14
The Construction of
the Yvel Design Center
The History of Motza
Originally the first modern Jewish village outside the city, Motza is located on the
site of a Biblical village of the same name.
The Yvel Design Center is beautifully snuggled
into the rolling hills of Motza, just outside the
gate to the magical city of Jerusalem.
Motza lies along the western edge of Jerusalem,
at approximately 600 metres above sea level.
High in the Judean Hills, Motza is surrounded
by forest, a relatively isolated place, connected
to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway
and the picturesque winding mountain road to
the capital city itself. Originally the first modern
Jewish village outside the city, Motza is located
on the site of a Biblical village of the same name.
The village was the scene of a historical, violent
attack in the 1929 Palestine riots.
In 1859, farmland was purchased from the nearby
Arab village of Qalunya (Colonia) by a Baghdadi
Jew, Shaul Yehuda, with the aid of British Consul
James Finn. Jewish families from Jerusalem
soon joined the enterprise, one of which ran a
tile factory, among the earliest industries in the
region. Despite preparation for groundbreaking
and deciding on the name Motza for the town,
legal complications prevented settlement.
However, a traveler’s inn was established at the
site in 1871 on the foundation of ruins from an
ancient Roman building.
In December 1948, United Nations General
Assembly Resolution 194 specified that “the
built-up area of Motsa” was to be included in
the Jerusalem “Corpus separatum”, which was
to be detached from “the rest of Palestine” and
“placed under effective United Nations control”.
However, this was never carried out in practice,
and Motza became part of the State of Israel.
Despite good relations with neighboring Arab
communities, the village was attacked during
the 1929 Palestine riots. Several residents of
Kolonia attacked an outlying house belonging
to the Maklef family, killing the father, mother,
son, two daughters, and their two guests. Three
children survived by escaping out a second-story
window; one, Mordechai Maklef, later became
Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army. The attackers
included the lone police officer an armed man
in the area, as well as a shepherd employed by
the Maklef family. The village was subsequently
abandoned by Jews for a year’s time.
Motza was home to one of Israel’s oldest
wineries, the Teperberg Winery, and now
houses the Yvel Design Center.