Батыс Жағалаудағы Израильдік Маале Адумим елді мекені

Israeli settlement in the West Bank

Ma'ale Adumim (; معالي أدوميم) is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank, seven kilometers east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was It is located along Highway 1, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The town name Ma'ale Adumim is taken from two mentions made of an area marking the boundaries between two Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua. At , in a passage on the inheritance of the Tribe of Judah, it is stated that part of the boundary ran from Debir to Gilgal, facing the ascent of Adumim, which the text places south of the wadi. At , in a description of the inheritance by the casting of lots that fell to Tribe of Benjamin, it is stated that part of its boundaries ran from En shemesh then to Geliloth, which likewise faced the ascent of Adummim. The toponym literally means 'Red Ascent' or 'Bloody Ascent' referring to the hue of the exposed red limestone rocks, tinted by iron oxide, that in patches line the ascent from the Dead Sea towards Jerusalem.

The Jahalin and Sawahareh Bedouin tribes, evicted by Israel from their traditional pastoral lands in the Tel Arad area of the Negev, settled in the area of what would become the Ma'ale Adumim municipality, then under Jordanian administration, after contracting with local Palestinian landowners and receiving permission to graze their livestock there. After the Israeli conquest and occupation of the West Bank in the Six Day War in 1967, they were gradually hemmed in by restrictions, due to pressures from the development of the Israeli settlement, many ending up in tracts of land in the vicinity of the Jericho Jerusalem road or a rubbish dump near Abu Dis.

As early as 1968, just after the Six Day War, Yigal Allon had advanced a proposal to establish a settlement somewhere in the area of Ma'ale Adumim and Jericho. The government of Levi Eshkol did not implement the step, because the political and diplomatic implications were significant, in that it would effectively split the West Bank. It was later opposed by Yehiel Admoni, the then head of the Jewish Agency for Israel's Settlement Department, as lying outside the scope of the Allon Plan, and if the 'Red Ascent' were settled, it would further erode what land might remain over for restoring territory to the Palestinians in a future peace negotiation. The idea of making an industrial park for Jerusalem in the area of Ma'ale Adumim had been circulating for some years. In August 1974, Yisrael Galili, a major presence in the settlement project together with Meir Zorea with strong connections to Gush Emunim, aired the idea of settling it. He had privately offered it as a recompense for settlers who had attempted to establish themselves in Sebastia, to be rebuffed when that group refused to compromise. The links with Gush Emunim attested to a growing impact of Religious Zionist ideology on Israel's developing policies regarding the Palestinian territories. It is thought that the agreement to develop an industrial zone for Jerusalem there was the result of a deal struck between the National Religious Party and the government of Yitzhak Rabin, as part of a bargain between members of the coalition government, for which the green light was given on 24 November 1975. This government strategy to create "facts on the ground" was a response to the Rabat Summit decision in Morocco in October to recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. It was decided to permit 25 residential units to house 100 Israeli settlers/workers.

