Erez ( Hebrew : אֶרֶז , lit. ' cedar ' ) is a kibbutz in southwestern Israel . Located just 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of the Gaza Strip , it is the namesake of the nearby Erez Crossing .
60-551: The kibbutz was founded in 1949 and moved to its current location in 1950. In 2019, it had a population of 558. Located in the northwestern Negev around 18 kilometres (11 mi) south of the coastal city of Ashkelon , it falls under the jurisdiction of the Shaʽar HaNegev Regional Council . Erez is named after the first group that settled the kibbutz , who were members of the Noar HaOved from Petah Tikva . It
120-600: A cessasion of the international trade with luxury goods such as Gaza wine, grape production in the Negev settlements again giving way to subsistence farming, focused on barley and wheat . Repeated earthquakes hit the region during the Byzantine period, with numerous revetment walls added to buildings to support them against collapse; a large 7th-century seismic event though led to the abandonement of Avdat and Rehovot-in-the-Negev. This recent analysis of newly obtained data has proven
180-639: A few individuals in the Negev. The dorcas gazelle is more numerous, with some 1,000–1,500 individuals in the Negev. Some 350 to 500 Nubian ibex live in the Negev Highlands and in the Eilat Mountains . The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae that is found only in Israel. A population of the critically endangered Kleinmann's tortoise (also known as the Negev tortoise ) survives in
240-446: A nearby hospital, where they received lifesaving treatment. After a fight of close to two hours, the terrorists decided that Kibbutz Erez was too difficult to overcome, and moved on to wreak havoc on the next village. The kibbutz was never penetrated by the terrorists. The whole kibbutz was evacuated to Mitzpe Ramon. Many of the families moved into hotel rooms there. After several weeks, makeshift schools were established and members of
300-642: A railway station. The authority of the tribal chiefs over the region was recognized by the Ottomans. A railroad connected it to the port of Rafah . In 1914, the Ottoman authorities estimated the nomadic population at 55,000. The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France placed the Negev in Area B, "Arab state or states" under British patronage. The Negev was taken from the Ottoman army by British forces during 1917 and became part of Mandatory Palestine . In 1922,
360-661: A sudden fall. It's when two major calamities strike the Byzantine Empire and large parts of the world: the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536-545), caused by huge volcanic eruptions in the world, with the resulting extreme weather events of 535–536 ; and in the 540s the first outbreak of bubonic plague in the Old World , known as the Justinianic Plague . It seems likely that these two events resulted in almost
420-543: Is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel . The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. 214,162), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city and port of Eilat . It contains several development towns , including Dimona , Arad , and Mitzpe Ramon , as well as a number of small Bedouin towns, including Rahat , Tel Sheva , and Lakiya . There are also several kibbutzim , including Revivim and Sde Boker ;
480-655: Is a rocky desert. It is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions: northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau and the Arabah Valley. The northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm (12 in) of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm (9.8 in) of rain per year, with light and partially sandy soils. Sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres (98 ft) here. Home to
540-556: Is accordingly defined as "the eastern (biblical) Negev". According to the Book of Genesis chapter 13, Abraham lived for a while in the Negev after being banished from Egypt ( Genesis 13:1,3 ). During the Exodus journey to the Promised Land, Moses sent twelve scouts into the Negev to assess the land and population ( Numbers 13:17 ). Later the northern part of biblical Negev was inhabited by
600-561: Is credited with introducing copper mining and smelting in both the Negev and the Sinai between 1400 and 1300 BCE. According to Israeli archaeologists, in the Hebrew Bible , the term Negev only relates to the northern, semiarid part of what we call Negev today; of this, the Arad - Beersheba Valley, which receives enough rain as to allow agriculture and thus sedentary occupation (the " desert fringe "),
660-460: Is home to hazardous infrastructures that include Negev Nuclear Research Center nuclear reactor , 22 agrochemical and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator at Ne'ot Hovav , cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and two rivers of open sewage. In 2005, the Tel Aviv municipality was accused of dumping waste in the Negev at
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#1732848969868720-767: Is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , whose faculties include the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies , both located on the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus adjacent to Sde Boker . In October 2012, global travel guide publisher Lonely Planet rated the Negev second on a list of the world's top ten regional travel destinations for 2013, noting its current transformation through development. The origin of
