Nov (Israeli Settlement)

Nov is a religious agricultural community.[3] Its economic activities include dairy farming and fruit growing, while the Gillis family operates a multigenerational cattle farm, butcher shop, and restaurant.[1][4] In 2024, it was described as the largest agricultural moshav in the Golan Heights.[3] Its communal traditions include an annual Purim procession in which children ride through the moshav in fruit carts pulled slowly by a tractor, followed by a community celebration.[3]

The Bnei Akiva movement founded Nov in 1974.[1] Israel had captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981; the annexation was not recognized by the international community.[5] In 2019, a United States presidential proclamation recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Heights, a measure rejected by most of the international community and at odds with the commonly held position in international law.[6]

The dairy initiative began in 1983 or 1984, according to differing accounts, as a joint venture of Nov, Terra, and Strauss.[1][7] Substantial borrowing left the agricultural association heavily indebted and contributed to a sharp internal dispute over the moshav’s economic organization.[1] Some residents favored retaining a cooperative structure, while others wanted a workers’ moshav in which each farmer operated an independent business.[1] Under a moshav debt-relief arrangement, the Finance Ministry provided exceptional assistance, shared management of the moshav and its dairy farms was dismantled, and Nov became a workers’ moshav.[1] Nov also sold its share in the dairy enterprise to Tnuva after encountering financial difficulties.[7]

On September 18, 2007, Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Haneman, a 21-year-old from Nov, was killed in an exchange of fire during IDF activity in the Ein Beit Ilmeh refugee camp in Nablus.[8]

On November 27, 2016, members of the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army opened fire from a vehicle on an IDF force operating near Nov.[9] The IDF returned fire, destroying the vehicle and killing its four occupants.[9] The attacking organization was associated with the Islamic State and had been formed in May 2016 through a coalition of three organizations operating in southern Syria.[9]

An alert interrupted Nov’s Purim procession on March 24, 2024, while about 600 children were participating.[3] The children left the carts, lay on the ground, and covered their heads; the procession resumed after the alert ended and an attempted aircraft incursion was ruled out.[3] A resident expressed the community’s response with the words, “They won’t break us.”[3]

In 2022, Nov had a reported population of 1,026 residents in 220 families, making it the fourth-largest community in the Golan at that time.[1] A 2024 account described it as a religious community of approximately 1,000 people.[3]

Nov’s three principal agricultural sectors in 2022 were dairy farming, growing myrtle branches for the Sukkot holiday, and cultivating deciduous-fruit orchards, including plums and apples.[1]

The family-run Gillis business combined a cattle farm and butcher shop with a restaurant operating on Thursday evenings in a converted barn.[10] In 2018, its activities also included meat deliveries to major Israeli cities and meat-preparation workshops; a local Nov Winery was also mentioned among the moshav’s food and drink businesses.[10] By 2023, the Gillis family had been raising cattle for 45 years.[4] Yossi built the farm, butcher shop, and restaurant, and his children and grandchildren subsequently joined the business.[4]

Yigal Ariel was identified as Nov’s rabbi in 2008.[11] During debate over whether Israel should cede the Golan Heights, he maintained that commandments governing the Land of Israel applied there, including tithing and the Sabbatical year for produce.[11]

An automatically generated library place record titled “Nov (Israel)” indexes 19 photographs, 19 archival items, 18 books, four other items, and three manuscripts associated with the locality.[12]

Members of Nov beautified the area surrounding the large rectangular pool at Ein Aya, a spring in the southern Golan Heights near the borders with Syria and Jordan.[2] The work commemorated Elon Yaakov Horowitz, an IDF soldier killed in a military training accident in the Golan.[2] Golan residents and soldiers from the Givati reconnaissance battalion worked together on the spring’s renovation.[2]

Nov residents also participated in an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation at nearby Moshav Haspin ahead of construction of a new neighborhood.[13] The excavation uncovered a fortified complex that archaeologists assessed as an Iron Age fort built by the Kingdom of Geshur.[13] The project was funded by Israel’s Housing and Construction Ministry and the Golan Regional Council.[13]