Neve Yaakov - WikiHQ

thumb|350px|Entrance to Neve Yaakov

Neve Yaakov (; also Neve Ya'aqov, lit. Jacob's Oasis) is an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, part of the Israeli-occupied territories, north of the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev and south of the Palestinian locality of al-Ram. Established in 1924 during the period of the British Mandate, it was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The area was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War and a new neighborhood was built nearby, at which time international opposition to its legitimacy began. The international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this, defining it as a neighborhood within the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality, which provides all services. The population of Neve Yaakov is 23,300. Neve Yaakov is one of the Ring Settlements of East Jerusalem. The settlement is also the location of the IDF's Central Command for the West Bank, Jerusalem, Sharon, Gush Dan and Shephelah.

History

thumb|Neve Yaakov 1938

Neve Yaakov was established in 1924 on a parcel of land purchased from Arabs from nearby Beit Hanina by members of the American Mizrachi movement. HaKfar HaIvri Neve Yaakov (The Jewish Village of Neve Yaakov) was named for the leader of the movement, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines (1839–1915). It was an hour's walk to the Old City, where most Jews of Jerusalem lived at the time. Until they were abandoned in 1948, Neve Yaakov and Atarot were the only Jewish settlements north of the Old City. In the course of the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, shots were heard from the Arab side almost every night. The British Mandate government supplied a cache of arms to defend Neve Yaakov, and members of the Zionist Haganah pre-state army moved in to guard the village and its water pipeline.

When the Jordanian Arab Legion advanced toward Jerusalem from the north during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Neve Yaakov and Atarot were abandoned in the wake of advance warning that they were about to be attacked. Atarot was abandoned on May 17, 1948.

225px|right|thumb|Petrie Park in Neve Yaakov

According to ARIJ, Israel has confiscated land from three nearby Palestinian communities in order to re-establish Neve Yaakov:

551 dunams from Beit Hanina,
385 dunams from Hizma,
315 dunums from Al-Ram.

In August 1970 3,500 acres of privately owned and titled Palestinian land was confiscated for "public purposes". On this land, four residential colonies were established including Neve Yaakov with 4,000 apartments. In 1972, a new Israeli neighborhood was constructed on the site of the original village, with 4,900 apartments in high-rise buildings.

Demography

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In 1982, Kiryat Kaminetz, a housing development on the eastern edge of Neve Yaakov named for the Jewish community of Kamenets, Poland destroyed in the Holocaust, was built on the eastern side of the existing neighborhood. Several hundred apartments were populated by young, Haredi Jewish families, many of them from English-speaking countries. In 1992, 700 new apartments were added to Kiryat Kaminetz on the eastern slope of the mountain; this new neighborhood is also known as Neve Yaakov Mizrach (Neve Yaakov East). The latter has a high concentration of Hasidic and Sephardic Haredi families, with a variety of schools and synagogues serving each population.

The Haredi character of the neighborhood has expanded further since 2004 with an influx of newlywed couples, both Israeli-born and immigrants from English-speaking countries, to the older sections of Neve Yaakov. This new trend has been characterized by calling the older section the Mitchared (literally, "Haredization"). In 2009 the Haredi presence in Neve Yaakov was estimated at 900 families.

Figures as of January 2016 from the Jerusalem Municipality showed a total population of 24,225, of which nearly half are under the age of 21. Seventy-six percent of the population is under the age of 40. Neve Yaakov is noted as having the largest kindergarten enrollment in the city. The 2016 figures cite 91 percent as being enrolled in Haredi kindergartens. In the elementary school system, 86 percent of children are enrolled in Haredi schools.