Ten incoming families will inhabit their new homes Monday in a new neighborhood built in the Carmel settlement on South Mount Hebron.

Although the Yesha Council is talking about settlements construction being frozen, an inauguration ceremony for the new neighborhood is due to take place Tuesday. One of the new residents told Ynet, “We are not sneaking in like thieves at night.”

The settlers said that “everything is ready” in the neighborhood – apart from the backyard gardens, which they cannot plant because 2008 is a shmita year (the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah in which all agricultural activityin the Land of Israel is forbidden.)

The Carmel settlement was founded in 1981. It was first established as a cooperative, and later on turned into a community cooperative, and most of its earlier residents worked in the various agricultural fields. Today, Carmel has about 80 families who also work in education and freelance professions.

The settlement has kindergartens, the Reuta yehsiva and a unique factory, Isvey Kedem, which manufactures natural medical products from the plants grown it the area based on biblical methods and traditions.

According to the residents, the establishment of the settlement began in the days of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government.

New Mt. Hebron neighborhood absorbs 10 new families

Neighborhood to be inaugurated despite Yesha Council's talks of settlements being frozen. Head of South Mount Hebron Regional Council says, 'Settlement cannot be suffocated, only made difficult'

Ten incoming families will inhabit their new homes Monday in a new neighborhood built in the Carmel settlement on South Mount Hebron.

Although the Yesha Council is talking about settlements construction being frozen, an inauguration ceremony for the new neighborhood is due to take place Tuesday. One of the new residents told Ynet, “We are not sneaking in like thieves at night.”

Unsettling Violence   Police arrest 2 settlers on suspicion of assaulting Palestinians / Efrat Weiss   Police follow up on footage of Palestinian shepherds allegedly attacked by settlers, arrest two men from Susya Full story  

The settlers said that “everything is ready” in the neighborhood – apart from the backyard gardens, which they cannot plant because 2008 is a shmita year (the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah in which all agricultural activityin the Land of Israel is forbidden.)

The Carmel settlement was founded in 1981. It was first established as a cooperative, and later on turned into a community cooperative, and most of its earlier residents worked in the various agricultural fields. Today, Carmel has about 80 families who also work in education and freelance professions.

The settlement has kindergartens, the Reuta yehsiva and a unique factory, Isvey Kedem, which manufactures natural medical products from the plants grown it the area based on biblical methods and traditions.

According to the residents, the establishment of the settlement began in the days of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government.

Hooking up to water and power infrastructures has been completed and 10 families with children will be moving into the permanent structures on Tuesday. Zviki Bar-Hai, head of the South Mount. Hebron Regional Council told Ynet that “the settlement cannot be suffocated, only made difficult.

"Out of the 80 families living in Carmel, 15% of the population is native sons returning home. We are only in the beginning phase, since the flow of children (coming back) will only increase.” 

Bar-Hai further said that “the communities of South Mounty Hebron are expanding and prospering despite the government’s hostile policy..In Yatir, for example, a new seminary will be opened in the pre-military yeshiva. The Susia settlement and other communities are also developing.”

The Susia settlement has recently made headlines for entirely different reasons, when four settlers were filmed attacking Palestinian shepherds. Two Sussia residents were detained, one of them a minor.