ATAROT

ATAROT (Heb. עֲטָ רוֹת; "crowns"), moshav, north of Jerusalem, evacuated and destroyed during the War of Independence (1948). A small group of laborers settled on the site in 1914 but had to abandon it in the course of World War I. Another group, of East European origin, established the moshav in 1922 and were joined in the 1930s by immigrants from Germany. The moshav withstood Arab assaults in the 1929 and 1936–39 riots. Atarot began to develop model hill culture but suffered a setback when its best lands were expropriated by the British authorities for the Jerusalem airport. During the first stages of the War of Independence, Atarot served crack Palmaḥ\>\> units as a forward position, but on May 17, 1948, the isolated settlement had to be evacuated. A year later, the settlers founded Benei Atarot near Lydda (in 2002 it had a population of 548). Atarot remained in Jordanian territory and almost no trace was found of the settlement when Israeli soldiers captured the site during the Six-Day War (1967). Together with the adjoining airport, it was included in the municipal boundaries of united Jerusalem and an industrial area was developed there. (Efraim Orni)