Giv'on HaHadasha

Giv'on HaHadasha lies in the Judean Hills north of Jerusalem and is administratively listed in the Judea and Samaria district and Ramallah subdistrict.[1][2] The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics assigns it locality code 3644 and lists the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council as its municipal authority.[2] A 2013 study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies labels it on maps of the Jerusalem metropolitan area between Givat Ze'ev and Jerusalem, near localities including Har Shmuel and Beit Hanina.[6] The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research's 2022 metropolitan table similarly includes it among Jerusalem-area localities, organized by metropolitan ring and locality type.[7]

Sources group Giv'on HaHadasha with neighboring communities in several configurations. The Jewish Virtual Library identifies it as one of five communities in the Givat Ze'ev bloc, together with Bet Horon, Givat Ze'ev, Kochav Yaakov, and Psagot, and places the bloc just northwest of Jerusalem.[4] A 2008 Jerusalem Post report characterized it as one of three smaller satellite communities within the broader Givat Ze'ev bloc, alongside Givon and Har Shmuel, and noted the bloc's proximity to the supposed site of the tomb of the Prophet Samuel.[8] The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs groups it within a northern settlement bloc alongside Givat Zeev and Beit Horon, describing the combined population as more than 16,000 in figures presented as current to the end of 2011.[9] An INSS study instead groups it with Givat Zeev and Har Adar under a "North of Jerusalem" classification.[10]

Giv'on HaHadasha was founded in 1980.[3][2] Archival photographs held by the National Library of Israel document stages of the community's development, including images of Rachel and David Eichenbaum. The archive also catalogs a 1977 photograph described as the inauguration of a synagogue in Giv'on.[5] A land-settlement ceremony in 1980 was attended by Ariel Sharon and Knesset member Ariel Horowitz.[5]

Among those connected to the community's early years was Zima Avulnik, described in the archival catalog as one of Giv'on HaHadasha's founders. The catalog documents his funeral and states that he was murdered in Ramallah on 9 Nisan 5745.[5] The archive description also characterizes land used for a water reservoir serving the settlement as expropriated. It identifies Mahmoud Aghrayeb, a resident of Beit Ijza, as having petitioned the High Court of Justice over the matter in the late 1970s and again in 2003, and lists photographs of Palestinian demonstrators supporting the Sabri family.[5]

Population figures for Giv'on HaHadasha vary by source and reference year. The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics' 2022 locality file reports a total population of 996, comprising 934 people classified as Jews and others, including 908 Jews, and 62 Arabs.[2] The Jewish Virtual Library records a population of 1,246 in 2024 and 1,214 in 2025, drawing on CBS data alongside other sources.[3] An earlier Encyclopedia.com entry gives a population of 1,179 as of December 31, 2004.[1] An INSS study, drawing on CBS data mostly from 2009, lists the population as 1,166.[10] A Mako/N12 table dated May 6, 2020, records 1,086 residents and attributes its area and population figures to Points Business Mapping.[11]

The community has been the site of several notable security incidents. On December 1, 2022, rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at Giv'on HaHadasha; an IDF force identified the Palestinian responsible and shot and wounded him.[12]

On July 8, 2024, the body of a Prison Service officer was discovered in his home in Giv'on HaHadasha with multiple stab wounds.[13] On August 27 of that year, the military attorney's office announced that the killing had been classified as a terrorist attack.[13] Ibrahim Mansour, a Hamas-affiliated resident of the nearby village of Bidu, was accused of the murder, with the particulars treated as allegations.[13]

As a community located beyond the pre-1967 Green Line, Giv'on HaHadasha sits within the broader international debate over Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. Most of the world considers West Bank settlements contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention, a position upheld in a controversial 2016 UN Security Council resolution, while Israel maintains that the West Bank is not legally occupied territory because no recognized sovereign held it when Israel assumed control, and that its final status should be resolved through negotiations.[14]

A 2020 Jerusalem Post report described a Palestinian family's home as falling within the settlement's administrative boundaries but outside its perimeter fence, surrounded by a six-meter barrier with a single entrance and exit. The family said it had difficulty leaving, while a Giv'on HaHadasha resident told the BBC that the family had chosen its location and that the land belonged to the State of Israel; these competing claims were not independently adjudicated in the report.[15] The National Library archive description also lists a High Court petition filed by a resident of Beit Ijza contesting the expropriation of land for a water reservoir serving the settlement.[5]