Mevo Horon

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Mevo Horon
Mevo Horon is located in the Central West Bank
Mevo Horon
Mevo Horon
Coordinates: 31°50′57″N 35°2′9″E / 31.84917°N 35.03583°E / 31.84917; 35.03583
DistrictJudea and Samaria Area
CouncilMateh Binyamin
RegionWest Bank
AffiliationPoalei Agudat Yisrael
Founded1970
Founded byEzra members
Population
 (2022)[1]
2,669
Websitewww.mevo-horon.org.il
Mevo Horon in 1969

Mevo Horon (Hebrew: מְבוֹא חוֹרוֹן, lit.'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 2022 it had a population of 2,669.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[2]

History

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Image of burned out shell of the old synagogue in Terborg, 1957

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.[3] 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.[4]

On 7 June 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.[5] The original in Terborg was hit by an American bomb on 8 March 1945 and was not reconstructed because there were no longer ten adult Jewish men in Terborg in order to reestablish services. In 1958, after the demolition of the ruins, an office building was erected at the location. A stolperstein marks the former location of the synagogue in Terborg.[6]

Mevo Horon in 2009

References

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  1. ^ "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  2. ^ "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  3. ^ Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.325, ISBN 965-220-186-3 (English)
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Replica of Dutch synagogue destroyed in WWII opens near Jerusalem". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 13 June 2018.
  6. ^ Bruntink, Henri (2024-09-17). "Hoe de Terborgse synagoge herrees in een Israëlische nederzetting". Gelderse Post. Oude IJsselstreek. 88 (38): 18/19.
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