This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Ariel (Hebrew: אֲרִיאֵל; Arabic: أريئيل) is an Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the central West Bank, part of the Israeli-occupied territories, approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of the Green Line and 34 kilometres (21 mi) west of the Jordan border.

[5] Ariel's jurisdiction spans 14,677 dunams (14.677 km2; 5.667 sq mi),[6] and borders the Palestinian towns and villages Salfit, Marda and Iskaka.

According to B'Tselem, within Ariel's municipal area there are several enclaves of privately owned Palestinian land, whose owners are not allowed access to them.

[9] The leader of this group, Ron Nachman, chose the latter because of its strategic location on a possible Jordanian invasion route towards Israel's main population centre of Tel Aviv.

In the spring of 1978, some of the group's men erected tents on the chosen hilltop, and in August 1978, a total of forty families came to live in the settlement.

[citation needed] The original members of the group had gone through a screening process in order to put together a mix of skilled adults as well as young families that would be prepared psychologically to withstand starting a new settlement from scratch with little infrastructure and modern comforts.

In 2005, the residents of Netzarim, a former Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip which had been evacuated, found temporary housing in the dormitories of the Ariel University Center of Samaria.

Nachman, a central figure in the Likud party, presided over Ariel from 1978 until his death in January 2013, at first as head of the local council and as mayor from 1985, when the settlement was officially recognized as a city.

Ariel's jurisdiction spans 14,677 dunams (14.677 km2; 5.667 sq mi),[6] and borders the Palestinian towns and villages Salfit, Marda and Iskaka.

[14] Like all Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, Ariel is considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

In January 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by leading figures in his governing coalition, declared Ariel the "capital of Samaria", and "an integral part of Israel".

Ariel's future is thus not clear: "as well as an obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, it could also serve as a crucial trade-off for negotiators hammering out a final deal.

The order was criticised across the political spectrum in Israel, including Likud MK Ehud Olmert who called it "insensitive and unwise" and Ratz MK Yossi Sarid who said he was "disgusted," with some commentators comparing the order to the yellow badges imposed by Nazi Germany on Jews.

B. Yehoshua,[28] It was opposed by Amnon Shamosh, who suggested that the boycott plays into the hands of right-wing extremists by linking art and politics.