Gush Etzion Revisited

Background - Activities I-III - Negev

Importance of the Negev

The Negev desert makes up two-thirds of Israeli territory in its pre- 1967 borders. The first settlements in this area were established in 1943, and in 1946, at the end of Yom Kippur, eleven settlements were created at one go.

The Negev region occupied pride of place in David Ben-Gurion's Zionist outlook. During the War of Independence, his aim was to conquer the desert down to Eilat, with its access to the Red Sea, Israel's second sea. "If we do not keep the Negev, we will also have to give up Tel Aviv," he would say. Moreover: "The Negev is the most important stake in the Zionist undertaking, and the most urgent task is to encourage people to settle in this region." It is for this reason that he himself went to live there in 1953 (Kibbutz Sde Boker).

During the mass aliya of the fifties, several "development" towns were established in the Negev, and many kibbutzim were set up there; the two main towns, Beersheva and Eilat, grew impressively. However, to this day the Negev is Israel's least developed area: it suffers from a grave underpopulation, a lack of profitable industries, and of course from an arid climate, which makes agriculture problematical.

Netivot: Small town in the north of the Negev, on the Ashqelon- Beersheva road. It was founded in 1956 by immigrants hailing mainly from North Africa. It has small-scale industries, services and an educational network. Its population is around 10,000. The town's main problems are unemployment, poverty and the relative weakness of its educational institutions.

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