780-422: Is zero. Snow and frost are rare in the northern Negev, and snow and frost are unknown in the vicinity of Eilat in the southernmost Negev. Nomadic life in the Negev dates back at least 4,000 years and perhaps as much as 7,000 years. The first urbanized settlements were established by a combination of Canaanite , Amalekite , Amorite , Nabataean and Edomite groups c. 2000 BCE . Pharaonic Egypt
840-608: The Assyrian Empire . Beersheba was the region's capital and a center for trade in the 8th century BCE. Small settlements of Israelites in the areas around the capital existed between 1020 and 928 BCE. The 4th-century BCE arrival of the Nabateans resulted in the development of irrigation systems that supported new urban centers located along the Negev incense route at Avdat (Oboda), Mamshit (Mampsis), Shivta (Sobata), Haluza (Elusa), and Nitzana (Nessana). This at least
900-571: The Dudaim dump [ he ] . The Manufacturers Association of Israel established an authority in 2005 to move 60 industrial enterprises active in the Tel Aviv region to the Negev. In 1979, the Ramat Hovav toxic waste facility was established in Wadi el-Na'am because the area was perceived as invulnerable to leakage. However, within a decade, cracks were found in the rock beneath Ramat Hovav. In 2004,
960-598: The Israel Defense Forces ' major bases – a process accelerating in the past two decades. As of 2010, the Negev was home to some 630,000 people, or 8.2% of Israel 's population, even though it comprises over 55% of the country's area. 470,000 Negev residents (75% of the population) are Jews , while 160,000 or 25% are Bedouin. Of the Bedouin population (a demographic with a semi-nomadic tradition), half live in unrecognized villages , and half live in towns built for them by
1020-605: The Nabataeans , a theory proven wrong by more recent studies, which dated the massive agricultural and demographic growth in the area to the Byzantine period . The older explanation for the Tuleilat el-Anab , lit. 'grape mounds' phenomenon, has also been discarded: these large piles of rocks probably served two purposes, of removing the rocks from the cultivated plots, and of accelerating the erosion and water transportation of topsoil from
1080-544: The Pleistocene , the Negev fluctuated between intervals of relative humidity and intervals of aridity similar to or even more severe than the present day; from around 80,000 to 13,000 years BP , during a time interval roughly corresponding to the Last Glacial Period , the Negev was significantly more humid than today. It covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km (5,000 sq mi), or at least 55% of
1140-545: The Tribe of Judah and the southern part of biblical Negev by the Tribe of Simeon . The Negev was later part of the Kingdom of Solomon (in its entirety, all the way to the Red Sea), and then, with varied extension to the south, part of the Kingdom of Judah . In the 9th century BCE, development and expansion of mining in both the Negev and Edom (modern Jordan) coincided with the rise of
1200-605: The Wadi Musa and Petra areas in present-day Jordan . The Bedouins of the Negev historically survived chiefly on sheep and goat husbandry. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The Bedouin in years past established few permanent settlements, although some were built, leaving behind remnants of stone houses called 'baika.' In 1900, the Ottoman Empire established an administrative center for southern Syria at Beersheba including schools and
1260-603: The jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council . In 2022 it had a population of 470. A large agricultural farm or small village existed here in the early Islamic period, from the late 7th century to the early 9th century. Remains of dozens of structures exist, including a mosque near which hundreds of Arabic inscriptions were found. The modern kibbutz was established on 15 May 1952 by former soldiers, including Yehoshua Cohen who assassinated United Nations envoys Folke Bernadotte and André Sérot in 1948. In 1953 Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned from office and moved to
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#17328489698681320-442: The 4th century introduced Christianity to the population. Agriculture-based cities were established and the population grew exponentially. As shown by the research done by Michael Evenari , novel techniques were employed, such as runoff rainwater collection and management systems, which harvested water from larger areas and directed it onto smaller plots. This allowed the cultivation of plants with much higher water needs than
1380-464: The Bedouin component of the population was estimated at 72,898 out of a total of 75,254 for the Beersheba sub-district. The 1931 census estimated that the population of the Beersheba sub-district was 51,082. This large decrease was considered to be an artifact of incorrect enumeration methods used in 1922. An Arabic history of tribes around Beersheba, published in 1934 records 23 tribal groups. Most of
1440-452: The Hamas terrorists. If they failed, they knew that Hamas would hurt their children. Amir Naim, one of the kibbutzniks, whose wife was expecting their first baby, was killed in the encounter. Two others were severely injured but survived due to a resident of Erez who was a nurse. She knew they needed immediate medical attention so she drove out of the kibbutz amid a hail of bullets and got them to