Problems existed from the start, since there were no budget funds allocated for the project, and ministers opposed it either on financial grounds or out of suspicions that its creation had nothing to do with the establishment of an industrial town, but masked an intention to make a civilian settlement, something opposed by Mapam. Whatever monies were used, Yossi Sarid complained, would detract from funds targeted for Israel's own impoverished development towns. The evidence suggests that the decision was inspired more by political needs, including the perceived need to placate far right groups, rather than respond to the requirements of the city of Jerusalem. Gershom Gorenberg argues that the cabinet compromise was 'a ruse' that spoke of setting up factory housing when in fact the aim was to create a fully fledged settlement afterwards. Galili himself argued that a settlement between Jericho and East Jerusalem was needed to keep Jordanians away from the Holy City. In an interview several decades later, the mayor of one of the larger settlements claimed that the aim of establishing Ma'ale Adumim was to 'protect Jerusalem from Arabs' and secure the road to the Jordan Valley. According to the Jerusalem Post, the site had served as a Nahal military outpost, before being designated to become an Israeli labourers' camp. The outpost's establishment was delayed for political reasons, despite the November decision. Yigal Allon was due to meet Henry Kissinger in Washington and any leak of a new settlement would have been inconvenient at that time. Galili said the timing for the setting up of camps on the site should coincide with Kissinger's movements, timing it so that the latter's shuttle diplomacy would find him in transit to Brussels. Finally, around March 1975, following a ministerial decree to expropriate 3,000 hectares of land from the area's Palestinian villages, forty members of Gush Emunim built a water tower and prefab concrete hut on the site, only to be evicted the same afternoon by Israeli troops, each prospective settler carried away by four soldiers. This site was thereafter called by the settlers "Founder's Circle". In 1977, Haim Sabato founded a hesder yeshiva (paramilitary field seminary) there and it was also designated to become a planned community, suburb and commuter town for nearby Jerusalem, to which many residents would commute daily. The boundaries of the settlement were set at some 3,500 hectares in 1979 and by the early 90s had extended to 4,350 hectares. Writing in 2003, Cheryl Rubenberg stated that
For the bedouins, as well as for the villagers, loss of their lands meant loss of their agricultural way of life and major transformations in their social life. Today, the area available to the villages together, with a population of approximately 40,000, is some 460 hectares. The area of Ma'ale Adumim with some 26,000 settlers, is 11.5 times greater.

In the late 1990s, approximately 1,050 Jahalin Bedouins were displaced from land that was now annexed to form part of the settlement. Court orders required compensation by the Israeli government and they received cash, electricity and water supplies.

After Palestinian gunmen killed one Israeli and injured five Israelis near Ma'ale Adumim, Israel's far right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in February 2024 announced a "settlement response" after speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as "any harm to us will lead to more construction and more development and more of our hold all over the country", with 2,350 more homes in Ma'ale Adumim being arranged for approval. American Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the announcement, stating that new Israeli settlements are "inconsistent with international law" and "counter productive to reaching an enduring peace", risking "Israel’s security".

The chief urban planner was architect Rachel Walden. In March 1979, Ma'ale Adumim achieved local council status. The urban plan for Ma'ale Adumim, finalized in 1983, encompasses a total of , of which have been built so far, in a bloc that includes Ma'ale Adumim, Mishor Adumim, Kfar Adumim, and Allon.

The city is surrounded on four sides by the Judean Desert and is linked to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area via Highway 1. Due to its strategic location between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, Palestinians see this as a threat to the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state. This claim is disputed by mayor Benny Kashriel, who claims that continuity would be attained by circling Ma'ale Adumim to the east. Israeli drivers use a bypass road that exits the city to the west, entering Jerusalem through the French Hill Junction or a tunnel that goes under Mt. Scopus. These routes were built in the wake of the First and Second Intifadas when Palestinian militants shot at motorists and cars were stoned. The previous road passed through al Eizariya and Abu Dis.

Many residents of Ma'ale Adumim are employed in Jerusalem. Others work in Mishor Adumim, Ma'ale Adumim's industrial park, which is located on the road to the Dead Sea, about ten minutes from Jerusalem. The industrial zone houses 220 businesses, among them textile plants, garages, food manufacturers, aluminum and metalworking factories, and printing companies.

One of the purposes of establishing Ma'ale Adumim was to supply affordable housing for young couples who could not afford the high cost of homes in Jerusalem. Although the municipal boundaries cover 48,000 dunams, the city has been suffering from an acute housing shortage since 2009 due to the freeze on new construction. as of 2011 most of the real estate market was in second hand properties.

The Moshe Castel Museum showcases the work of Israeli artist Moshe Castel. The Tree of Life is the world's largest artistic representation of an Olive Tree. The model for the tree was a five hundred year old Olive Tree from the Garden of Gethsemane. The Tree is the artistic creation of Jerusalem artist Sam Philipe. The site is a venue for outdoor programming and weddings. Mizpe Edna is a lookout at the Shofar and Hallil junction.