Ma'ale Adumim (; ) is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was . It is 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.
Etymology The town name is taken from two mentions made of an area marking the boundaries between two Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua. At , in a passage on the inheritance of the Tribe of Judah, it is stated that part of the boundary ran from Debir to Gilgal, facing the ascent of Adumim, which the text places south of the wadi. At , in a description of the inheritance by the casting of lots that fell to Tribe of Benjamin, it is stated that part of its boundaries ran from En-shemesh then to Geliloth, which likewise faced the ascent of Adummim.
The toponym literally means 'Red Ascent' or 'Bloody Ascent' referring to the hue of the exposed red limestone rocks, tinted by iron oxide, that in patches line the ascent from the Dead Sea towards Jerusalem.
History
First displacement of Bedouin tribes The Jahalin and Sawahareh Bedouin tribes, evicted by Israel from their traditional pastoral lands in the Tel Arad area of the Negev, settled in the area of what would become the Ma'ale Adumim municipality, then under Jordanian administration, after contracting with local Palestinian landowners and receiving permission to graze their livestock there. After the Israeli conquest and occupation of the West Bank in the Six-Day War in 1967, they were gradually hemmed in by restrictions, due to pressures from the development of the Israeli settlement, many ending up in tracts of land in the vicinity of the Jericho-Jerusalem road or a rubbish dump near Abu Dis.
Initiation of Israeli settlement As early as 1968, just after the Six-Day War, Yigal Allon had advanced a proposal to establish a settlement somewhere in the area of Ma'ale Adumim and Jericho. The government of Levi Eshkol did not implement the step, because the political and diplomatic implications were significant, in that it would effectively split the West Bank. It was later opposed by Yehiel Admoni, the then head of the Jewish Agency for Israel's Settlement Department, as lying outside the scope of the Allon Plan, and if the 'Red Ascent' were settled, it would further erode what land might remain over for restoring territory to the Palestinians in a future peace negotiation.
The idea of making an industrial park for Jerusalem in the area of Ma'ale Adumim had been circulating for some years. In August 1974, Yisrael Galili, a major presence in the settlement project together with Meir Zorea with strong connections to Gush Emunim, aired the idea of settling it. He had privately offered it as a recompense for settlers who had attempted to establish themselves in Sebastia, to be rebuffed when that group refused to compromise. The links with Gush Emunim attested to a growing impact of Religious Zionist ideology on Israel's developing policies regarding the Palestinian territories. It is thought that the agreement to develop an industrial zone for Jerusalem there was the result of a deal struck between the National Religious Party and the government of Yitzhak Rabin, as part of a bargain between members of the coalition government, for which the green light was given on 24 November 1975. This government strategy to create "facts on the ground" was a response to the Rabat Summit decision in Morocco in October to recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. It was decided to permit 25 residential units to house 100 Israeli settlers/workers.
Development of the settlement Problems existed from the start, since there were no budget funds allocated for the project, and ministers opposed it either on financial grounds or out of suspicions that its creation had nothing to do with the establishment of an industrial town, but masked an intention to make a civilian settlement, something opposed by Mapam. Whatever monies were used, Yossi Sarid complained, would detract from funds targeted for Israel's own impoverished development towns. The evidence suggests that the decision was inspired more by political needs, including the perceived need to placate far-right groups, rather than respond to the requirements of the city of Jerusalem. Gershom Gorenberg argues that the cabinet compromise was 'a ruse' that spoke of setting up factory housing when in fact the aim was to create a fully fledged settlement afterwards. Galili himself argued that a settlement between Jericho and East Jerusalem was needed to keep Jordanians away from the Holy City. In an interview several decades later, the mayor of one of the larger settlements claimed that the aim of establishing Ma'ale Adumim was to 'protect Jerusalem from Arabs' and secure the road to the Jordan Valley.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the site had served as a Nahal military outpost, before being designated to become an Israeli labourers' camp. The outpost's establishment was delayed for political reasons, despite the November decision. Yigal Allon was due to meet Henry Kissinger in Washington and any leak of a new settlement would have been inconvenient at that time. Galili said the timing for the setting up of camps on the site should coincide with Kissinger's movements, timing it so that the latter's shuttle diplomacy would find him in transit to Brussels. Finally, around March 1975, following a ministerial decree to expropriate 3,000 hectares of land from the area's Palestinian villages, forty members of Gush Emunim built a water tower and prefab concrete hut on the site, only to be evicted the same afternoon by Israeli troops, each prospective settler carried away by four soldiers. This site was thereafter called by the settlers "Founder's Circle". In 1977, Haim Sabato founded a hesder yeshiva (paramilitary field seminary) there and it was also designated to become a planned community, suburb and commuter town for nearby Jerusalem, to which many residents would commute daily.
