and metalworking factories, and printing companies.

Demographics

In 2004, over seventy percent of the residents were secular. According to the municipal spokesman, the overwhelming majority moved to the city not for ideological reasons but for lower-cost housing and higher living standards. In 2004, 48 percent of residents were under the
age of 18. Ma'aleh Adumim's unemployment rate was 2.1 percent, far below the national
average.

Education and culture

In 2011, Ma'ale Adumim had 21 schools and 80 kindergartens. A large portion of Ma'ale Adumim's budget is spent on education. Schools offer after-school programs, class trips, and tutoring where needed. A special program has been developed for new immigrant children. Additional resources are invested in special education and classes for gifted children, including a special after-school program for honors students in science and math. Ma'ale Adumim College was situated in the city, but is currently defunct. Religious elementary schools in Ma’ale Adumim include Ma’aleh Hatorah, Sde Chemed, and Tzemach Hasadeh. Religious high schools are Yeshiva Tichonit, Tzvia and Amit. The city has over 40 synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s and several yeshivas, among them Yeshivat Birkat Moshe
Yeshivat Birkat Moshe
Yeshivat Birkat Moshe is a hesder yeshiva located in the Mitzpeh Nevo neighborhood of Maale Adumim, Israel. It was founded in 1977 by Rabbis Haim Sabato and Yitzchak Sheilat, then two young rabbis from Yeshivat HaKotel, in Jerusalem....

. Ma'aleh Adumim has won the Israel Ministry of Education prize for excellence twice. It has also won the national prize for environmental quality in recognition of its emphasis on urban planning, green space, playgrounds and outdoor sculptures.

Healthcare

Medical services are provided in the city through all four Health maintenance organization
Health maintenance organization
A health maintenance organization is an organization that provides managed care for health insurance contracts in the United States as a liaison with health care providers...

s (kupot holim). There is also a large geriatric hospital, Hod Adumim, also providing care for recuperating patients and chronic patients. It is also used for senior citizens residence. It has facilities for nursing, the elderly, the handicapped, through the most extreme needs.

Legal issues

In 2005, a report by John Dugard
John Dugard
John Dugard is a South African professor of international law. He has served as Judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice and as a Special Rapporteur for both the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission...

 for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...

 stated that the "three major settlement blocs - 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 ...

, Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel
Ariel (city)
Ariel is an Israeli settlement and a city in the West Bank. Ariel was established in 1978. Its population at the end of 2009 was 17,600, including 7,000 immigrants who came to Israel after 1990. It is the fourth largest Jewish settlement city in the West Bank., after Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit,...

 - will effectively divide Palestinian territory into cantons or Bantustans." Israel says the solution is a by-pass road similar to those used daily by Israelis to avoid driving through hostile Arab areas. The 07 development project in east Ma'ale Adumim was supported by Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....

 in 2005. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev
Mark Regev
Mark Regev , formerly Mark Freiberg, is an Australian-born Israeli diplomat and media spokesman. He is currently the spokesman for the Prime Minister of Israel and an advisor on foreign press and public affairs, a position he has held since his appointment by the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert...

 denied the 07 extension plan is a violation of the roadmap peace plan, under which Israel agreed to freeze all building in the settlements.

In 2008, a project to link Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem, known as the E1 project
E1 (Jerusalem)
E1, also named "Mevasseret Adumim" , is a mostly empty area of in Ma'ale Adumim. It is bordered by the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem to the west, Abu Dis to the southwest, Kedar to the south, Ma'ale Adumim to the east, and Almon to the north...

 - short for "East 1," as it appears on old zoning maps - was criticized by the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

 and US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

. As a result, a plan for 3,500-5,000 homes in Mevaseret Adumim was frozen. The new Judea and Samaria District police headquarters, formerly located in the Ras el-Amud neighborhood of Jerusalem, was completed in May 2008.

Ma'ale Adumim is considered illegal under international law according to Fourth Geneva Convention (article 49), which prohibits an occupying power transferring citizens from its own territory to occupied territory. Israel maintains that international conventions relating to occupied land do not apply to the West Bank because they were not under the legitimate sovereignty of any state in the first place. This view was rejected law by the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

 and the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...

.

Housing shortage

One of the purposes of establishing Ma'aleh Adumim was to supply affordable housing for young couples who could not afford the high cost of homes in Jerusalem. Although the municipal boundaries cover 48,000 dunams, the city has been suffering from an acute housing shortage since 2009 due to the freeze on new construction. Most of the real-estate market in 2011 is in second-hand properties.

Archaeology

The Byzantine monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 of Martyrius
Monastery of Martyrius
The Monastery of Martyrius, now located in the center of the Israeli settlement and city of Ma'ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, was one of the most important centres of monastic life in the Judean Desert during the Byzantine period.-History:...

, once the most important monastic centre in the Judean Desert in the early Christian era, is located in Ma'ale Adumim. Other archeological sites on the outskirts of Ma'ale Adumim include the Khan el-Hatruri, also known as the Inn of the Good Samaritan (cited in a parable by Jesus, in Luke 10:30-37), and the remains of the Monastery of St. Euthymius
Laura of Euthymius
The Laura of Euthymius was a laura in Palestine founded by Saint Euthymius the Great in 420.The laura, a cluster of cells for hermits around a church, was located in Adummim on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and was based on the layout of the Pharan lavra, with small cells. Its church was...

 built in the 5th century and destroyed by the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...

 sultan Baybars. Khan al-Ahmar
Khan Al-Ahmar
Khan al-Ahmar is a Bedouin encampment in the West Bank, between the Israeli settlements Ma'ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim. In 2010, there were 100 Bedouin living there in tents and ramshackle huts....

 is a 13th century travelers inn
Caravanserai
A caravanserai, or khan, also known as caravansary, caravansera, or caravansara in English was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...

 for pilgrims on the route between Jerusalem and Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

 via Nabi Musa
Nabi Musa
Nabi Musa is the name of a site in the Judean desert that popular Palestinian folklore associates with Moses. It is also the name of a seven-day long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the old Orthodox Greek calendar...

.

Landmarks

The Moshe Castel Museum showcases the work of Israeli artist Moshe Castel
Moshe Castel
-Biography:Moshe Elazar Castel born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine, in 1909, to Rabbi Yehuda Castel and his wife Rachel. The family was descended from Spanish Jews from Castile who immigrated to the Holy Land after the explusion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. His father was born in Hebron. He...

. Mizpe Edna is a lookout at the Shofar and Hallil junction.

External links

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