Yonatan, Golan Heights

Yonatan ( _he. יונתן) is a moshav located in the central Golan Heights, under the administration of Israel. The moshav is affiliated with the Hapoel HaMizrachi movement, and is under the jurisdiction of Golan Regional Council. Around 350 people live there.

Name

The community is named after Yonatan Rosenman, who was killed while operating a tank during the Yom Kippur War.

History

The community was founded, together with four other communities, during the tenure of Yitzhak Rabin as Prime Minister of Israel. The original founding nucleus included people from Yonatan Rosenman's Nahal gar'in. Immediately after the Yom Kippur War the founders decided to name a community after him. In 1975 the community was started temporarily in the area of the kibbutz Merom Golan, and about a year later it moved to Tel Farj. Only in 1978 did it move to its present-day location.

Geography

The present-day location is 570 meters above sea level, near Gilgal Refaim and some springs and tributaries. It is about 7 km west of the Israel-Syria border, and a few km southwest of Keshet, which is also a moshav shitufi of the Hapoel HaMizrachi movement.

Population

Residents of the community are members of Bnei Akiva. About 350 people live there, including 73 families and 210 children as of 2007.

Economy

The economy is based on apple and plum orchards and viniculture. Yonatan also has mango and passiflora orchards in the Beit Tzida Valley; field crops include cotton, corn, wheat, and tomatoes for industry. The community has areas for pasture, chicken coops, and the second-largest dairy herd in Israel (as of 2007), whose milk is delivered to Tnuva. Yonatan also partners with the resort village Kinar on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Further reading (Hebrew)

* מיכה לבנה, גולן - 20 שנה ועוד 2000, משרד הביטחון הוצאה לאור, 1993.

External links

* [http://www.yonatan.org.il Official website] he icon
* [http://www.bagolan.org.il/Telesite_33olcgi/ts.cgi?tsurl=0-0.388.0.0.0 Yonatan] Golan Heights he icon