Neria (Israeli Settlement)

Neria is situated in western Binyamin, within the Dolev–Talmonim bloc of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.[2] For years, its formal administrative name was Talmon Bet, designating it officially as a neighborhood of the nearby settlement of Talmon even though it functioned on the ground as a distinct community.[2][4]

This distinction was visible in local signage: a directional sign identified the destination as "Talmon B," while the entrance sign used the name Neria.[2] Resident and local-secretariat member Ariel Vangruber said that his identity card registered him as a Talmon resident, although he considered Neria and Talmon entirely separate places.[2][4] Despite the formal neighborhood designation, Neria appeared in the regional council's list of communities.[4]

The Dolev–Talmonim cluster developed in stages. Dolev was established in the early 1980s, followed by Nahliel and then Talmon in the early 1990s; Neria subsequently developed from Talmon and was formally named Talmon Bet.[2] By 2017, Neria and nearby Harasha were officially classified as Talmon neighborhoods while operating as autonomous communities.[2]

On March 23, 2025, Israel's security cabinet approved splitting Neria and 12 other neighborhoods from their parent settlements and granting them independent settlement status.[3] The reported decision allowed separate budgets and municipal councils. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the change would help the communities "advance and develop."[3]

More than 300 families lived in Neria in 2017, when 40 houses were under construction across the community.[2][4] Demand for housing was described as strong: during 2016, 70 families contacted the community, 45 visited, and 30 were accepted that summer.[2] Newly accepted families lived temporarily in a caravan neighborhood while their permanent homes were built, and Neria had been absorbing about 30 new families each summer for several years.[4]

A Jewish Virtual Library table current to January 1, 2026, separately lists a community spelled "Neriya" with a 2025 population of seven and a founding year of 2025.[5] The table provides no description explaining how that entry relates to the longer-standing community of more than 300 families described in 2017 reporting.[5][4]

Available reporting portrays Neria primarily as a residential religious community. In 2017, Mateh Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Roeh characterized its residents as belonging to the Haredi-national religious current and said the community's physical development potential was nearly exhausted.[4]

Roeh contrasted Neria with the younger, more liberal national-religious residents of nearby Kerem Re'im. He said state land allocated to Neria by the Settlement Division was assigned to Kerem Re'im as a separate community partly because of the groups' different social character.[2][4] The Sde Ephraim agricultural farm is also located near Neria; a February 2021 report connected the farm to an attempted infiltration incident.[6]

In 2014, young residents of Neria renovated the Einot Aner springs area and dedicated it to the memory of Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Fraenkel, and Gilad Shaar, three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and murdered.[7] With donations and assistance from the Mateh Binyamin Council, more than half a million shekels were invested in the site. Its springs and seating areas attracted both Israeli and Palestinian hikers.[7]

The site later became the subject of a legal dispute. Residents of Deir Ammar and Ras Karkar petitioned Israel's High Court in 2017, arguing that the complex stood on privately owned Palestinian land.[7] Ynet reported that the state determined the site had been built on private Palestinian land and that a demolition order came into force. Organizations supporting the petition described Nabi Aner as a Muslim pilgrimage site.[7]

On May 23, 2022, IDF fighters identified two Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles on a road near Neria.[1] One of the individuals was detained and taken for medical treatment.[1]

Neria shares the contested legal and political status of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. Settlements are Jewish communities established after the territory came under Israeli control in the 1967 War.[8] Israel distinguishes between settlement construction permitted by the Defense Ministry on state-owned land and unauthorized outposts built without required permits, often on privately owned Palestinian land.[3] The international community broadly considers the settlements illegal.[3]

The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry condemned the March 2025 decision granting Neria independent status, describing it as a disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions.[3] The ADL notes that Palestinians characterize settlement building as a primary obstacle to peace, while Israel maintains that settlements are one of several issues to be addressed in final-status negotiations.[8]

Neria's administrative identity had also been ambiguous. Although formally designated Talmon Bet and counted as a Talmon neighborhood for years, it appeared in regional-council listings as its own community and was treated by residents as a separate place.[4] The 2025 decision ended that formal duality at the governmental level, while drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.[3]