Everything about Gush Etzion totally explained
Gush Etzion (literally
bloc of Etzion) refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of
Jerusalem on the northern part of
Mount Hebron in
Judea, and destroyed during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. It also refers to the group of
Israeli settlements established following the 1967
Six-Day War in the same area, by then the
West Bank.
History
First Attempts
The first modern Jewish attempt to settle the area known today as Gush Etzion took place in 1927 by a group of
Yemenite Jews who founded an agricultural village called
Migdal Eder (Hebrew: מגדל עדר), in reference to a biblical location . The location was purchased because it was roughly equidistant from
Bethlehem and
Hebron, and thus fell between the zones of influence of the local Arab clans. Two years later, the
1929 Palestine riots and recurring hostilities forced the group to flee.
In 1935, Jewish businessman Shmuel Holtzmann provided backing for another attempt at settling the area. The initial
kibbutz was named
Kfar Etzion, in his honor ("Etzion" being a Hebraization of "Holtzmann"). The
1936-1939 Arab revolt made life intolerable for the residents, so they returned to Jerusalem in 1937.
The
Jewish National Fund organized a third attempt at settlement in 1943 with the refounding of Kfar Etzion by members of the religious
Mizrachi movement. Despite the tough soil, shortage of potable water, harsh winters, and constant threat of fatal attacks, this group managed to succeed. Their isolation was somewhat relieved by the establishment in 1945 of
Masu'ot Yitzhak and
Ein Tzurim, also populated by young members of the Mizrachi. Against the backdrop of an impending struggle for
Israeli independence and as a show of solidarity, the secular
Hashomer Hatzair founded a fourth kibbutz,
Revadim.
The Siege
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations approved the
Partition Plan. The bloc fell within the area allotted to the Arab state, but the
Haganah command decided not to evacuate the bloc. The Arab hostilities began almost immediately, and travel to Jerusalem became exceedingly difficult. For five months the bloc was besieged, first by Arab
irregulars, and then by the
Jordanian
Arab Legion. Throughout the winter hostilities intensified and several relief convoys from the Haganah in Jerusalem
were decimated by Arab ambushes. In January, the women and children were evacuated with
British assistance. An emergency
reinforcement convoy attempting to march to Gush Etzion under cover of darkness were discovered and killed. Despite some emergency flights by
Piper Cubs out of
Tel Aviv onto an improvised airfield, adequate supplies were not getting in.
On
March 27, land communication with the
Yishuv was severed completely when the
Neve Daniel Convoy was forced to retreat back to Jerusalem. In the following months, Arab irregular forces continued small-scale attacks against the bloc, which the Haganah was able to effectively withstand. At times, the Jewish forces even ambushed Arab military convoys, (and, according to Morris, also Arab civilian traffic and British military convoys
On
12 May, the commander of Kfar Etzion requested from the Central Command in Jerusalem a permission to evacuate the kibbutz, but was told to stay. Later in the day, the Arabs captured the
Russian Orthodox monastery, which the Haganah used as a perimeter fortress for the Kfar Etzion area, killing twenty-four of its thirty-two defenders. On
May 13, a massive attack involving parts of two Arab Legion
infantry companies, light
artillery and local irregular support commenced from four directions. The kibbutz fell within a day, and the Arab forces
massacred the entire population of Kfar Etzion, soldiers and civilians alike, the total number of victims of the final assault and following massacre reaching 250. Only three men and one girl managed to escape.
As a result of the 1967
Six-Day War, Israel controlled the area of the former Etzion Bloc. That year, the children who had been evacuated, now grown, petitioned Israeli
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to allow the reestablishment of Kfar Etzion. Since then, Gush Etzion has continued to grow. The
settlement of
Rosh Tzurim was founded on the former site of Ein Tzurim and Revadim, and Kfar Etzion's poultry houses have been built in the area of Massuot Yitzchak. Many other settlements and two municipalities have been founded in the area of historic Gush Etzion, and its name was taken for the greater
Gush Etzion Regional Council. The Israeli population in the entire area approaches 40,000 residents.
Present
The following is a list of communities in
historic Gush Etzion:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gush Etzion'.
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