Ma'on, Mount Hebron

Ma'on (Hebrew: מָעוֹן‎) is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav shitufi in the West Bank. Located in the Judean Hills south of Hebron and north of Beersheba, it falls under the jurisdiction of Har Hevron Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 595.

Ma'on

מָעוֹן‎
Ma'on Settlement
Ma'on
Coordinates: 31°24′48″N 35°09′50″E
DistrictJudea and Samaria Area
CouncilHar Hebron
RegionWest Bank
AffiliationAmana
Founded1981
Founded byNahal
Population
 (2019)[1]
595

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli and US[2] governments dispute this.[3]

Etymology

The word 'Ma'on' in Hebrew means 'dwelling'. It refers to a biblical village said to stand on the borderlands of the desert, in the highlands of Judah, which is mentioned in Joshua 15:55, identified in modern times with Khirbet Ma'in, about 3 km to the west.[4]

Geography
View towards Har Hevron

Ma'on is located in the southern Judean Hills at about 863 m above sea level.[4]

History

The Arab village of Ma'in was a conical settlement on a hill, 1.25 kilometres south of Carmel, and 3 kilometres east of Susiya, with the ruins of a castle still visible, and cisterns, lying about 9 miles south south east of Hebron.[5]

The Israeli outpost was first established in 1981[6] as a paramilitary Nahal outpost. It is located on one side of the main road between At-Tuwani and Tuba, east of At-Tuwani. The first civilian population, members of the Orthodox Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva settled there in 1982.

Tell Ma'on near Hebron

Settlement expansion

In 2001, Jewish settlers established the outpost Havat Ma'on (also named Hill 833 or Tel Abu Jundiya) on the other side of the main road.[7] In 2003, settlers took over Palestinian land near the road, which was abandoned due to ongoing settlers attacks;[7] on 25 December, several new outposts were set up.[8]

In 2005/2006, the settlers expanded a chicken farm south of Hill 833. In 2008, the location was fenced, impeding vehicular traffic on the road. In 2009, new caravans were placed near Ma'on, on a slope north of the road and laid the foundations for 12 buildings. In March 2010, the settlers built houses in the new outpost.[7]

Settler violence

In the late 1990s, Palestinians using the road between Ma'on and Hill 833 increasingly came under attack from hostile settlers. Eventually, the Palestinians were forced to abandon their use of the road and nearby lands.[9] In 2010, United Nations OCHA reported frequent attacks by settlers from the Ma'on outpost on schoolchildren who used the road.[10]

In 2011, Christian Peacemaker Teams reported 5 attacks by settlers from the outpost Havat Ma'on on internationals and Palestinians within 30 days. On 13 July, three settler youth attacked Palestinian shepherds. On 18 July 3 masked settlers armed with clubs attacked two shepherds and members of the At-Tuwani peace team.[11] In July 2012, Operazione Colomba reported an attack by masked settlers on a child and volunteers of "Operation Dove".[12] In January 2014, settlers threatened shepherds. At the end, the army arrested a shepherd. The following days, Israeli soldiers chased shepherds in the same area.[13] In November 2014, the Israeli army was still escorting schoolchildren from Tubas to school in At-Tuwani and home, with no plans to cancel the twice daily escort, because of the risk of settler attacks.[14]

Agriculture

Ma'on and nearby settlement Carmel jointly operate a dairy with about four hundred cows. The average daily production per head is about 38 liters of milk.

According to The New York Times, the settlers of Ma'on "luxuriates in water piped in by the Israeli authorities" while the nearby Palestinian locality of Tuba "struggles to collect rainwater".[15]

The village and its residents are working as a teachers, social workers, farmers, and has also a local winery.[16] The residents of Havat Ma'on but also those from Ma'on itself are mostly working in agriculture, raising sheep, chickens and cows and working as a shepherd, as well as farming grapes, cherries, tomatoes, potatoes, almonds, wheat and olives.[17]

Notable residents

Udi Davidi, Israeli singer, musician, lyricist and composer who lives on a farm in Ma'on raising sheep and composing music.[18]

References
  1. "Population in the Localities 2019" (XLS). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/world/middleeast/trump-israel-west-bank-settlements.html
  3. "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  4. Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine, Eisenbrauns, 2003 Vol.1 pp.96–97
  5. Carl Friedrich Keil,Commentary on the book of Joshua, T. & T. Clark, 1857 p.386
  6. 'Statistics on Settlements and Settler Population,' B'tselem 1 January 2011.
  7. The dangerous road to education Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 28–29. Christian Peacemaker Teams, December 2010.
  8. OCHAoPt, Update for oPt (24 – 30 December 2003), p. 7
  9. A Dangerous Journey:Settler Violence Against Palestinian schoolchildren Under Israeli Military Escort2006-2008 Archived 18 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine, p. 17. CPT/Operation Dove August 2008. On
  10. AREA C HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE PLAN FACT SHEET August 2010 Archived 13 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 30 August 2010.
    -″For example, attacks by settlers from Maon outpost, on 5 – 10-year-old children walking to school from Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed to Tuwani, were so frequent that an army jeep is needed to escort the children to and from school.″
  11. AT-TUWANI: Three settlers of Havat Ma'on attack internationals in Meshakha Valley, South Hebron Hills. CPTnet, 19 July 2011. Including photo's and video.
  12. Havat Ma’on masked settlers traumatized Palestinian child in Humra valley. Operazione Colomba, 30 July 2012
  13. Four Palestinians and two Operation Dove volunteers arrested in South Hebron Hills in last three days. CPT, 20 January 2014
  14. In West Bank, Israeli troops still escort Palestinian children to school, Anne-Marie O'Connor 1 November 2014, The Washington Post
  15. The Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence, by Nicholas D. Kristof, 30 June 2010, The New York Times
  16. Har Hebron Jewish villages Archived 14 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  17. South Hebron Hills settlements received from the state agricultural and grazing areas inside the Green Line – Haaretz Hebrew article
  18. http://www.pirsumeinisa.com/udi.html Archived 30 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
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