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Gadera is a settlement in occupied Palestine, located in the central region. It was established in 1884 and is situated 13 kilometers south of Rosh Pina. As of 2009, its population was approximately 21,500 settlers.
Gadera was founded during the winter of 1884 by members of the Russian Bilu movement, south of the Palestinian village of Qatra. The settlement was built on an area of 3,000 dunams of land belonging to the depopulated village of Qatra. The land was purchased by the Bilu group from Rabbi Yitshiel Michel Pins, a member of Ahavat Zion, from the French Consul in Jaffa, Paul Bouver. The land was registered in the name of Rabbi Eliezer Hildesheimer in Berlin and was divided into 25 equal plots.
The first settlers arrived at the site during Hanukkah in 1888. Benjamin and Menahem Fox built the first stone house in Gadera, which was later used as a meeting place for Bnei B’rith.
The Zionist settlers in Gadera were young and considered aggressive towards the original Palestinian Arab inhabitants. Zionist sources indicate that they provoked the Palestinians in the neighboring village of Qatra, insulted them, and behaved unjustly and arrogantly towards them. In one incident, following a fight with Qatra in 1887 during which a settler was injured while trying to prevent Arab shepherds from grazing their flocks on settlement lands, the settlers deliberately provoked to attract the attention of prominent Jews. Yafa activists claim this was done under the settlers’ influence.
In 1912, a group of Yemeni immigrants settled in Gadera during the British Mandate period. Gadera became a well-known producer due to its mild climate and clean air.
Sources:
Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, we relied on Hebrew sources: the Hebrew website of the settlement / Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
The village of Qatra is referenced from the Palestine in Memory website.
Haganah occupied Qatra on May 17, 1948, and expelled its inhabitants.
Between 1949 and 1953, thousands of settlers from Yemen, Romania, Iraq, Poland, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, India, Iran, Libya, and other countries arrived in temporary camps