Neve Michael

Neve Michael colony, also known as Roglit, is a moshav located in the central-southern part of occupied Palestine. It was established on July 29, 1958, by Kurdish Jewish immigrants from Iran, on land belonging to the depopulated Palestinian village of Bayt Nattif, in the Hebron District. The site, previously known as Khirbet Jarfa, contains archaeological remains dating from the early Hellenistic period to the Umayyad period, including evidence of a Jewish settlement from the 1st century CE.

The restructured Jewish National Fund (JNF), in coordination with the Hitahdut HaIkarim agricultural organization, settled the new immigrants at the site in 1958, initially naming it Roglit. The immigrants were first employed as laborers reclaiming land for the JNF. Later, the local economy came to rely on agriculture, especially citrus cultivation and poultry farming, although these industries gradually declined in the late 1980s.

A newer regional community center built adjacent to the settlement was named Neve Michael, in honor of American philanthropist Michael M. Weiss, a donor to the Jewish National Fund.

In 1983, the settlements of Neve Michael and Roglit were merged. A new Israeli Border Police station was also built in Neve Michael, though it was later abandoned in 1962. Additional immigrants from North Africa, particularly Morocco, later joined the founding population.

In 2005, an expansion plan was launched, attracting younger families to the moshav. Today, the community is home to a diverse population of settlers from various age groups, ethnic backgrounds, and religious practices within Judaism.

Not far from the settlement are the ruins known as Adullam and Hurvat Itri.

As of 2022, the settlement's population was 883.

Sources: Due to the scarcity of Arabic-language references, Hebrew sources were used, including:

• The settlement's official Hebrew website

• The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

• The entry for Bayt Nattif from Palestine Remembered