Yitzhar

Yitzhar stands in a hilly area surrounded by the Palestinian villages of Urif, Burin, Asira al-Qibliya, Einabus, Madama, and Huwwara, with homes scattered among extensive olive groves.[7] Asira al-Qibliya lies on its northwestern slopes, while Nablus is to the north.[7][2]

The settlement is a geographic center for religious and ideological networks associated with the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva and some followers of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh.[2] Its role as a hub does not make it an operational command center: religious figures associated with these networks do not issue operational instructions to violent extremists, although their teachings can supply concepts used to justify violence.[2]

Roads linking Jewish communities include a connection between Kedumim and Yitzhar, illustrating how communities that appear geographically separated by Palestinian communities remain connected through the road network.[8]

Yitzhar was established in 1983.[4][9] In August 1998, Harel Ben-Nun and Shlomo Libman were reported to have been killed at Yitzhar the preceding week.[10] Their deaths prompted a public dispute over the Palestinian leadership’s response: the report said Yasser Arafat had not personally condemned the murders and that a Palestinian minister distinguished between Israelis and settlers.[10]

A 2005 government examination of unauthorized outposts mentioned Mitspe Yitzhar, where two caravans and two containers had been placed.[11] Under the local-law framework set out in that examination, establishing a settlement required a government decision, state land, an approved building plan, and an order defining jurisdictional boundaries; an unauthorized outpost lacked at least one of these cumulative requirements.[11] That examination addressed local law rather than international law.[11]

On June 20 and July 21, 2008, settlers from Yitzhar and Har Bracha launched multiple improvised rockets at nearby Palestinian villages.[12] Police arrested Gilad Herman, a student at Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, during the investigation following the June incident.[12] On August 25, 19-year-old Yitzhar resident Daniel Avraham was arrested and charged with weapons possession and endangering lives in connection with an August 1 attack in which a large stone thrown at a vehicle wounded a pregnant woman and her two daughters; no further information about the case was available by the end of 2008.[12] On October 11, settlers from Yitzhar injured three Palestinians and cut down 18 olive trees before Israeli soldiers intervened.[12]

In November 2009, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, dean of the local yeshiva, published what he described as a guide to killing non-Jews.[13] Police arrested him on July 26, 2010, for encouraging the killing of non-Jews and released him hours later; 30 copies of the book were confiscated from the yeshiva, according to contemporary press accounts.[13] On December 5, 2011, settlers from Yitzhar kidnapped and subsequently released Salim Jamil Shehadeh, a 60-year-old shepherd from Orif, and 50 of his sheep were stolen.[14] No information about an investigation was available at that year’s end.[14]

A confrontation described in June 2012 left a 22-year-old Palestinian seriously wounded by gunfire near Yitzhar.[7] An IDF inquiry found that he was shot after Jewish youths shouted that a Palestinian was armed; he was subsequently tied up and beaten before soldiers removed the youths.[7] The division commander ordered the confiscation of weapons belonging to Yitzhar’s local security squad and the resident who fired, and a criminal investigation was opened.[7] Palestinian representatives described repeated attacks on people working their land, while settlement spokesperson Abraham Benjamin emphasized security threats to residents and said Yitzhar had no fence.[7]

On April 8, 2014, settlers attacked Border Police attempting to dismantle illegal structures in Yitzhar, burning tires, blocking streets, throwing rocks, and injuring six officers.[15] A guard post serving the settlement was also destroyed.[15] The confrontation followed tire-slashing attacks on IDF jeeps and the demolition of unauthorized structures; approximately 50 settlers and extremists participated in the subsequent destruction of an army post housing reservists.[16] Equipment destroyed included tents, heating equipment, a toilet, and a water tank, and a later account recorded eight injured people, including six Border Police personnel, with no indictments or convictions for those involved.[6]

The community secretariat subsequently organized a vote in which more than half the community voted against violence toward the IDF.[16] Rabbi Ginsburgh also called for attacks on the military to stop, while arguing that government actions had helped bring about the clashes.[16] Both the vote and his statement concerned violence against the military rather than attacks on Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.[16]

In a separate 2014 assault on Palestinian farmland, settlers from Yitzhar broke one Palestinian man’s arm and leg with a metal rod and struck another man on the neck.[17] An Israeli soldier present ordered the attackers to leave.[17] Police closed the ensuing case because they lacked sufficient information identifying the perpetrators, without seeking the soldier’s testimony or attempting to locate witnesses; following appeals, the case was again closed in April 2016 for lack of evidence.[17]

On October 21, 2015, a 15-year-old Palestinian girl attempted to enter Yitzhar carrying a knife.[18] Security forces shot her when she brandished it, and she was taken to an Israeli hospital to recover.[18] That year, the settlement spokesperson said most residents condemned the murder of a Palestinian toddler, while acknowledging a small group, mainly associated with the yeshiva, that opposed the state because its members wanted a religious state.[19]

Yitzhar appeared, under the spelling “Yitshar,” among 16 settlements listed in an appendix to the 2017 law regulating settlement in Judea and Samaria.[20] The law temporarily suspended specified existing administrative enforcement procedures for the listed settlements, subject to exceptions and subsequent determinations.[20]

