View source for Aluma

{{Short description|Moshav in southern Israel}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox Israel village
| name = Aluma
|arname=ألوما
| hebname = {{Script/Hebrew|אֲלֻמָּה}}
| image = File:Aluma Israel.JPG
| altOffSp = Alumma
| founded = 1965
| founded_by    = [[Agudat Yisrael]] members
| council       = [[Shafir Regional Council|Shafir]]
| affiliation =
| population = {{Israel populations|Alumma}}
| popyear = {{Israel populations|Year}}
| population_footnotes = {{Israel populations|reference}}
|pushpin_map=Israel ashkelon |pushpin_mapsize=250
|coordinates = {{coord|31|39|5|N|34|44|37|E|display=inline,title}}
| website =
}}
'''Aluma''' ({{langx|he|אֲלֻמָּה}} or {{Script/Hebrew|אלומה}}, ''lit.'' Sheaf) is a moshav in southern [[Israel]]. Located in the southern [[Israeli coastal plain|coastal plain]] around three kilometers north-west of [[Kiryat Gat]], it falls under the jurisdiction of [[Shafir Regional Council]]. In {{Israel populations|Year}} it had a population of {{Israel populations|Alumma}}.{{Israel populations|reference}}
==History==
[[File:Byzantine Basilica Mosaic Aluma.JPG|thumb|Byzantine mosaic floor in Aluma]]
The village was established in 1965 as a [[youth village]] named Hazon Yehezkel by a group called ''Mosadot Hinukh Ezuri'' (lit. ''Institute for Regional Education''), made up of young members of [[Agudat Yisrael]]. It was built on the ruins of the depopulated [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] village of [[Hatta, Gaza|Hatta]].<ref>{{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first1=Walid|last1=Khalidi|authorlink=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=[[Washington D.C.]]|publisher=[[Institute for Palestine Studies]]|isbn=0-88728-224-5|id={{ISBN|0-88728-224-5}}|page=101 }}</ref> In 1996 the [[Ministry of Interior (Israel)|Ministry of Interior]] granted the village municipal council status and renamed it Aluma.
In 2014, the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church containing an ancient mosaic floor bearing a [[Christogram]] surrounded by birds. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Gannon |first1=Megan |title=Ancient Church Mosaic With Symbol of Jesus Uncovered in Israel |url=https://www.livescience.com/42761-ancient-church-mosaics-uncovered-israel.html |website=Live Science}}</ref> The church was discovered during a salvage dig prior to the construction of a new neighborhood on the moshav.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-byzantine-era-church-uncovered-in-israel-1.5314319 Byzantine-era church uncovered in southern Israel], [[Haaretz]]</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Shafir Regional Council}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Community settlements]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1965]]
[[Category:Religious Israeli communities]]
[[Category:Populated places in Southern District (Israel)]]