Ma'ale Rehav'am

History

With assistance from Amana, Ma'ale Rehav'am was founded in 2001 after, and in reaction to, the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi for whom it is named, who was an ardent supporter of settlements in the occupied territories. Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on land that was declared state land belonging to Nokdim and originally zoned for that purpose. It is located inside an area designated as a nature preserve.

On 16 May 2006, Ma'ariv ran an article claiming that Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on private Palestinian land. Residents filed a suit for slander, and the Jerusalem court ruled on 25 June 2009 that Maariv had to publish a correction and compensate the residents with 1,000 shekels each.

As its mother settlement Nokdim, the small 'mixed' community of about thirty families (February 2013) stands out in that non-observant and religiously observant Jewish families live together. In general, while large Israeli towns and cities have heterogeneous populations, small communities usually are either homogeneous non-religious or religious. The community is based on the ecovillage model which has taken shape in olive and almond groves, a muscat grape vineyard, and an orchard growing thirty-five different fruit varieties. Most residents live in mobile homes, but there also are a few permanent structures.

On 13 February 2013, six or nine, depending on the sources, mobile homes were torn down in Ma'ale Rehav'am before the High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction forbidding the Israeli Civil Administration from demolishing homes in the outpost. In the riots following the demolition, several protesters were arrested. In a so-called "price tag" attack, the ancient Muslim Mamilla cemetery in west Jerusalem was vandalized the following day, apparently in retaliation over the demolitions in Ma'ale Rehav'am. In May 2014, the Israeli government decided to evacuate ten buildings in the settlement while giving Israeli authorization to the remainder.

References

References

1. (11 November 2005). "Gush Etzion. Settlements in Focus. Vol. 1, Issue 14". Americans for Peace Now.
2. (10 December 2009). "The Geneva Convention". BBC News.
3. (8 June 2009). "Israeli outposters vow to stay". BBC News.
4. Itamar Fleishman. (13 February 2013). "IDF razes Gush Etzion homes; 4 families evicted". Ynetnews.
5. [http://blog.camera.org/archives/2009/06/maariv_loses_libel_suit_to_set.html Ma'ariv To Compensate Settlers With 20,000 Shekels] {{Webarchive. link. (2009-07-08 CAMERA, 29 June 2009.)
6. Eitam Abadi. (13 February 2013). "6 Homes Demolished in Maale Rehavam". Indy News Israel.
7. Efrat Weiss. (27 May 2009). "Settlers vow to rebuild outposts". Ynetnews.
8. AFP. (January 2018). "Israeli outpost demolition sparks settler protests". France 24.
9. Melanie Lidman. (14 February 2013). "'Price tag' suspects vandalize Muslim cemetery". The Jerusalem Post.
10. Chaim Levinson,[https://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.590489 'IDF to evacuate 28 buildings in West Bank settlements,'] [[Haaretz]] 14 May 2014.