In 2018, an Israeli security official characterized Yitzhar as a refuge for “hilltop youth,” young activists who establish makeshift hilltop outposts, and linked people from the settlement area to violent incidents.[21] Settlement representatives rejected that characterization and said local leadership had worked with the Welfare Ministry on an informal educational-vocational program for youths.[21] The surrounding hilltops were a focus of activity associated with “price tag” attacks: vandalism and other hate crimes presented by perpetrators as retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies considered hostile to settlement.[21] Such attacks targeted Palestinian property and religious sites, Israeli rights groups, and IDF bases.[21]

A security official counted more than 150 acts of violence by residents of Yitzhar and nearby settlements from January 1, 2019, to the period covered by an October report, principally around Kumi Ori.[6] These included stone-throwing, vandalism, and damage to Palestinian olive trees and fields.[6] Local officials argued that responsibility lay with hilltop youth in surrounding outposts rather than Yitzhar residents generally.[6] Confrontations intensified that October after a relatively quiet year.[22]

In October 2019, Kumi Ori, approximately three kilometers from Yitzhar and home to seven families, was declared a closed military zone for a month following confrontations.[23] The Civil Administration issued demolition and stop-work orders for some structures, while residents characterized the authorities’ actions as collective punishment.[23] In August 2020, Border Police and Civil Administration personnel demolished three small wooden structures at the nearby Shvach Ha’aretz outpost, in a closed military zone where a Border Police company was permanently stationed.[24] Dozens of masked people attacked the departing forces with stones and paint bottles, lightly injuring an officer and puncturing vehicle tires; Yitzhar residents said they opposed the youths’ violence against the forces.[24]

At an October 14, 2020, meeting, Israeli authorities gave final approval for 211 housing units in Yitzhar.[5] The settlement was one of fifteen enclaves for which the Trump peace plan proposed a four-year restriction on outward expansion.[5]

In 2021, former Yitzhar yeshiva rabbi Yosef Elitzur was convicted of incitement to violence for articles published in 2013 calling on Jews to rise up against Palestinian violence.[25] On May 29, 2022, a district court increased his sentence from four months’ probation and a fine to seven months’ probation.[25] Although the court considered six months’ imprisonment appropriate, it did not overturn the lower court’s decision to keep him out of prison.[25]

On July 12, 2023, authorities indicted Yitzhar resident David Oved on charges including rioting resulting in damage and insulting a religion.[26] Prosecutors alleged that he broke into a mosque in Urif and defaced Qurans, acting from nationalistic religious motives to instill fear or panic; the case remained pending at year’s end.[26] On November 14, the Supreme Court rejected activist Ariel Danino’s appeal against his administrative detention in an account also identifying Kumi Ori as an unauthorized outpost near Yitzhar.[26]

Yitzhar’s recorded population increased from 328 in 1999 to 342 in 2001, 440 in 2003, 590 in 2005, 743 in 2007, 895 in 2009, and 1,106 in 2013.[9] An Israeli government dataset issued after the 2008 census lists 848 residents, without specifying a separate reference date for that figure.[4]

Contemporary descriptions placed the population at about 1,000 in June 2012 and the community’s membership at 1,172 in 2014.[7][16] A 2015 account described approximately 240 families, while an October 2019 report gave more than 1,500 residents.[19][22] Another population table lists 1,868 without identifying the reference year, and a 2024 estimate gives approximately 2,000, also without specifying the measurement date.[3][1]

In the 2015 election, 74% of Yitzhar’s voters supported Yachad, 20% Jewish Home, and 2% Likud; Green Leaf received four votes and the United Arab List one.[19] Yachad failed to cross the electoral threshold and received no Knesset seats.[19] In March 2021, approximately 90% of Yitzhar voters supported the Religious Zionist Party grouping.[3] Its support was approximately 63% across a wider cluster encompassing Yitzhar, Itamar, Kfar Tapuach, Har Bracha, and six outposts, compared with roughly 46% across settlements east of the security barrier.[3]

In 2012, the European Union included Yitzhar among locations whose goods were ineligible for customs exemptions under the EU-Israel trade arrangement.[27] Israel’s Foreign Ministry objected to the approach, and Israel’s mission in Brussels lodged an official protest following publication of the location list.[27]

Od Yosef Chai, also rendered Od Yosef Hai, is a yeshiva in Yitzhar associated with religious figures including Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and followers of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh.[13][2] Its religious and ideological networks are a prominent feature of the community’s public profile.[2]

Israel’s official position treats Judea and Samaria as disputed rather than occupied territory; an opposing position regards it as occupied Palestinian territory and considers Israeli settlements unlawful.[28] Israeli domestic practice separately distinguishes permitted settlement construction from unauthorized outposts lacking necessary approvals.[29] Yitzhar’s inclusion in the 2017 law was not a determination of the legality or ownership of every structure, and it remained unclear in 2020 whether the 211 approved housing units would enlarge its footprint.[20][5]

Descriptions of Yitzhar as a center of extremist activity do not establish collective responsibility among residents.[21][6] A study assigned 81 recorded Palestinian injuries in 2015–2021 to the wider Yitzhar cluster, not to Yitzhar alone; it also cautioned that no authoritative public database existed and recording methodologies differed.[3] Accounts of particular confrontations, including the 2012 shooting, contained conflicting Palestinian and settler explanations.[7]