Itamar () is an Israeli settlement located in the West Bank's Samarian mountains, five kilometers southeast of the Palestinian city of Nablus. The predominantly Orthodox and Religious Zionist Jewish community falls in partChaim Levinson, 'Israeli 'hilltop youth' accuse their former hero of stealing settlers' land,’ at Haaretz, 31 January 2013. within the municipal jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Itamar was designated Area "C", under provisional Israeli civil and security control, before a transition period after which Area "C" was to be handed back to the Palestinians. In , it had a population of .

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. The settlement has several outposts and covers a total area of approximately 7,000 dunams of land.

Itamar's residents have been the target of several lethal attacks by Palestinian militants, most notably the 2011 massacre of the Fogel family by residents of the nearby village of Awarta. HRW reports an extensive number of violent acts by settlers from Itamar and its outposts against local Palestinians.

History According to ARIJ, Itamar was founded on land which Israel had confiscated from several nearby Palestinian villages:

2,450 dunums were taken from Awarta,‘Awarta Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 15 441 dunums were taken from Beit Furik for Itamar and Michola,Beit Furik Town Profile, ARIJ, p. 16 1,085 dunums were taken from Yanun/Aqraba for Itamar and Gitit.Aqraba Town Profile (including Yanun Locality), ARIJ, p. 16 169 dunes were taken from Rujeib.Rujeib village profile, ARIJ, p. 14 The settlement was established in 1984 by several families from the Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem with the assistance of Gush Emunim's settlement organization Amana. Originally named Tel Chaim, commemorating Chaim Landau, it was later named for Ithamar, the youngest son of Biblical figure Aaron (Exodus 28:1). Tradition places the burial place of Ithamar in the nearby Palestinian village Awarta."Itamar" . Shomron Liaison Office The major of the city argues that the deed title for taking over the land is based on biblical writ.Isabel Kershner, ‘Neighbors’ Blood Binds Settlers to West Bank,’ at New York Times, 15 March 2011:'"We have a legitimate right to the Land of Israel," said Moshe Goldsmith, 47, the mayor of Itamar. "The Bible is our deed".' According to Palestinians at Yanun,Haaretz staff, 'Settlers attack Palestinian olive-pickers in West Bank,' at Haaretz 19 October 2002 before the al-Aqsa Intifada, relations between local villagers and Itamar, the nearest legal settlement, had been on a good footing. After the killing of 13 Israeli Arabs in Jerusalem, matters rapidly deteriorated, and over 3 years, Palestinian militants killed some 11 Itamar settlers. In Itamar, blame for these killings was laid at the door of local Palestinian villagers, who–according to Californian emigrant Alon Zimmerman–were believed to provide militants with local support.Vikram Sura,'No olive branch for Yanun?,' at The Hindu, 12 October 2003. The whole village of Yanun, though never linked to any violence or attack, itself was so harassed by local Itamar hilltop settlers that its entire population was put to flight, and sought refuge in Awarta, and became, according to Joel Greenberg 'the first case in memory in which harassment by Jewish settlers has emptied an entire Palestinian community'.Joel Greenberg ‘Israeli Settlers' Zeal Forces Palestinians To Flee Their Town,’ New York Times, 21 October 2002. At the time of the uprising, Itamar had a reputation among Israelis one of the hard core settlements. One visitor at the time remarked that many of its recent residents were immigrants from the former Soviet empire, and from Argentina, who spoke poor Hebrew, dwelt in trailers, and appeared to have little awareness of where they were or why anyone should object to their presence there.Matt Rees, Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East, Simon & Schuster 2004, p.247.

The Itamar settlement is the object of land disputes. The borders of the settlement stretch out south-east to take in an area 14 times the actual area of construction, in a way that completely blocks any possibility for the development of the Palestinian village, of Beit Furiq, which has a population of 9,000.Yehezkel Lein, Eyal Weizman, Terra Rubata: La politica israeliana di insediamento in Cisgiordania, B'Tselem (n.d.) pp.96-7:'I confini municipali dell’insediamento di Itamar si estendono su una diagonale in direzione sud-est per un’area di circa 7000 dunam, quattordici volte l’attuale area di costruzione, che include anche un certo numero di nuovi avamposti. Questa enorme area blocca completamente lo sviluppo della città di Beit Furiq (9,000) a sud. Inoltre, nel corso degli anni, i coloni di questi insediamenti hanno esercitato violenza contro i palestinesi del luogo mentre le autorità israeliane non-si impegnano a far rispettare la legge'. A 2006 Peace Now analysis provided the following breakdown of the situation at Itamar: The settlement area extended over of which or 43.80% was private land. The land owned by Jews amounted to or 0.05%.Dror Etkes & Hagit Ofran, One Violation Leads to Another:Israeli Settlement Building on Private Palestinian Property (A Report of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Team) at BBC News, 2006 p.28 A follow-up report specified that in the data provided by the Israeli Civil Administration, "there is no mention of whether the private land is owned by Palestinians or by Jews privately owned... Nevertheless, it is highly probable that most of the land that is marked here as private land (if not all of it) is privately owned Palestinian land". The settlement of Itamar, not including the outposts, grew from a population of less than 300 in 1995 to 785 in 2008, and reached a population of over 1,000 in 2009, predominantly Orthodox Jewish settlers, most of them newly religious. Locals state that low property prices account for part of the attraction, with a three-bedroom Itamar house priced around £75,000, compared to roughly £375,000 in Jerusalem.Nick Meo, 'The wave of radical Israeli settlers digging in for the long haul in the West Bank,' at The Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2012. According to resident Leah Zak, following the Fogel family massacre, much of the community became invested in growing and developing Itamar; this included naming several social projects after members of the Fogel family. In the year following the attack, it was reported that 21 families had moved to Itamar.

