Kaẓir Ḥarish

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KAẒIR ḤARISH

KAẒIR ḤARISH (Heb. קָצִיר חָרִישׁ), urban community in northern Israel. Kaẓir Ḥarish is located in the eastern hills of Wadi 'Arra, and is an amalgamation of two settlements, with an area of 2.3 sq. mi. (6 sq. km.). Kaẓir was established as a community in 1982 by a group *Hitaḥdut ha-Ikkarim (Farmers Association) settlers, with assistance from the *Jewish Agency. Ḥarish was established as a kibbutz by Ha-Kibbutz ha-Artzi, also with the assistance of the Jewish Agency, southwest of Kaẓir. Neither settlement succeeded in expanding as expected. In the beginning of the 1990s, Kaẓir numbered just 30 families, while Ḥarish was abandoned by its founders in 1993. But with the mass immigration of the 1990s, Kaẓir and Ḥarish were selected to be included in the "star plan" aimed at populating settlements bordering on Judea and Samaria. In 1992 the government decided to unite the two settlements in a single municipal council. In 2002 its population was 3,500. The majority of the residents work outside the settlement, mainly in Ḥaderah, Haifa, and Tel Aviv.

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www.cityindex.co.il.

[Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]