Eli () is a large Israeli settlement in the West Bank organized as a community settlement. Located on Highway 60 north of Jerusalem and Ramallah, between the Palestinian villages of As-Sawiya and Qaryut, part of whose lands were expropriated for the establishment of Eli. It was named after the biblical high-priest who served in the Tabernacle in nearby biblical Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:9). In it had a population of . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. History Eli, named after the Biblical high priest of the Israelites, was established on 11 September 1984, when three families moved into recently placed buildings. It was the first settlement to be attempted without a core group of families. Several families from Ofra, Kokhav HaShahar, and Shilo were persuaded to come for at least a year while more families would be found. The settlement was originally called 'Givat Levona' after the adjacent settlement Ma'ale Levona. The Amana website states that the initial vision was creating 'one long territorial contiguity' of Jewish settlers between Eli and both Shiloh and Ma'ale Levona. According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from two nearby Palestinian villages in order to construct Eli: 1,551 dunums from As-Sawiya and 623 dunums from Qaryut. In recent years the town has evolved into the municipal center for the Shilo area settlement bloc. Eli is also home to the Bnei David pre-military Mechina academy. This yeshiva also offers post-army academic programs. Bnei David Academy Bnei David is the first pre-military Orthodox Mechina academy (1988), and was founded by rabbis Eli Sadan and Yig'al Levinstein. Many of the graduates have reached high rank in the IDF. It is an integral part of Eli, as many of the rabbis, administrators, graduates, and students live in Eli. There are currently over 500 students studying at Bnei David, and over 2,500 graduates, over 40% of them became officers, and the majority served in combatant or elite units. Shimon Peres has called it "Pride for the country". Co-founder of the academy, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, went on record in 2016 claiming gay people were 'sick and perverted' and that drafting women into the IDF deprived them of their Jewishness. In 2018 Rabbi Yosef Kelner asserted that women had feeble minds and a reduced spirituality. In April 2019, the head of the school, Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel (he), was