Kfar Etzion

In January 1927, the Zikhron David society, a group of Orthodox Jews from the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, established a small farming community, Migdal Eder, on land near to the present site of Kfar Etzion.{{cite book | last1 = Kark | first1 = Ruth | last2 = Oren-Nordheim | first2 = Michal | title = Jerusalem and its Environs; Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages 1800–1948 | publisher = The Hebrew University Magnes Press | year = 2001 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzOAxmHDzHUC | pages = 342–345| isbn = 0814329098 }} The name was taken from a verse in the Bible, Genesis 35:21, which referred to a tower of the same name. A group of 15 families, including 12 Yemenite families, settled on the land. The farming outcomes were very disappointing and pleas for help from the Zionist Executive and the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association were rejected. After one year, only 7 families remained. At the onset of the 1929 Palestine riots, the remaining settlers fled and local Arabs destroyed the buildings. Residents of the neighboring Palestinian village of Beit Ummar sheltered the farmers, but they could not return to their land.{{Cite web|url=http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/gush-etzion|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160628142645/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/gush-etzion|url-status=dead|title=Settlements in Focus: Gush Etzion|archivedate=28 June 2016}}

The El haHar ("to the mountain") settlement company was founded by Shmuel Zvi Holzmann in 1933.{{cite book | last1 = Kark | first1 = Ruth | last2 = Oren-Nordheim | first2 = Michal | title = Jerusalem and its Environs; Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages 1800–1948 | publisher = The Hebrew University Magnes Press | year = 2001 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzOAxmHDzHUC | pages = 338, 358| isbn = 0814329098 }} Holzmann bought land, mostly from Migdal Eder, and leased land from a nearby Russian convent. The intention was to found three settlements: Kfar Etzion, Pri-Amal and Ya'ar Etzion. The name "Etzion" was a play on Holzmann's own name, as "Holz" means "wood" in German and Yiddish, while "etz ({{lang|he|עץ}})" means "wood" in Hebrew.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} However workers preparing the site left in 1936 due to the beginning of the Arab Revolt. Much of the land was purchased by the Jewish National Fund to keep it in Jewish hands.

In the early 1940s, additional land in the area was purchased by the Jewish National Fund, including some from a Benedictine monastery and some from Arabs (despite the 1939 White Paper's ban on land sales to Jews in the area). The site of Kfar Etzion was settled in 1943 by Kvutzat Avraham of the religious Hapoel HaMizrachi movement. During the next four years, three additional kibbutzim were founded in the area, creating what became known as the Etzion bloc. All of them were destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the entire area came under Jordanian rule.

The kibbutzim held off the attacks for ten days until Kfar Etzion fell on 14 May 1948. In the fighting, 157 Jewish defenders died, including a number who were the subjects of the Kfar Etzion massacre, killed after surrendering.{{cite book |author=Benny Morris |title=The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zL_1icJwNP0C|date=3 October 2003|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-989-9|page=269}} The other three kibbutzim surrendered. The inhabitants there were taken as prisoners of war and released nine months later.Moshe Dayan, 'The Story of My Life'. {{ISBN|0-688-03076-9}}. Page 130. Describes negotiations with Abdulla el-Tel about the release of 670 Israelis in the "Jordan POW camp at Mafrak." He states that 320 of them were from the Etzion bloc, including 85 women.

File:The four kibbutzes of the Gush Etzion Bloc (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on the 1943 Survey of Palestine map of Beit Fajjar.jpg|The four kibbutzes of the Gush Etzion at the time of the 1948 war (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on a 1943 Survey of Palestine map

File:PikiWiki Israel 7264 Kfar Etzion water tank in 1943.jpg|Kfar Etzion water tank, 1943

File:Surif 1945.jpg|Kfar Etzion (Kefir 'Etsyon) 1945, 1:250,000

File:כפר עציון - עבודת יעור-JNF001375.jpeg|Kfar Etzion 1945

File:כפר עציון - נוה עובדיה-JNF045374.jpeg|Neve Ovadia library exterior 1946

File:כפר עציון - אולם קריאה בבית נוה עובדיה ע"ש אברהם כץ חבר כפר עציון שנהרג ביום העליה לחניתה.-JNF045375.jpeg|Kfar Neve Ovadia reading hall

File:כפר עציון - מראה חלקי.-JNF045372.jpeg|Kfar Etzion 1946

File:כפר עציון - בהגנה על כפר עציון-JNF032967.jpeg|Kfar Etzion 1947

File:Kfar Etzion 1947.jpg|Kfar Etzion, 1947

File:Kfar Etzion.jpg|Kfar Etzion 1948

In 1967 Israel occupied the West Bank in the Six-Day War. The Israeli cabinet decided to re-establish the settlement of Kfar Etzion despite receiving legal advice that establishing such settlements in occupied territory would be illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.Donald Macintyre, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080611213726/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-memo-shows-israel-knew-six-day-war-was-illegal-450410.html Secret memo shows Israel knew Six Day War was illegal]. Independent, 26 May 2007. (on web.archive) A key figure identified with Kfar Etzion's reestablishment after 1967 is Hanan Porat, who lived on the kibbutz as a child prior to its destruction in 1948.{{cite news|last=Bronner|first=Ethan|title=Hanan Porat, Jewish Settlement Leader, Dies at 67|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/middleeast/hanan-porat-jewish-settlement-leader-dies-at-67.html|access-date=8 September 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 October 2011|author-link=Ethan Bronner}}{{cite news|title=Hanan Porat, 1943 – 2011 / Pioneer of settler movement|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hanan-porat-1943-2011-pioneer-of-settler-movement-1.388190|access-date=8 September 2012|newspaper=Haaretz|date=5 October 2011|author=Lis, Jonathan|author2=Levinson, Chaim}}

Another figure involved in Kfar Etzion's resettlement is Elyashiv Knohl, a rabbi of the community whose father fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and was captured during the war by the Jordanians. According to Knohl, Kfar Etzion's original settlers were socialists, and members of the kibbutz continue to channel their incomes to a joint account. Today Kfar Etzion houses a museum and archive documenting the history of Gush Etzion.

In the 2013 Middle East cold snap a meter of snow fell on the Kfar Etzion area.

Residents of Kfar Etzion earn their livelihood growing cherries, flowers, olives, almonds, and grapes. Some raise chickens, and others work in Jerusalem. As of 2012 there was a large clothing store on the settlement. In 2012 the price of a 120-square-meter home on the settlement was {{Nowrap|ILS1.1 million}} while the price of a 200-square-meter home was {{Nowrap|ILS1.8 million}}.

• Lone Tree Brewery

{{reflist}}

• Yossi Katz, Between Jerusalem and Hebron: Jewish Settlement in the Pre-State Period

• [http://www.k-etzion.co.il/ Official website] {{in lang|he}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131013184221/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/kfar-etzion Peace Now fact sheet]

{{Gush Etzion Regional Council}}

{{Jewish villages depopulated during the Israeli War of Independence}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Kibbutzim

Category:Religious Kibbutz Movement

Category:Populated places established in 1927

Category:Populated places established in 1934

Category:Populated places established in 1943

Category:Populated places disestablished in 1948

Category:Populated places established in 1967

Category:Religious Israeli settlements

Category:Villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict

Category:Jewish villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Category:Gush Etzion Regional Council

Category:Yemeni-Jewish culture in Israel

Category:1927 establishments in Mandatory Palestine

Category:1934 establishments in Mandatory Palestine

Category:1943 establishments in Mandatory Palestine

Category:1948 disestablishments in the West Bank Governorate

Category:1967 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate

Category:Israeli settlements in the West Bank