Communal settlement (Israel)

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A communal settlement (Hebrew: יישוב קהילתי‎, Yishuv Kehilati) in Israel is type of cooperative community that in contrast to a Kibbutz or a Moshav involves no economic cooperation between the residents. Cooperation is on a societal level only; education, religious actives and public works are some issues planned based on communal decision making. Residents form a legal cooperative union that is recognised by the state as the local authority.

Many communal settlements have a particular shared ideology or religious perspective that they wish to perpetuate, while others are simply set up as a method of local government. The first communal settlement in Israel was Neve Monosson, in Gush Dan which was established in 1953. Many Israeli settlements on the West Bank are set up as communal settlements; there are also many such communities in the Galilee and elsewhere in rural northern Israel.

To move to a communal settlement one must simultaneously join the cooperative. An interview and acceptance process is usually required to join the cooperative and move into the community. While most communal settlements in Israel are relatively small (with a few hundred or thousand residents) some large Haredi towns such as Betar Illit are designated as communal settlements to ensure that new residents can be screened.^{[citation needed]} The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as well as other civil and human rights groups, have charged that this screening process is designed to deny Arab citizens of Israel the possibility of living in such communities, and that sometimes Jews of specific ethnic or socio-economic groups are also discriminated against. The issue is at present hotly debated, and is the subject of still pending petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem.