Beitar Illit

Beitar Illit (; officially Betar Illit; ) is a Haredi Jewish-Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, southwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. Beitar Illit is one of Israel's largest and most rapidly growing settlements, and in had a population of .

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

Etymology

Beitar Illit (lit. Upper Beitar) is named after the ancient Jewish fortress city of Betar, whose ruins (known as Khirbet el-Yahud, Arabic for "Ruin of the Jews") lie away, near the Palestinian village of Battir, which preserves the ancient name.

History

According to the ARIJ, Beitar Illit was established in 1985 on land which Israel had confiscated from two nearby Palestinian villages: 3,140 dunams from Husan and 1,166 dunams from Nahalin.

It was established by a small group of young families from the religious Zionist yeshiva of Machon Meir. The first residents settled in 1990. As Beitar Illit began to grow, an influx of Haredi Jewish Bobover families came to predominate, while the original group moved on. The city is now home to many Hasidic groups, including Bobov, Boston, Boyan, Breslov, Karlin-Stolin and Slonim.

Geography

Beitar Illit lies in the northern Judean Hills

Demographics

Numbers

At the end of 2003, the population was 23,000 and in 2006 it was 29,100. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the population in January 2007 was 35,000, an increase of 20% over one year.

With an annual birth rate of 1,800 births, Beitar Illit has the fastest population growth among the West Bank settlements. Approximately 50% of the population is Hasidic.

An estimated 10 percent of the population is English-speaking. There are three English-speaking synagogues, two English-speaking kollels (one for retirees), and an English-speaking women's group.

Culture

One hundred and forty synagogues and 15 mikvehs serve the population.

The city is well known for its landscaping and general cleanliness. There are 94 parks and hundreds of playgrounds in the city. though Israel disputes this. The international community considers Israeli settlements to violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory. The Israeli government disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them.

Controversies

At an international conference in Karlsruhe in November 2010, Jawad Hasan claimed that sewage and urban runoff from Beitar Illit have contaminated the local hydrological system. The Palestinian Authority claims that sewage flows into neighboring Palestinian fields and orchards. Farmers from Wadi Fukin have complained that since the establishment of Beitar Illit in 1985, 11 natural wells have gone dry and they have suffered from overflow from the settlement's backed up sewers. The Israeli government has ordered Beitar Illit to address these sewage problems.

In 2010, the Israeli interior ministry announced plans to build 112 new apartments during a visit by U.S. vice-president Joe Biden, leading to widespread news coverage that embarrassed the Israeli government.

Beitar Illit was one of four cities named in a petition to the Israeli High Court in December 2010 alleging a pattern of discrimination against Sephardi girls in the local Haredi schools. A Beitar Illit spokesman denied the charges, stating that the percentage of Sephardi girls in the school matched the percentage of Sephardim in the settlement.

Notable residents

Moshe Shimon Horowitz, Bostoner Rav of Beitar Illit
Sinai Moshkovitz, Shotz–Beitar Rav
Rivka Ravitz, chief of staff to President of Israel Reuven Rivlin