The boundaries of the settlement were set at some 3,500 hectares in 1979 and by the early 90s had extended to 4,350 hectares. Writing in 2003, Cheryl Rubenberg stated that For the bedouins, as well as for the villagers, loss of their lands meant loss of their agricultural way of life and major transformations in their social life. Today, the area available to the villages together, with a population of approximately 40,000, is some 460 hectares. The area of Ma'ale Adumim with some 26,000 settlers, is 11.5 times greater.
Displacement of Jahalin Bedouins in 1990s In the late 1990s, approximately 1,050 Jahalin Bedouins were displaced from land that was now annexed to form part of the settlement. Sewage was used as a tool for displacement. The Israeli Civil Administration disconnected one of the sewage pipes of the Ma'ale Adumim settlement on the hilltop to flood large areas around the Bedouin camp on the lower slopes of the hill. Streams and ponds of polluted matter forced the tribe to relocate.
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 was forcibly ended.
Attack and planned expansion
After Palestinian gunmen killed one Israeli and injured five Israelis near Ma'ale Adumim, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in February 2024 announced a "settlement response" after speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as "any harm to us will lead to more construction and more development and more of our hold all over the country", with 2,350 more homes in Ma'ale Adumim being arranged for approval. American Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the announcement, stating that new Israeli settlements are "inconsistent with international law" and "counter-productive to reaching an enduring peace", risking "Israel’s security". Haaretz reported that Israel's government in March 2024 progressed the approval of 2,452 more settler homes in Ma'ale Adumim.
Urban plans The chief urban planner was architect Rachel Walden. In March 1979, Ma'ale Adumim achieved local council status. The urban plan for Ma'ale Adumim, finalized in 1983, encompasses a total of , of which have been built so far, in a bloc that includes Ma'ale Adumim, Mishor Adumim, Kfar Adumim, and Allon.
Politics Guy Yifrah was elected mayor of Ma'ale Adumim at the 2024 Israeli municipal elections with 53 per cent of the vote.
According to Nathan Thrall: Although the bloc itself is not officially annexed to Israel, Jewish immigrants from Los Angeles or London may move directly to it, or to any other settlement, and receive a basket of government aid that includes free air travel, a financial grant, subsistence allowances for one year, rent subsidies, low-interest mortgages, Hebrew instruction, tuition benefits, tax discounts, and reduced fees at state-recognized day care centers, of which the bloc contains several.Nathan Thrall, 'A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: One man’s quest to find his son lays bare the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli rule,' New York Review of Books 19 March 2021
Voting Patterns In the 2022 election, 79 percent of voters in Ma'ale Adumim voted for the parties of the right-wing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, while 18 percent voted for the parties of the center-left coalition led by Yair Lapid and 0.1 percent voted for the Arab parties.
Geography
The city is surrounded on four sides by the Judean Desert and is linked to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area via Highway 1. Due to its strategic location between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, Palestinians see this as a threat to the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state. This claim is disputed by mayor Benny Kashriel, who claims that continuity would be attained by circling Ma'ale Adumim to the east. Israeli drivers use a bypass road that exits the city to the west, entering Jerusalem through the French Hill Junction or a tunnel that goes under Mount Scopus. These routes were built in the wake of the First and Second Intifadas when Palestinian militants shot at motorists and cars were stoned. The previous road passed through al-Eizariya and Abu Dis.
Economy
Many residents of Ma'ale Adumim are employed in Jerusalem. Others work in Mishor Adumim, Ma'ale Adumim's industrial park, which is located on the road to the Dead Sea, about ten minutes from Jerusalem. The industrial zone houses 220 businesses, among them textile plants, garages, food manufacturers, aluminum and metalworking factories, and printing companies.
Demographics In 2004, over 70 percent of the residents were secular. According to the municipal spokesman, the overwhelming majority moved to the city not for ideological reasons but for lower-cost housing and higher living standards. In 2004, 48 percent of residents were under the age of 18. Ma'aleh Adumim's unemployment rate was 2.1 percent, far below the national average.
Education and culture