Elazar (Israeli Settlement)

Elazar is situated within the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, between Jerusalem and Hebron in the Judean hills.[1] A 2023 report placed it approximately 11 miles south of Jerusalem and just west of Efrat, while an Encyclopedia.com locality table associated it with the Gush Etzion Regional Council.[2][3] The National Library of Israel lists Elazar among 22 settlements in the wider Gush Etzion area and reports a regional population exceeding 70,000.[6]

In a theoretical study of possible arrangements for Jerusalem's broader metropolitan area, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies grouped Elazar with Har Gilo, Efrat, Neve Daniel, Rosh Tzurim, Alon Shvut, Kfar Etzion, Migdal Oz, Nahal Gvaot, and Betar Illit in what it called "Jerusalem's southern complex of suburbs." The study described the group's orientation as being toward the Adulam District and expressly presented its territorial alternatives as theoretical models rather than recommendations.[7]

The broader Gush Etzion area has a history of modern Jewish settlement predating Israel's establishment. Four Jewish communities were established there between 1943 and 1947 and were destroyed during the War of Independence. After Israel regained control of the area in the 1967 Six-Day War, Kfar Etzion was reestablished by a group that included descendants of the earlier settlers.[1]

Sources differ slightly on Elazar's founding date. The Jewish Virtual Library and an Encyclopedia.com locality table list 1975, while a separate Encyclopedia.com entry gives 1976 and says the community was founded by American immigrants.[1][3] The latter source says Elazar began as a moshav shittufi before becoming an ordinary community. Its name commemorates Eleazar ben Mattathias, brother of Judah Maccabee, who was killed during the war with the Greeks at nearby Bet Zekharyah.[4]

Recorded population figures show substantial growth since Elazar's founding. Encyclopedia.com reported 796 residents in 2002 and 993 at the end of 2004.[4][3] The Jewish Virtual Library lists 747 residents in 1999, 1,837 in 2009, 2,614 in 2020, 2,612 in 2021, 2,701 in 2022, 2,845 in 2023, 2,893 in 2024, and 2,870 in 2025.[5]

A separate Washington Institute report lists Elazar with a population of 2,616 and places it west of the security barrier in Gush Etzion, although its table does not identify the year of that individual count.[8] Despite differences in reference dates, the available figures document a community that grew to nearly four times its 1999 population by 2025.

The Jewish Virtual Library classifies Elazar as a religious community.[1] Reference sources use differing terms for its communal organization: one Encyclopedia.com entry says it began as a moshav shittufi and later became an ordinary community, while another table classifies it as a moshav.[4][3] A 2011 Washington Institute report instead grouped it with communal agricultural communities, stating: "Several, such as Migdal Oz, Rosh Tzurim, and Elazar, are communal agricultural communities known as kibbutzim."[9]

In 2007, Elazar community committee chair David Nachman characterized the community as having a comfortable, open, and tolerant atmosphere and said that its residents held differing political views. This was his description in response to a local incident rather than the result of an independent survey.[10]

Near Elazar lies the Biyar Aqueduct, an underground water tunnel that carried water from the Gush Etzion area to Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.[11] The aqueduct is attributed to King Herod. A 2021 travel report said that the site had been upgraded and reopened approximately four years earlier, with an underground audiovisual presentation added for visitors.[11]

Netiv Ha'avot, a neighborhood of Elazar, became the focus of legal proceedings over structures that encroached on privately owned Palestinian land. In October 2017, Mako reported that the High Court of Justice had ordered the evacuation and demolition of 17 structures near Elazar. The state sought to spare six buildings because only a few meters of the land beneath them were privately owned, but the court rejected the request and ordered the work completed by March 2018.[12] A U.S. Department of State report subsequently described 15 homes as unpermitted and partially built on private Palestinian land.[13]

The evacuation was carried out in June 2018 and lasted approximately 12 and a half hours. Around 2,400 police officers participated, 15 families were evacuated, 12 officers sustained slight injuries, one was moderately injured, and two youths were arrested.[14] Most of the operation proceeded without significant resistance, although clashes occurred during the removal of the last house.[14] Contemporary Ynet reporting and a later JNS account date the demolition to June 2018.[14][2] The State Department report records the event as occurring in July and says the government authorized compensation, temporary lodging in nearby Alon Shvut, and funds for rebuilding elsewhere.[13]

In 2023, the Civil Administration's Higher Planning Committee approved more than 400 housing units in Elazar's Netiv Ha'avot neighborhood. Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne'eman said hundreds of homes would be built at the location of the demolished houses.[2]

In 2019, siblings Nahum and Noam Nevis, both residents of Elazar, were struck by a Palestinian terrorist near a bus station close to the community. Nahum, aged 18, was left in very serious condition, while his 20-year-old sister Noam sustained mild injuries. An undercover police officer driving behind the vehicle shot and killed the terrorist after the vehicle overturned.[15]

The legal and political status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is contested. An Institute for National Security Studies analysis says the position accepted by the majority of international jurists, reflected in the International Court of Justice's 2004 advisory opinion and UN Security Council Resolution 2334, is that the settlements violate international law. The same analysis describes Israel's counterarguments concerning the applicability and interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[16] The ICJ's July 2024 advisory opinion likewise concluded that Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank violates international law; the opinion was advisory and non-binding, and the Israeli government rejected its conclusions.[17] In November 2019, the United States announced that establishing Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank was not, per se, inconsistent with international law.[16]

The dispute exists alongside a documented history of Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion before the establishment of Israel, including communities founded between 1943 and 1947 and renewed after 1967.[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the 1993 Israel–PLO agreements designated the final status of Israeli settlements as a matter requiring agreement between the parties.[18]