Tekoa, Gush Etzion

For other places with similar names, see Tekoa.
Tekoa
תְּקוֹעַ

View of Herodium from Tekoa
Tekoa
Coordinates: 31°39′10.86″N 35°13′44.52″E / 31.6530167°N 35.2290333°E / 31.6530167; 35.2290333Coordinates: 31°39′10.86″N 35°13′44.52″E / 31.6530167°N 35.2290333°E / 31.6530167; 35.2290333
Council Gush Etzion
Region Judea
Founded 1975, 1977
Founded by Nahal
Population (2015) 3,671[1]

Tekoa (Hebrew: תְּקוֹעַ) is an Israeli Jewish communal town and Israeli settlement in the northern Judaean Mountains, located 20 km northeast of Hebron and 16 km south of Jerusalem. Tekoa is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.[2] The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[3] Situated in the immediate vicinity is the Palestinian village of Tuqu'.

History

Founding

View of Tekoa from Herodion.

Tekoa was established in 1975 as a Nahal outpost in the vicinity of the Arab village of Tuqu'. In 1977 it was handed over to civilian residents.[4] The town is located 5 miles south of Bethlehem at the foot of Herodion ("Herod's Palace").

Archaeology and Landmarks

The Archaeological site of El Khiam is located in this area.[5]

Letters of Shimon Ben Kosiba, leader of the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt against Roman occupation (132-135 CE), were found in a valley near Tekoa.[6]

Ancient caves and caves that were dug in the karst chalk stone of the Nachal Tekoa or Wadi Khureitun, named after Chariton the Confessor, by monks from the Lavras of Saint Chariton and his successor Euthymius the Great, are right behind Tekoa.

Outside Tekoa various ruins were seen in the mid-19th-century. These included the walls of houses, cisterns, broken columns and heaps of building stones, some of which had “bevelled edges” which supposedly indicated Hebrew origin.[7]

Byzantine ceramics have been found,[8] and in the ancient site of nearby Tekoa ruins (Arab.: Khirbet Tuqu' ), there are the remains of a Byzantine church and monastery.[9]

Geography

Tekoa is located 2,177 feet (670 meters) above sea level on a ridge surrounded on three sides by a deep canyon, Nahal Tekoa, that runs east to the Dead Sea.[10] It has a mean annual rainfall of 410mm, an average annual temperature of 17 degree Celsius, and an average annual humidity of c. 60 percent.[11]

Demographics

Tekoa is populated by a mix of religious Zionists and secular Israelis. Many new immigrants from the former Soviet Union also live in Tekoa. In 2015, the population numbered 3,671.

The former chief rabbi of Tekoa, Menachem Froman z"l, a founding member of Gush Emunim,[6] maintained close ties with PLO and Hamas leaders.[12] Rabbi Froman taught at the local hesder yeshiva headed by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.[13] Froman died in 2013.

Economy

In 1989, the Tekoa Agro-Technology Farm established in 1986 was named Enterprise of the Year by the Israeli Journal of Agricultural Settlements.[14]

Arab-Israeli conflict

In May 2001, two Israeli boys from Tekoa, Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.[15][16][17]

Later in September of that same year, Sarit Amrani (26) was shot dead in Tekoa when terrorists opened fire on her family's car. Her husband Shai was seriously injured, while their three children, Zohar (4), Ziv (2) and Raz (3 months), who were in the car at the time of the shooting survived physically unharmed.[18]

In February 2002, Aharon Gorov (46) and Avraham Fish (65) were killed in a shooting attack near Tekoa. Fish's daughter Tamar Lipschitz, who was nine months pregnant, was shot in the stomach. After being rushed to the hospital, she delivered a daughter through Caesarean section. Fish's granddaughter, Karine (4), suffered from shock. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.[19][20]

Notable residents

References

  1. ↑ http://www.inn.co.il/Articles/Article.aspx/14370
  2. ↑ http://www.gush-etzion.org.il/communities.asp
  3. ↑ "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  4. ↑ Nahal settlements [Hebrew]
  5. ↑ Dave Winter (1999). Israel handbook: with the Palestinian Authority areas. Footprint Travel Guides. pp. 252–. ISBN 978-1-900949-48-4. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  6. 1 2 KERSHNER, ISABEL (December 5, 2008). "From an Israeli Settlement, a Rabbi’s Unorthodox Plan for Peace". NYTimes.com (in print on December 6, 2008, on page A8 of the New York edition) (The New York Times). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  7. ↑ William Aldis Wright; Edmonds & Remnants (1865). A concise dictionary of the Bible for the use of families and students. John Murray. p. 924. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  8. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, p. 928
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ Tekoa geography
  11. ↑ "Tuqu' Town Profile", Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem. 2008. Retrieved on 2012-03-13.
  12. ↑ Video of Rabbi Menachem Froman signing the Froman-Amayreh Accord
  13. ↑ http://www.gush-etzion.org.il/tekoa.asp
  14. ↑ Tekoa Agro-Technology Ltd.
  15. ↑ "Ya'acov (Kobi) Mandell, Yosef (Yossi) Ish-Ran, May 9, 2001 // In Memory of the Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism in Israel". mfa.gov.il. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  16. ↑ "The Deadly Reality of Palestinian Rock Throwing". Israel Defense Forces. 2014-02-24. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Three books on terrorism listed the murders. Barry M. Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin (31 December 2007). Chronologies of modern terrorism. M.E. Sharpe. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-7656-2047-7. Retrieved 11 March 2011.,Harvey W. Kushner (4 December 2002). Encyclopedia of terrorism. SAGE Publications. p. 467. ISBN 978-0-7619-2408-1. Retrieved 11 March 2011., Tatah Mentan (30 October 2004). Dilemmas Of Weak States: Africa And Transnational Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century (Contemporary Perspectives on Developing Societies). Ashgate Publishing. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-7546-4200-8. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  18. ↑ Sarit Amrani
  19. ↑ Avraham Fish
  20. ↑ Aharon Gorov

Bibliography

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External links

Kibbutzim
Community settlements
Outposts
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