Bahan, Israel

Bahan is situated in northeastern Hefer Valley, within the jurisdiction of the Hefer Valley Regional Council.[8][2] The locality is assigned code 2043.[4] It is placed in the Central District, Sharon subdistrict.[3] The nearby town of Bat Hefer lies close to the kibbutz.[5]

The settlement occupies a strategically sensitive position. A Maariv opinion piece argues that Bahan stands in a corridor measuring roughly 14.5–20 kilometers wide between the Mediterranean and Jordan, and that the area has long been considered a potential avenue through which a hostile force descending from the Samaria hills could sever the land connection between northern Israel and the country's center and south.[6]

Official Israeli records date Bahan's founding to 1953.[4] A Maariv opinion article places the founding in 1954 and describes the kibbutz as established on the Green Line seam, opposite the Samaria hills, which were then under Jordanian control.[6] Bahan was listed as a kibbutz in a 2015 government report.[1] The Maariv article, however, describes the community today as largely a community settlement, with only the original core retaining a kibbutz character.[6]

During the first two days of the Six-Day War in June 1967, Bahan was heavily shelled. Lieutenant Colonel Yaakov (Yankele) Kafri, who had been posted to defend the Sharon region, was killed on the war's second day by a direct Jordanian artillery strike. The article identifies him as the only Israeli fatality in the battle for Bahan.[6]

In 2022, Bahan had a population of 1,147, comprising 1,141 residents classified as “Jews and others,” including 1,115 Jews, and 6 Arabs.[3] An earlier locality list recorded 1,062 residents, although the specific reference year is not stated in the document.[4] An Encyclopedia.com row rendered as “Ba?an,” apparently referring to Bahan, listed 246 inhabitants on December 31, 2004. Because the name is corrupted, the identification is not certain; if the row is Bahan, the figure indicates considerable growth by 2022.[7]

Bahan is one of three Hefer Valley communities adjacent to the separation barrier, the others being Yad Hanna and Bat Hefer. Together, those three communities had approximately 7,500 residents as of a 2024 report.[8]

A Maariv account describes Hill 82 above Bahan as a strategic overlook named for its elevation of 82 meters above sea level. The hill preserves parts of a defensive line built after the 1956 Sinai Campaign, including trenches, three bunkers, and an underground rest room that linked sections of the fortifications. A recently exposed room displays an account of Yaakov Kafri's life and death.[6]

The account says Bahan resident Hillel Tselseris has worked to restore and maintain the site after learning that the officer killed there had not been adequately commemorated. He recalled asking himself how the community had failed to remember Kafri. The hill also includes a lookout commemorating Captain Assaf Master, a Bahan resident killed during the Swords of Iron war.[6]

Bahan's proximity to the separation barrier along the seam between Israel and the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — has made security a recurring concern for residents and local authorities.[9][8] In 2002, the head of the Hefer Valley Regional Council identified Bahan and Yad Hanna as kibbutzim close to the seam line and called for electronic fences and barriers around both communities, citing discussions that had begun as far back as 1994.[9]

Following the October 7, 2023 attacks, Hefer Valley Regional Council head Galit Shaul stated that a security review had revealed shortcomings in existing defenses. The council judged the current wall and barrier insufficient for possible threat scenarios and formally requested a permanent defense line along with additional physical obstacles to protect Bahan, Yad Hanna, and Bat Hefer.[8]

Construction of a residential expansion near Bahan began in 2006. The kibbutz contracted with Yerok Bahan, a company owned by developer Aviv Shaked, to market and sell 174 housing units in the expansion area. Calcalist reported that eight plots were in territory claimed by the neighboring local council of Zemer rather than within Bahan's jurisdiction, and that construction had begun on some plots. Zemer council head Samir Darwish separately described the dispute as involving 15 housing units on two parcels.[2]

Zemer's inspectors issued administrative stop-work orders to residents in the affected area. Darwish questioned how the plan had cleared local, district, and national planning review and said his council was seeking payments of approximately 100,000 shekels per housing unit from the affected residents.[2] Meanwhile, Hefer Valley Regional Council maintained that the boundaries between the two councils had been set when Zemer's communities formed a local council in 1988 and that the expansion plan had been duly approved by planning authorities.[2]

Negotiations over a land exchange were under way at the time of reporting. Hefer Valley had proposed roughly 55 dunams of agricultural land to Zemer in exchange for formalizing the boundary adjustment, a process that would require approval from both councils and the interior minister.[2] One resident said the buyers had followed the Administration's instructions and obtained permits, adding: “Now, because of the authorities' mistake, we are the ones suffering.”[2]