French Hill
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French Hill (Hebrew: הגבעה הצרפתית, HaGiv'a HaTzarfatit, Arabic: التلة الفرنسية, at-tel al-faransiya), also Giv'at Shapira (Hebrew: גִּבְעַת שַׁפִּירָא) is a neighborhood and Israeli settlement in northern East Jerusalem. It is located on territory that has been occupied since the Six-Day War in 1967 and later unilaterally annexed by Israel under the Jerusalem Law in 1980 in a move not recognized internationally. The international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, such as French Hill, illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
The source of the name French Hill is unclear. According to local legend, it was named after a British general, John French, 1st Earl of Ypres who is said to have had his headquarters on this hill. According to this legend there was a mistake with the translation to Hebrew that named the place after the country France (in Hebrew: Tzarfat). However, French never served in this region. According to Israeli geographer Zev Vilnay, the land belonged to the Catholic Monastery of St. Anne, whose monks hailed mainly from France. If the neighborhood had been named for General French, the correct name in Hebrew would have been Giv'at French.
Under Jordanian rule, the area (Arabic: Karm el-Wiz) was a military outpost. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, a small number of Palestinians from Lifta moved to the area prior to 1967. In 1969, construction began on a new residential neighborhood to create a land link between West Jerusalem and the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, which had been an Israeli enclave in Jordanian territory before the war. The official name of the new neighborhood was Giv'at Shapira. Another section of French Hill, Tzameret HaBira, was populated mainly by American immigrants.
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