1500-581: The Israeli Ministry of Health released Ben Gurion University research findings describing the health problems in a 20 km (12 mi) vicinity of Ramat Hovav. The study, funded in large part by Ramat Hovav, found higher rates of cancer and mortality for the 350,000 people in the area. Prematurely released to the media by an unknown source, the preliminary study was publicly discredited; However, its final conclusions – that Bedouin and Jewish residents near Ramat Hovav are significantly more susceptible than
1560-645: The Israeli government between the 1960s and 1980s; the largest of these is Rahat . The population of the Negev is expected to reach 1.2 million by 2025. It was projected that the Beersheba metropolitan area would reach a population of 1 million by 2020, and Arad , Yeruham , and Dimona would triple in size by 2025. A large part of the Negev Bedouins inhabit small communities or villages. Israel has refused to recognize certain Bedouin villages that were founded after
1620-525: The Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past. It must earn this—which is no small task—a right that can only be acquired in the desert. When I looked out my window today and saw a tree standing before me, the sight awoke in me a greater sense of beauty and personal satisfaction than all the forests that I have crossed in Switzerland and Scandinavia. For we planted each tree in this place and watered them with
1680-627: The Jordanian border stretches 180 km (110 mi) from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm (2.0 in) of rain annually. It has inferior soils, in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants thrive there, among them Acacia , Pistacia , Retama , Urginea maritima and Thymelaea . Hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in
1740-521: The Negev is known as an-Naqab or an-Naqb ('the [mountain] pass'), though it was not thought of as a distinct region until the demarcation of the Egypt-Ottoman frontier in the 1890s and has no single Arabic name. During the British Mandate , it was called "Beersheba sub-district". The Negev contains the oldest discovered surface on Earth, with an approximate age of 1.8 million years. During
1800-532: The Negev was earmarked by the November 1947 UN Partition Plan for the future Jewish state. During the 1947–49 War of Independence, Israel secured its sovereignty over the Negev. In the early years of the state, it absorbed many of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries , with the Israeli government setting up many development towns , such as Arad , Sderot and Netivot . Since then, the Negev has also become home to many of
1860-619: The Southern Negev. The Evrona Nature Reserve is the most northerly point in the world where this palm can be found. A small population of Arabian leopards , an endangered animal in the Arabian peninsula, has survived in the southern Negev but is now likely extinct. Other carnivora found in the Negev are the caracal , the striped hyena , the Arabian wolf , the golden jackal and the marbled polecat . The Arabah Arabian gazelle survives with
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1920-604: The city of Beersheba , the central Negev has an annual precipitation of 200 mm (7.9 in) and is characterized by impervious soil, known as loess , allowing minimum penetration of water with greater soil erosion and water runoff. The high plateau area of Negev Mountains /Ramat HaNegev ( Hebrew : רמת הנגב , The Negev Heights ) stands between 370 metres (1,210 ft) and 520 metres (1,710 ft) above sea level with extreme temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain per year, with inferior and partially salty soils. The Arabah Valley along
1980-543: The cost of eight rounds of demolition to the state. Blueprint Negev is a Jewish National Fund project introduced in 2005. The $ 600 million project hopes to attract 500,000 new Jewish residents to the Negev by improving transportation infrastructure, establishing businesses, developing water resources and introducing programs to protect the environment. A planned artificial desert river, swimming pools and golf courses raised concerns among environmentalists. Critics oppose those plans, calling instead for an inclusive plan for
2040-547: The country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula , and whose eastern border is the Arabah valley. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim (box canyons), which are unique to the region: Makhtesh Ramon , HaMakhtesh HaGadol , and HaMakhtesh HaKatan . The Negev
2100-608: The establishment of the state. Under Israel's 2011-adopted and enacted Begin-Prawer plan – officially the Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev – some Bedouins are being moved to newly created townships. Bedouin villages established after the state without proper approvals are illegal under Israeli law. They are consequently destroyed or threatened with destruction. An Israeli court ruling in 2017 forced six residents to pay
2160-409: The given arid environment could provide for. Evenari researched the ancient mechanisms, rediscovered the ratio of water collection area to cultivation area, and explained the various ancient techniques of land amelioration , such as wadi terracing and flash-flood dams, and the features used for collecting and directing runoff water. He thought that the creators of this elaborate systems had been