Geography

Itamar is situated east of the Israeli West Bank barrier, 28 kilometers from the Green line in the region known as "Gav Hahar" (Hump of the Mountain). Its municipal boundaries extend in a south-east diagonal over an area of some 7,000 dunam including several outposts, the furthest of which is about eight kilometers from Itamar. Itamar and its outposts partly encircled the small Palestinian village of Yanun, and block the development of the Palestinian town of Beit Furik, according to a report by Israeli human rights organization B'tselem.

In the 1990s, Itamar seized the surrounding hills, establishing the outposts The Point in 1996, Hill 836, Hill 851 and Giv'ot Olam in 1998, Hill 777 and Hill 782 in 1999, and in 2002 Itamar North. Five of these outposts were approved by former prime minister Ehud Barak in 2000. At the time, a master plan gave the settlement a total area of some 6,000 dunams. In addition to Itamar, three other settlements are located in the Harey Kadem mountains: Yitzhar, Har Bracha, and Elon Moreh.

Leah Goldsmith, the wife of Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith, wrote about the town:

It is hill country, tremendously big, picturesque and mysterious, varied with long and wide valleys who resemble a mosaic coat of many colors ranging from pea to deep jade greens and chestnut browns in the winter and spring months. In the summertime the colors are dry, like the colors of Rebecca's jug, in which she served Eliezer and the camels in Babylon.

There are springs and wells in the hills. The bounty stemming from the blessing given to Joseph…."The blessings of the father are potent above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills"(Vayechi 49). The tribunal portions of Ephraim and Menashe, the sons of Joseph run across these highlands. In every direction that one looks, the views are emanated with authentic biblical greatness and Jewish nobility. This is the chief feature of the landscape, of your life in it, and you are struck by the feeling of having lived here in the past.

Economy Itamar was among the settlements which were designated a "national priority zone" in December 2009, and is entitled to an average of NIS 1,000 per person per year in subsidies in addition to the ordinary settlement subsidies.

There are several businesses in the settlement, and many of the residents grow organic crops and raise sheep and goats;Itamar: Religious West Bank settlers BBC News, 21 June 2002 larger farms produce a range of further products, such as cheese and olive oil. According to local residents, 80% of Israel's domestically sold organic eggs are produced at Itamar's chicken farm. Other businesses include a yogurt and cheese factory; a small perfume factory; a stained glass workshop; and a hothouses for the vegetables. Itamar also has programs for people with physical or learning disabilities.Mark, Jonathan. "Twin Peaks: Itamar’s Mayor Knows The Blessing And Curse." JW.com. The Jewish Week, 29 March 2011. Web. 19 May 2012.

Education

Itamar's educational system includes kindergarten, elementary school for boys and girls, and several institutions of secondary education and higher learning which attract Israeli students other regional settlements such as Yitzhar.Moriel Ram and Mark Levine, 'The Village against the Settlement:Tweo decades of Conflict in the Nablus Region,’ in Mark LeVine, Gershon Shafir (eds.) Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel, University of California Press, 2012 pp.318-336 p.321 Among them are a Talmud Torah for boys, the Be'er Miriam Talmud Torah for girls, the Hitzim yeshiva high school for boys, co-founded by Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith and the Itamar Hesder yeshiva founded by Rabbi Brigadier General Avichai Ronsky, IDF Chief Rabbi from 2006 till 2010.

In March 2012, three children and a teacher were killed in the shooting attack at Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse, France. Three months later, Tamar Fogel, a survivor of the Fogel family massacre, and a group Bnei Akiva youth visited France "to help strengthen the local Jewish communities". Yigal Klein, director of counselors for Bnei Akiva, said, "Many members of the Jewish delegation in France thought they would strengthen the youth of Itamar during their visit, but the opposite was true. The Itamar delegation demonstrated faith and spiritual strength that surprised many of the adults and youth whom they met."

Israeli–Palestinian conflict Itamar and its residents have been targeted several times by Palestinians terrorists in the past, three such incidents taking place between May and July 2002, a fourth in August 2004 and another in 2011, which have caused more than a dozen deathsLela Gilbert