Mazal Tov to Ma'ale Rehav'am

A legal victory by the residents of Ma'ale Rehav'am (small yishuv not far from Tekoa; on the black list of the "outposts") against the Maariv newspaper. Maariv wrote that Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on private Arab land when it is absolutely not true.

Maariv will pay Ma'ale Rehav'am 13,000 NIS and 4946 nis in legal expenses. In addition Maariv has been forced to print a correction in their paper within the next two weeks. Attorney Eyal Siman Tov represented Maaleh Rehavam.

Ma'ale Rehav'am (Hebrew: מַעֲלֶה רְחַבְעָם‎), is an Israeli settlement south of Bethlehem and northeast of Hebron in the West Bank, located in the northeastern Judean Mountains on Road 3698.

With assistance from Amana, Ma'ale Rehav'am was founded in 2001 after, and in reaction to, the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi who was an ardent supporter of settlement of Yesha. The residents of the village pride themselves on operating based on the ecovillage model which has taken shape in olive and almond groves, a muscat grape vineyard, and an orchard growing thirty-five different fruit varieties.

The small 'mixed' community stands out in that non-observant and religiously observant Jewish families live together. In general, while large Israeli towns and cities have heterogeneous populations, most small communities usually are either homogeneous non-religious or religious. Similarly, the village's mother community Nokdim, is also a 'mixed' community. Ma'ale Rehav'am was built on land belonging to Nokdim and originally zoned for that purpose.
The population of Ma'ale Rehav'am receives its municipal services from the Gush Etzion Regional Council.