Psagot

Psagot occupies a mountain peak overlooking Ramallah, north of Jerusalem.[1] It lies east of Ramallah and adjoins the suburban edge of al-Bireh.[8][9] Reference tables also use the spelling “Pesagot” and place the community in the Judea Mountains, beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders.[3]

The community is religious and forms part of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.[1][5] A 2014 description identified Psagot as the council’s seat, while an earlier reference table classified it as a rural community affiliated with Amana.[9][3] Its local history encompasses residential growth, security incidents and the development of a winery whose products became the subject of international labeling proceedings.[10][11][12]

Psagot was founded in 1981.[3] In September 2012, following an Israeli High Court order to evacuate the Migron outpost, about half of its 50 evacuated families moved into caravans in a new neighborhood in Psagot.[10] Around 25 families were still staying in guest houses in Ofra, and 12 caravans in Psagot were then uninhabitable.[10]

During 2001, gunmen repeatedly fired toward Psagot from the nearby al-Bireh area.[13] On several occasions, Palestinian security forces conducting night patrols failed to prevent the firing.[13] Most of the shootings caused no injuries or little damage, while Israeli military responses sometimes killed or injured noncombatants.[13]

On October 5, 2013, an armed intruder entered Psagot and injured nine-year-old Noam Glick in the shoulder before fleeing.[14][11] The girl alerted her father, and Israeli security forces searched the area around al-Bireh.[14] A subsequent investigation described the injury as a stabbing during an attempted burglary, after the intruder entered through a hole cut in the community’s security fence.[11] Abdallah Shehadeh Abu Qbieta, from al-Bireh, was detained on suspicion of stabbing her; the investigation found that he had entered the village to steal a weapon and encountered the girl there.[15]

An August 16, 2014 statement by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for firing toward Psagot on August 8, among attacks it said it had carried out during July and the first half of August.[16]

A 2025 account described the close communal impact of deaths among residents and people connected with Psagot during the war.[1] Those named included Elon Weiss, a reservist tank commander and father of seven, and two friends from Psagot, Amichai Weitzen and Moshe Yedidya Raziel, who were killed defending Kibbutz Kerem Shalom on October 7.[1] The account also identified Hanan Drori, who had lived in Psagot until about a year and a half earlier, and Yitzhak Zeiger, a founder of the community whose son lives there.[1]

Psagot’s population was 2,086 in 2022, representing 2.8 percent of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council’s population.[5] A 2025 description placed the population at a little more than 2,000.[1]

Historical population figures show growth from 1,030 residents in 1999 to 1,070 in 2001 and 1,278 in 2003.[17] A separate reference table recorded 1,388 residents on December 31, 2004.[3] Subsequent figures were 1,464 in 2005, 1,545 in 2007, 1,563 in 2009 and 1,693 in 2013.[17]

A 2011 territorial-options study grouped Psagot within an “Expanded Ofra/Bet El” bloc and listed a population of 1,623; that number is a historical estimate, not a current count.[18] A 2014 description put the community’s population at approximately 1,600.[9]

Psagot Winery was established in the settlement in 2003 by Jacob Berg.[19] Naama Berg recalled that she and Jacob lived for 11 years with their two children in a wooden train car in a family vineyard in Psagot.[20] The family began producing wine from the vineyard’s grapes in a small shed opposite the train car; when output reached 40,000 bottles, they bought land elsewhere for a larger facility.[20]

Reported production figures document the winery’s expansion at different dates.[21][19] In 2010, it produced seven varieties and distributed 80,000 bottles annually.[21] In a 2019 interview, Jacob Berg said production had risen from an initial 3,000 bottles a year to approximately 400,000, with nearly 70 percent intended for export.[19] In 2024, he put annual production at about 750,000 bottles.[20] Jacob and Naama Berg said that they still maintained a home in Psagot while also living in Jerusalem.[20]

The winery’s bottles bear a replica of an ancient coin dated to the Great Revolt of 66–71 CE.[22] The coin was found in a cave in Psagot during the winery’s establishment, linking the winery’s visual identity to an ancient Jewish historical object discovered locally.[22]

The winery’s international profile includes official diplomacy as well as export sales.[7][19] In November 2020, Mike Pompeo visited the winery in Psagot, becoming the first U.S. cabinet member to make an official visit to an Israeli settlement.[7] The State Department also announced that products from settlements could be labeled “Made in Israel.”[7]

The winery also participated in Canadian product-labeling proceedings, becoming a respondent in October 2020.[23] In May 2021, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the lower-court decision against the “Product of Israel” label could not stand.[23] In May 2022, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency allowed that label to remain if accompanied by clarifying information that the wines were produced in an area of Judea and Samaria administered by Israel.[23]

A 2010 description of the winery included a visitor room with large windows overlooking fermentation tanks and aging barrels.[21] By 2022, its visitor center was described as being in the Sha’ar Binyamin industrial area, rather than within Psagot itself.[22]

The visitor center occupies a stone building designed in the form of an old caravanserai, with views toward Wadi Qelt and the Edom Mountains.[22] Its facilities include a production area, barrel cellar, tours, tastings and event spaces.[22] More than 1,000 barrels were reported to age there each year.[22]

Psagot’s legal context involves both Israeli planning law and international disagreements over settlements.[24][25] Most international bodies, including the United Nations, and most international-law specialists regard permanent Israeli settlements in the territories captured in 1967 as illegal; Israel’s Foreign Ministry disputes that application of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the West Bank.[25] This broader disagreement is distinct from any ruling about a particular property in Psagot.[25]

In 2015, 24 buildings in Psagot deemed illegal under Israeli law were reported to be slated for retroactive approval.[24] Psagot was subsequently one of sixteen settlements named in the appendix to the 2017 Law for the Regulation of Settlement in Judea and Samaria.[4] The law addressed construction undertaken “in good faith” or “with the consent of the state,” providing mechanisms involving government registration of land or expropriation of use and possession rights, with compensation provisions.[4] For listed communities, it temporarily suspended certain nonjudicial administrative enforcement procedures while eligibility was assessed, excepting enforcement of judicial decisions and demolition needed to prevent danger to human life.[4]

Palestinian residents of al-Bireh alleged that land used by Psagot and its winery was privately owned; two sisters said they held ownership documents for a plot used for vineyards and a winery building.[12] A city council member alleged that settlers had taken 1,000 dunams, including 400 used by the winery; the winery’s chief executive did not respond to requests for comment.[12]

Psagot Winery challenged French labeling guidance issued in November 2016, and France’s Conseil d’État referred the European-law question to the EU Court of Justice on May 30, 2018.[6] In November 2019, the court ruled that settlement-origin food products must indicate their origin to avoid misleading consumers; the winery responded that the decision encouraged boycotts and delegitimization of Israel.[26] The U.S. government expressed deep concern and characterized the circumstances as “suggestive of anti-Israel bias.”[27]

The classification of the 2013 attack on Noam Glick also differed among Israeli agencies: the Shin Bet treated it as criminal, the IDF maintained that it was nationalistically motivated, and police were unsure.[11]