2220-465: The green vitalization of existing population centers, investment in Bedouin villages, clean-up of toxic industries and development of job options for the unemployed. A major Israel Defense Forces training base is being constructed in the Negev to accommodate 10,000 army personnel and 2,500 civilian staff. Three more bases will be built by 2020 as part of a plan to vacate land and buildings in Tel Aviv and central Israel, and bring jobs and investment to
2280-599: The hands of humans in later centuries. The Negev region is arid ( Eilat receives on average only 24 mm (0.94 in) of rainfall a year), receiving very little rain due to its location to the east of the Sahara (as opposed to the Mediterranean, which lies to the west of Israel), and extreme temperatures due to its location 31 degrees north . However the northernmost areas of the Negev, including Beersheba , are semi-arid . The usual rainfall total from June through October
2340-459: The invaders from entering the kibbutz through the main gate. They contacted the IDF and were informed it was a terrorist attack and the kibbutzniks were told they were on their own. A firefight involving rifles, grenades and RPGs ensued. According to one of the kibbutzniks, “we fought like lions.” This was no ordinary military engagement, but a battle to protect their children and other family members from
2400-822: The kibbutz achieved some measure of normality, as much as it can be normal living in a hotel, totally dependent on caring neighbours, a supportive community and government help. Since then, some of the kibbutzniks have relocated to Kiryat Gat, which is much closer to their home. Source: Kibbutz movement in crisis Larry Barzelai) The kibbutz has three main industries: agriculture (arable and fruit farming as well as animal husbandry ), manufacturing (Erez Thermoplastics Products manufactures plastic-covered materials), and research and development . Kibbutz movement in crisis. Article by Larry Barzelai) Negev The Negev ( / ˈ n ɛ ɡ ɛ v / NEG -ev ; Hebrew : הַנֶּגֶב , romanized : hanNégev ) or Negeb ( Arabic : النقب , romanized : an-Naqab )
2460-481: The kibbutz. Although he returned to politics in 1955, he continued to live in the kibbutz until his death in 1973, when he was buried nearby at Midreshet Ben-Gurion alongside his wife Paula Ben-Gurion . Ben-Gurion moved to the kibbutz inspired by his vision of cultivating the Negev desert and building up its surrounding towns such as Yeruham and Dimona . He believed that eventually the Negev would be home to many Jews who would move to Israel, and he felt that Sde Boker
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2520-613: The largest solar dishes in the world. Technically, however, the Arava is a separate desert with its own unique climate and ecology. A 250 MW solar park in Ashalim , an area in the northern Negev, the Ashalim Power Station , produces 121 Megawatts of power, using solar mirrors and thermal water heating. It is currently the largest in Israel. The Rotem Industrial Complex outside of Dimona, Israel , has dozens of solar mirrors that focus
2580-559: The latter became the home of Israel's first Prime Minister , David Ben-Gurion , after his retirement from politics. Although historically part of a separate region (known during the Roman period as Arabia Petraea ), the Negev was added to the proposed area of Mandatory Palestine , of which large parts later became Israel , on 10 July 1922, having been conceded by British representative St John Philby "in Trans-Jordan 's name". Despite this,
2640-415: The needs of the wine industry was noted for the early 6th century, documented by studying ancient trash mounds at Shivta, Elusa and Nessana . There is a sharp peak in the presence of grape pips and broken " Gaza jars " used to export wine and other Levantine goods from the port of Gaza (see " Gaza wine "), after a slower rise during the fourth and fifth centuries, and followed in the mid-6th century by
2700-586: The previously widely accepted theory to be wrong, namely that the Muslim conquest , which came a century after these events, and specifically the Muslim ban on alcoholic beverages , was the cause for the decline of the wine industry in the Negev. In Nessana, the number of grape pips is even seen to rise again during the Early Islamic period , probably due to the needs of a local Christian monastery. This disappearance of
2760-658: The region remained exclusively Arab until 1946; in response to the British Morrison–Grady Plan which would have allotted the area to an Arab state, the Jewish Agency enacted the 11 points in the Negev plan to begin Jewish settlement in the area. A year later, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine allotted a larger part of the area to the Jewish State which became Israel. The desert
2820-404: The rest of the population to miscarriages, severe birth defects, and respiratory diseases – passed a peer review several months later. Sde Boker Sde Boker ( Hebrew : שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר , lit. 'Herding Field') is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel . Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister , David Ben-Gurion , it falls under
2880-456: The runoff collection area onto those plots. Along with Avdat (Oboda), Mamshit (Mampsis), Shivta (Sobata), Haluza (Elusa), and Nitzana (Nessana), the settlements at Rehovot-in-the-Negev /Ruheibeh (the second largest by population of the Byzantine-era "Negev towns" ) and Saadon are also significant for this period. A massive rise in grape production in the northwestern Negev for
