Template:Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine Artuf (Arabic: عرتوف) was an Arab village in the Jerusalem foothills.
In 1883, a group of English missionaries purchased land there to establish an agricultural colony for Jews whom they hoped to convert to Christianity. When the settlers refused to convert, the project was abandoned.[1] In 1895, the Bulgarian Hibbat Zion movement bought 5,000 dunams in Artuf from the London Jews' Society and renamed the colony Har Tuv. (lit. Good mountain)[2]Twelve Jewish families settled there and tried to earn a living from agriculture.[3]Due to the poor quality of the soil, and lack of water, seeds and work implements, life in Har Tuv was a struggle. In 1900, one of the settlers inaugurated a carriage service to Jerusalem. [4]
In his 1912-13 literary almanac, Luah Le'eretz yisrael, historian A.M. Luncz wrote: "Artuf (Har-Tuv), founded in 1895, about 10 minutes from D'ieban along the route of the Jerusalem-Yafo railroad, 101 inhabitants, Sephardi Jews of Bulgarian origin." [5]
During the 1929 riots, Hartuv was destroyed by the Arabs. The Jews fled to Jaffa by train, watching their homes go up in flames through the carriage windows. [6] Invoking the Collective Punishments Ordinance, the British Mandatory authorities heavily fined the Arab villages whose residents attacked the Jews of Hartuv.[7]
After the establishment of the State of Israel, a ma'abara transit camp was established on the site for Jewish immigrants, and a cement factory was opened to provide employment. [8]
Archaeological excavations in Hartuv revealed an architectural complex dating to the Early Bronze 1 period. [9]The site includes a central courtyard surrounded by rooms on at least three sides. One of the rooms, a rectangular hall with pillar bases along its long axis, may have been a sanctuary with a line of standing stones (massebot). Another hall has a monumental entrance flanked by two monolithic door jambs. The complex appears to have had both religious and secular functions.[10]