page_title: Beit El
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Beit El / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: Ulpana outpost of Beit El. In the background the outpost Jabel Artis (also named Pisgat Ya'akov).
context_page_description: Beit El is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town is located in the hills north of Jerusalem, east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah. In September 1997, Beit El was awarded local council status. The head of the local council is Shai Alon. In 2018 its population was 6,042. Its current population is 6,500 residents.
  The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. The Ulpana neighbourhood was evacuated when it emerged that it was built on private Palestinian land. The World Zionist Organization halted land transactions in the Aleph neighbourhood of Beit El after it emerged that some 250 buildings there were constructed illegally, and fraud was suspected.
context_section_description: After the Six-Day War in 1967, the area came under Israeli occupation. According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from three nearby Palestinian towns/villages in order to construct Beit El:
  680 dunams from Dura al-Qar',
  346 dunams from Al-Bireh,
  137 dunams from Ein Yabrud.
  In 1970, private Palestinian land of al-Bireh and Dura al-Qar was seized by military order for a military outpost and later on consigned to settlers for the purpose of civilian settlement. In 1977, Beit El was established on this land. Seventeen families settled near the Israel Defense Forces base. The settlement consisted of  Beit El Aleph (Beit El A) a residential religious community in the southern half of Beit El, whose inhabitants worked in the free professions outside the yishuv and Beit El Bet (Beit El B), situated on the northern hill around the yeshiva founded by Ya'akov Katz and Zalman Baruch Melamed, partly on private land and partly on land purchased by the
  Himnuta land development company (a subsidiary of JNF-KKL). Public buildings and civilian homes and caravans were built on the land.
  While the government declared that requisition of the land was temporary, in the Beit El case of 1978 the Israeli High Court approved civilian settlement for reasons of general security. The state declared that the right of the settlers to remain in Beit El would expire upon the termination of its military necessity.
  On 10 April 1979, the Joint Settlement Committee of the Israeli Government and the World Zionist Organization endorsed the split into Beit El A and Beit El B. In 1997, when Beit El was awarded local council status, Beit El A and Beit El B again became a single settlement.
  Beit El is located on a non-contiguous area, but according to a Yesh Din petition, the neighborhoods are connected by illegal construction. Only Maoz Zur  was built on  land classified by Israel as state land. Maoz Tzur was established on the land of the IDF base in 1998. A secret database published by Haaretz in 2009 revealed that Beit El was largely built on private Palestinian lands, without approval. According to Peace Now, private Palestinian property makes up 96.85% of the land that Beit El, along with its outposts. April 2012, the State continued delaying the demolition. On 7 May 2012, the Supreme Court rejected the State's application to re-open the proceeding and decided that the five buildings, each with 6 apartments, should be demolished before 1 July. End of June, 33 families left the apartments, but despite earlier rulings and promises, in November 2012 the High Court again granted the State a delay regarding demolishing of the buildings.
caption: Ulpana neighborhood, with Jabel Artis in the background
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