2940-551: The sands of the western and central Negev Desert. Animals that were reintroduced after their extinction in the wild or localized extinction respectively are the Arabian oryx and the Asiatic wild ass , which in the Negev counts about 250 animals. Like many areas in Israel and the rest of the Middle East, the Negev used to host in the distant past the Asiatic lion and the Asiatic cheetah , right until their complete extinction at
3000-501: The south. The Negev Desert and the surrounding area, including the Arava Valley , are the sunniest parts of Israel and little of this land is arable , which is why it has become the center of the Israeli solar industry. David Faiman , an expert on solar energy, feels the energy needs of Israel's future could be met by building solar energy plants in the Negev. As director of Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center , he operates one of
3060-552: The sun's rays on a tower that in turn heats a water boiler to create steam, turning a turbine to create electricity. Luz II, Ltd., plans to use the solar array to test new technology for the three new solar plants to be built in California for Pacific Gas and Electric Company . Vines have been planted in the Negev since ancient times. In modern times, vineyards have been established in the northern Negev hills using innovative computerized watering methods for irrigation. Carmel Winery
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#17328489698683120-537: The trade on the spice route between their capital Petra and the Gazan seaports. Nabatean currency and the remains of red and orange potsherds , identified as a trademark of their civilization, have been found along the route, remnants of which are also still visible. Nabatean control of the Negev ended when the Roman empire annexed their lands in 106 CE. The population, largely made up of nomads, venerated deities such as Dushara , Allat , and others. Byzantine rule in
3180-414: The vicinity of modern Eilat , along with copper and gold mines and stone quarries, and a sophisticated irrigation system and road network. The economic center was the port of Ayla (Aqaba). Nomadic tribes ruled the Negev largely independently and with a relative lack of interference for the next thousand years. What is known of this time is largely derived from oral histories and folk tales of tribes from
3240-531: The water we provided at the cost of numerous efforts. Why does a mother love her children so? Because they are her creation. Why does the Jew feel an affinity with Israel? Because everything here must still be accomplished. It depends only on him to participate in this privileged act of creation. The trees at Sde Boker speak to me differently than do the trees planted elsewhere. Not only because I participated in their planting and in their maintenance, but also because they are
3300-464: The wine industry from the semiarid northern Negev shows that it was technically possible to sustain it over centuries, but that the grape monoculture was economically unsustainable in the long run due to its dependence on empire-wide trading networks, which required stability and prosperity over a vast territory. The southern Negev saw a flourishing of economic activity during the 8th to 10th or 11th centuries. Six Islamic settlements have been found in
3360-517: The word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'; in the Hebrew Bible , the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'. Some English-language translations use the spelling Negeb . The Negev mentioned in the Bible (see below ) consisted only of the northernmost part of the modern Israeli Negev, with the semiarid Arad - Beersheba Valley defined as "the eastern (biblical) Negev". In Arabic,
3420-590: Was a trailblazer and example for what should follow. His home was later turned into a museum. In his official writings Ben-Gurion often mused about his efforts at rejuvenating the Negev: The desert provides us with the best opportunity to begin again. This is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. For it is in mastering nature that man learns to control himself. It is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent
3480-517: Was founded in 1949. Archaeological discoveries from Erez include a statue of a griffin with a Greek dedication by a priest, dating to 210/211 AD. Additionally, fragments of Greek inscriptions, one potentially Latin , have been found here. On 7 October 2023, the kibbutz was attacked in the opening stage of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war . The kibbutz security team repulsed the attack in an hours-long battle, losing one of its members. The security team of Kibbutz Erez quickly assembled to try to prevent
3540-503: Was the first of the major wineries to plant vineyards in the Negev and operates a boutique winery at Ramat Arad . Tishbi has vineyards at Sde Boker and Barkan grows its grapes in Mitzpe Ramon . Yatir Winery is a winery in Tel Arad . Its vineyards are on a hill 900 meters above sea level on the outskirts of Yatir Forest . Carmey Avdat is Israel's first solar-powered winery. The Negev
3600-432: Was the prevailing theory, until more recent research showed that the earliest form of Nabataean agriculture in the Negev Highlands was only based on spring-water irrigation, with the much more extensive run-off water harvesting techniques using barrages and terraces apparently developing and being used only later, during the 4th-7th centuries CE, after the 3rd-century collapse of long-distance trade. The Nabateans controlled
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