Built on lands confiscated from the neighboring Palestinian villages of An-Naqura[2] and Deir Sharaf,[3] it is located to the west of Nablus, on the road to Tulkarm.

[4] In late 1976, supporters of the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) staged a takeover of the abandoned Sebastia railroad station, located outside an Arab village of the same name.

With the support of newly elected Prime Minister Menachem Begin, a residential community was built the following year alongside a military base at a strategically valuable crossroads by residents of nearby Netanya, and with the assistance of the Amana settlement organisation.

Others were concerned that an incident like the one earlier in the year, when a terrorist infiltrated the community and targeted the kindergarten with grenades and firearms before being shot by a local resident, could be repeated without such measures.

[7] The community has a swimming pool and ulpan (Hebrew classes) for newcomers which serve to attract a population including many olim (Jewish immigrants) from English-speaking countries as well as Russian Jews from the former USSR, Yemenite Jews, Bnei Menashe, and some Incan Jewish families from Trujillo, Peru that converted to Orthodox Judaism.