Ishta’ol Colony

Ishta’ol is a moshav in central occupied Palestine, located 6 km north of the settlement of Beit Shemesh. The modern settlement of Ishta’ol was established in 1949 on the lands of the two depopulated Arab villages, Ishwa and Aslin, following the 1948 ethnic cleansing war. It was part of a plan to create settlements in the Jerusalem corridor to form a contiguous bloc between the coastal plain and Jerusalem. The initial settlers were immigrants from Yemen, who settled there in December 1949 and worked in land reclamation and forestry. The Jewish National Fund established a 45-dunam nursery in Ishta’ol to supply saplings for the JNF forests. Later, the moshav expanded into poultry farming and other agricultural projects. By the late 1990s, the moshav absorbed 100 new Jewish families. In 2021, the colony had 1,231 settlers.