Shafir

Shafir
Founded	1949
Council	Shafir
Region	Western Negev
Affiliation	Hapoel HaMizrachi
Coordinates	31°41′48″N 34°43′43″E / 31.69667°N 34.72861°E / 31.69667; 34.72861Coordinates: 31°41′48″N 34°43′43″E / 31.69667°N 34.72861°E / 31.69667; 34.72861
Shafir

Shafir (Hebrew: שָׁפִיר‎‎) is a moshav in southern Israel. Located in the Shephelah near Kiryat Malakhi, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. In 2006, it had a population of 499.

Shafir was founded on August 15, 1949 by immigrants from Hungary and Czechoslovakia. It was named after the Biblical city of Shafir that is mentioned in the Book of Micah 1:11, which also means "good and beautiful".^[1] It is built on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village Al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya.^[2]

In 1954, during the Shafir shooting attack, a fedayeen "opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of Shafir. Three children and a youth worker were killed on the spot, and five were wounded, including three seriously".^[3]

References

1. ^ Vilnai, Ze'ev (1980). "Shafir (b)". Ariel Encyclopedia. Volume 8. Israel: Am Oved. pp. p. 7996.  (Hebrew)
2. ^ Morris (2004), p. xxi, settlement #64
3. ^ "Which Came First- Terrorism or Occupation - Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War". Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 31 March 2002. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Which+Came+First-+Terrorism+or+Occupation+-+Major.htm. 

Bibliography

• Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7