Ma'ale Adumim
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Hebrew transcription(s) | ||
• ISO 259 | Maˁle ʔadummim | |
• Also spelled | Ma'ale Adummim (official) | |
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Coordinates: 31°46′30″N 35°17′53″E / 31.77500°N 35.29806°ECoordinates: 31°46′30″N 35°17′53″E / 31.77500°N 35.29806°E | ||
Region | West Bank | |
District | Judea and Samaria Area | |
Founded | September 21, 1975 | |
Government | ||
• Type | City (from 1991) | |
• Mayor | Benny Kashriel | |
Area | ||
• Total | 49,177 dunams (49.177 km2 or 18.987 sq mi) | |
Population (2016) | ||
• Total | 37,525 | |
Name meaning | Red ascent |
Ma'ale Adumim (Hebrew: מַעֲלֵה אֲדֻמִּים, Arabic: معالي أدوميم) is an urban Israeli settlement and a city in the West Bank, seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015 its population was 37,670. Located along Highway 1, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
The town name "Ma'ale Adumim" is taken from the Joshua 15:7 and Joshua 18:17:The boundary [of the tribe of Judah] ascended from the Valley of Achor to Debir and turned north to Gilgal, facing the Ascent of Adumim, which is south of the wadi. Literally "Ascent of Red", it takes its name from the red rock lining the ascent from the Dead Sea.
Ma'ale Adumim was originally a Nahal outpost,or Israeli labourers' camp, which was then, in 1977, designed to become a planned community and suburban commuter town for nearby Jerusalem, to which many residents would commute daily. In the early 1970s, Israel's Labor government discussed a plan to expand the boundaries of Jerusalem eastward by founding an industrial zone and a workers' village on the Jericho road on lands which the displaced Bedouins of the 'Arab al-Jahalin tribe had negotiated with Palestinian landowners in the 1950s to use as pastures for their flocks and a settled base for their families. In the winter of 1975, on the seventh night of Hanukkah, a Gush Emunim group of 23 families and six singles erected a prefabricated concrete structure and two wooden huts at the site now known as "Founder's Circle" The group was evicted several times. In 1977, after Menachem Begin took office, Ma'ale Adumim was granted official status as a permanent settlement, In the late 1990s, approximately 1,050 Palestinian Jahalin Bedouins were forced to move from land that now forms part of the settlement. Court orders required compensation by the Israeli government and they received cash, electricity and water supplies. According to the residents, they had to sell most of their livestock and their Bedouin way of life ended.