Tekoa, Gush Etzion

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For other places with similar names, see Tekoa.
Tekoa
<templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />תְּקוֹעַ‎
View of Herodium from Tekoa
View of Herodium from Tekoa
Tekoa is located in the West Bank
Tekoa
Tekoa
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Council Gush Etzion
Region Judea
Founded 1975, 1977
Founded by Nahal
Population (2015) 3,671[1]

Tekoa (Hebrew: <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />תְּקוֹעַ‎) is an Israeli Jewish communal town and Israeli settlement in the northern Judaean Mountains, located 20 km northeast of Hebron and 16 km south of Jerusalem. Tekoa is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.[2] The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.[3] Situated in the immediate vicinity is the Palestinian village of Tuqu'.

History

Founding

File:Herodion IMG 0639.JPG
View of Tekoa from Herodion.

Tekoa was established in 1975 as a Nahal outpost in the vicinity of the Arab village of Tuqu'. In 1977 it was handed over to civilian residents.[4] The town is located 5 miles south of Bethlehem at the foot of Herodion ("Herod's Palace").

Archaeology and Landmarks

The Archaeological site of El Khiam is located in this area.[5]

Letters of Shimon Ben Kosiba, leader of the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt against Roman occupation (132-135 CE), were found in a valley near Tekoa.[6]

Ancient caves and caves that were dug in the karst chalk stone of the Nachal Tekoa or Wadi Khureitun, named after Chariton the Confessor, by monks from the Lavras of Saint Chariton and his successor Euthymius the Great, are right behind Tekoa.

Outside Tekoa various ruins were seen in the mid-19th-century. These included the walls of houses, cisterns, broken columns and heaps of building stones, some of which had “bevelled edges” which supposedly indicated Hebrew origin.[7]

Byzantine ceramics have been found,[8] and in the ancient site of nearby Tekoa ruins (Arab.: Khirbet Tuqu' ), there are the remains of a Byzantine church and monastery.[9]

Geography

Tekoa is located 2,177 feet (670 meters) above sea level on a ridge surrounded on three sides by a deep canyon, Nahal Tekoa, that runs east to the Dead Sea.[10] It has a mean annual rainfall of 410mm, an average annual temperature of 17 degree Celsius, and an average annual humidity of c. 60 percent.[11]

Demographics

Tekoa is populated by a mix of religious Zionists and secular Israelis. Many new immigrants from the former Soviet Union also live in Tekoa. In 2015, the population numbered 3,671.

The former chief rabbi of Tekoa, Menachem Froman z"l, a founding member of Gush Emunim,[6] maintained close ties with PLO and Hamas leaders.[12] Rabbi Froman taught at the local hesder yeshiva headed by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.[13] One of Rabbi Fromans 10 children, his son Tzuri, lived in the desert canyon wadi behind the town, in a cave.[14] Froman died in 2013.

Economy

In 1989, the Tekoa Agro-Technology Farm established in 1986 was named Enterprise of the Year by the Israeli Journal of Agricultural Settlements.[15]

Arab-Israeli conflict

In May 2001, two Israeli boys from Tekoa, Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.[16][17][18]

Later in September of that same year, Sarit Amrani (26) was shot dead in Tekoa when terrorists opened fire on her family's car. Her husband Shai was seriously injured, while their three children, Zohar (4), Ziv (2) and Raz (3 months), who were in the car at the time of the shooting survived physically unharmed.[19]

In February 2002, Aharon Gorov (46) and Avraham Fish (65) were killed in a shooting attack near Tekoa. Fish's daughter Tamar Lipschitz, who was nine months pregnant, was shot in the stomach. After being rushed to the hospital, she delivered a daughter through Caesarean section. Fish's granddaughter, Karine (4), suffered from shock. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.[20][21]

Notable residents

  • Rabbi Menachem Froman, rabbi and peace activist
  • Dr. Stephen Wiesner, physicist whose proposals launched the field of quantum information theory, including quantum money (which led to quantum key distribution), quantum multiplexing (the earliest example of oblivious transfer) and superdense coding

References

  1. ↑ http://www.inn.co.il/Articles/Article.aspx/14370
  2. ↑ http://www.gush-etzion.org.il/communities.asp
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Nahal settlements [Hebrew]
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, p. 928
  9. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Zeiter
  10. ↑ Tekoa geography
  11. ↑ [1] "Tuqu' Town Profile", Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem. 2008. Retrieved on 2012-03-13.
  12. ↑ Video of Rabbi Menachem Froman signing the Froman-Amayreh Accord
  13. ↑ http://www.gush-etzion.org.il/tekoa.asp
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Tekoa Agro-Technology Ltd.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Three books on terrorism listed the murders. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.,Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Sarit Amrani
  20. ↑ Avraham Fish
  21. ↑ Aharon Gorov

Bibliography

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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