ألون شفوتAlon Shvut (Hebrew: אַלּוֹן שְׁבוּת) is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank,[2][3] established in June 1970 over lands confiscated from the nearby Palestinian town of Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah.

The ancient town of Beit Zakariah, in northern Judea, is identified with the ruins of Khirbet Zechariah, less than a kilometer north of Alon Shvut.

The educational structures would consist of (a) a High Yeshiva in a military framework (Nahal), (b) a Jewish study academy, (c) a seminar for activists, and (d) a school for teaching in Har Hevron (the Hebron Hills).

[27] Yigal Allon became its political sponsor, and paved the way for the realization of Moskovic's programme, which was designed to replace the demolished Masu'ot Yitzhak with a new community, Alon Shvut.

[29] According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated 920 dunams of land from the nearby Palestinian village of Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah in order to build Alon Shvut.

Graduates from these Gush Etzion yeshivot make up a disproportionately high percentage of fighting men in the elite units of Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

[36][37] Peace Now reports that private Palestinian property makes up 24.13% of the land that Alon Shvut, along with the nearby Israeli outpost of Givat Hahish, is built on.

The old and new neighborhoods are contiguous, and lie on a northwest–southeast axis along the ridge of a hill, with a gradual plain descending to its south and dramatic gullies dropping to its north.

Among the new residents were those who had been unable to acquire lots in the original neighborhood,[41] as well as many young families that had moved to Israel from abroad ("made aliyah"), especially from the United States.

In the summer 2002, a group of 90 Incan Jewish immigrants, former Christians who converted to Judaism and who hail from Trujillo, Peru moved into mobile homes on the site.

[42] Donna Rosenthal writes of this community: Not all settlers were born Jewish; in summer 2002, Peruvian Indians left huts and were welcomed into new trailer homes in this Judean hills settlement.

"We knew we were coming to a place called 'territories' because we know other Peruvians who immigrated earlier and are living in the settlements," said a kippa-wearing convert who carried a Spanish-Hebrew prayer book.

[44] Alon Shvut rabbinical school encouraged the family of a yeshiva student killed in a Tel Aviv Hamas bus bombing incident to donate his organs, and a Palestinian girl was the recipient of his liver.

[48] In 2007, the Gush Etzion winery, a modern facility on the road to Alon Shvut, won a gold medal for its Cabernet Franc in the annual Mediterranean International Wine and Spirit Challenge, also known as Terravino.

[50] In 2011, the seminar drew 5,000 participants and offered 200 lectures in such subjects as Biblical archaeology, hermeneutics, linguistics, poetry, history, geography, kabbalah, and Jewish law.

[52] Alon Shvut and the neighboring community of Neve Daniel are linked by a path called Derech Ha’Avot (Way of the Patriarchs).