Aseret
עֲשֶׂרֶת‎
Etymology: Ten (after ten members of Bilu)
Aseret is located in Central Israel
Aseret
Aseret
Aseret is located in Israel
Aseret
Aseret
Coordinates: 31°49′29″N 34°44′49″E / 31.82472°N 34.74694°E / 31.82472; 34.74694
Country Israel
DistrictCentral
CouncilGederot
RegionShephelah
Founded1954
Population
 (2022)[1]
965

Aseret (Hebrew: עֲשֶׂרֶת) is a community settlement on the coastal plain of south-central Israel. Located near Gedera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gederot Regional Council.

It was founded in 1954 on the ruins of the depopulated Palestinian village of Bashshit. The word "Aseret" means ten, and the community is named after the ten members of Bilu who founded Gedera.[2] In 2022 its population was 965.[1]

History

Modern Aseret overlaid on the historical area of Bashshit.

Aseret was founded in 1954 as the municipal center of Gederot Regional Council. It continues to serve this function today. Aseret is the center, both geographically and municipally, of the other six communities in the council: Meishar, Misgav Dov, Kfar Aviv, Kfar Mordechai, Shdema and Gan HaDarom.[2]

Aseret was built on the lands of Bashshit, a Palestinian village depopulated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[3] There is an old tomb associated with Seth, the son of Adam in the Hebrew Bible.[2] According to scholars of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the name Bashshit was derived from Beit Shit, meaning the "house of Seth.[4][5] The tomb lies within a triple-domed mosque located on the side of a hill.[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aseret.
  1. ^ a b "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Mapa's concise gazetteer of Israel (in Hebrew). Yuval El'azari (ed.). Tel-Aviv: Mapa Publishing. 2005. p. 437. ISBN 965-7184-34-7.((cite book)): CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 363. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  4. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), 1838, p. 84.
  5. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund. "Quarterly Statement for 1877". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
  6. ^ Petersen, Andrew (2002). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine: Volume I (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
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