Mevo Horon Explained

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Mevo Horon
Founded:1970
Founded By:Ezra members
District:js
Region:West Bank
Council:Mateh Binyamin
Affiliation:Poalei Agudat Yisrael
Pushpin Map:Israel binyamin
Pushpin Mapsize:250
Coordinates:31.8492°N 35.0358°W

Mevo Horon (Hebrew: מְבוֹא חוֹרוֹן||Horon Gateway) is an Israeli settlement and religious moshav shitufi in the West Bank. Located near Latrun and Modi'in, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. In it had a population of .

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[1]

History

The village was established in 1970 by members of the Ezra youth movement and was the first village in the Mateh Binyamin council area. It moved to the present site in 1974.[2] It is named after the biblical Beit Horon (Joshua 10:10), which was located near the modern Israeli village and settlement of Beit Horon.

Some Palestinians managed to return to the area after their expulsion from the villages of Yalo, Imwas and Bayt Nuba on whose lands the moshav was established, and gained employment as farm hands at Mevo Horon in the 1980s. During the early stages of the Al Aqsa Intifada, when the main checkpoint into Israel was moved several kilometers east of Mevo Horon and further into the West Bank, the moshav made arrangements to pick up these workers at the new checkpoint, though since they lacked Israeli work permits, difficulties arose.[3]

On June 7, 2018, residents of Mevo Horon and Israeli descendants of Dutch Jews inaugurated the town's Chasdei Enosh synagogue, which is an exact replica of the synagogue that once stood in Terborg, in the Netherlands, blown up by the Nazis in early 1945.[4]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: The Geneva Convention . BBC News . 10 December 2009 . 27 November 2010.
  2. Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.325, (English)
  3. Tobias Kelly, Returning to Palestine: Confinement and Displacement Under the Israeli Occupation, Stef Jansen, Staffan Lofving (eds.) Struggles For Home: Violence, Hope and the Movement of People, Berghahn Books, 2012 pp.25-41 pp.31-35.
  4. "Replica of Dutch synagogue destroyed in WWII opens near Jerusalem" JTA June 13, 2018 https://www.jta.org/2018/06/13/news-opinion/replica-dutch-synagogue-destroyed-wwii-opens-near-jerusalem