Sderot
Sderot (שְׂדֵרוֹת,, lit. Boulevards, سديروت) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of.
Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the closest point is 840 m).
Sderot was originally founded in 1951 as a transit camp called Gabim Dorot for Israeli immigrants, primarily from Kurdistan and Iran, who numbered 80 families. The development was located on the land of the Palestinian village of Najd which was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli War and served as part of a chain of settlements designed to block infiltration from Gaza. Permanent housing was completed three years after the transit camp's establishment in 1954. The town was renamed Sderot after the Eucalyptus boulevard planted along the length of the town, whose planting provided employment to the residents of the settlement.
From the mid-1950s Moroccan Jews increasingly settled in the township. Romanian Jewish and Kurdish Jewish immigrants also began settling in Sderot. In 1956, Sderot was recognized as a local council. In the 1961 census, the percentage of North African immigrants, mostly from Morocco, was 87% in the town; another 11% of the residents were immigrants from Kurdistan.
Sderot received a symbolic name, after the numerous avenues and standalone rows of trees planted in the Negev, especially between Beersheba and Gaza, to combat desertification and beautify the arid landscape. Like many other localities in the Negev, Sderot's name has a green motif that symbolizes the motto "making the desert bloom", a central part of Zionist ideology.
Sderot absorbed another large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah, and also took in immigrants from Ethiopia during this time. Its population doubled as a result. In 1996, it was declared a city.
During the Second Intifada, the city became a target for rockets from the Gaza Strip, starting in 2001. Rocket fire intensified after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005. The population declined as families left the city in desperation.
During the Gaza War in December 2008 and January 2009, between 50 and 60 rockets were fired at Sderot per week, causing about half the city's residents to temporarily evacuate. The war ended regular rocket fire from Gaza and the city experienced a revitalization. By 2009, demand for apartments was outweighing supply, a new sports complex largely funded by donor aid had opened, a new shopping mall was being built, and the assistance that the city had received due to concern over the years of rocket fire meant that Sderot now had better community, educational, and recreational services than many other Negev development towns. The city sustained rocket fire on occasion over the following years, including during Operation Protective Edge. However, the introduction of the Iron Dome rocket defense system reduced the effectiveness of this rocket fire, with many of these rockets being intercepted.
In May 2011, the British Ambassador to Israel visited Sderot and met with Mayor David Buskila, who described the suffering of children in both Sderot and Gaza: "'Believe me that I feel bad for my children, for the children that live here in Sderot, but I also feel pain for the children that live in the other side of the border in Gaza ... This situation that the children from this place and the other place is because of the behaviour of the leaders of the terror organisations. We can create another quality of life, it is so close.'"
In October 2013, Alon Davidi was elected as Mayor of Sderot.
Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the closest point is 840 m).
Sderot was originally founded in 1951 as a transit camp called Gabim Dorot for Israeli immigrants, primarily from Kurdistan and Iran, who numbered 80 families. The development was located on the land of the Palestinian village of Najd which was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli War and served as part of a chain of settlements designed to block infiltration from Gaza. Permanent housing was completed three years after the transit camp's establishment in 1954. The town was renamed Sderot after the Eucalyptus boulevard planted along the length of the town, whose planting provided employment to the residents of the settlement.
From the mid-1950s Moroccan Jews increasingly settled in the township. Romanian Jewish and Kurdish Jewish immigrants also began settling in Sderot. In 1956, Sderot was recognized as a local council. In the 1961 census, the percentage of North African immigrants, mostly from Morocco, was 87% in the town; another 11% of the residents were immigrants from Kurdistan.
Sderot received a symbolic name, after the numerous avenues and standalone rows of trees planted in the Negev, especially between Beersheba and Gaza, to combat desertification and beautify the arid landscape. Like many other localities in the Negev, Sderot's name has a green motif that symbolizes the motto "making the desert bloom", a central part of Zionist ideology.
Sderot absorbed another large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah, and also took in immigrants from Ethiopia during this time. Its population doubled as a result. In 1996, it was declared a city.
During the Second Intifada, the city became a target for rockets from the Gaza Strip, starting in 2001. Rocket fire intensified after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005. The population declined as families left the city in desperation.
During the Gaza War in December 2008 and January 2009, between 50 and 60 rockets were fired at Sderot per week, causing about half the city's residents to temporarily evacuate. The war ended regular rocket fire from Gaza and the city experienced a revitalization. By 2009, demand for apartments was outweighing supply, a new sports complex largely funded by donor aid had opened, a new shopping mall was being built, and the assistance that the city had received due to concern over the years of rocket fire meant that Sderot now had better community, educational, and recreational services than many other Negev development towns. The city sustained rocket fire on occasion over the following years, including during Operation Protective Edge. However, the introduction of the Iron Dome rocket defense system reduced the effectiveness of this rocket fire, with many of these rockets being intercepted.
In May 2011, the British Ambassador to Israel visited Sderot and met with Mayor David Buskila, who described the suffering of children in both Sderot and Gaza: "'Believe me that I feel bad for my children, for the children that live here in Sderot, but I also feel pain for the children that live in the other side of the border in Gaza ... This situation that the children from this place and the other place is because of the behaviour of the leaders of the terror organisations. We can create another quality of life, it is so close.'"
In October 2013, Alon Davidi was elected as Mayor of Sderot.
Map - Sderot
Map
Country - Israel
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| Flag of Israel | |
The Southern Levant, of which modern Israel forms a part, is on the land corridor used by hominins to emerge from Africa and has some of the first signs of human habitation. In ancient history, it was where Canaanite and later Israelite civilizations developed, and where the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged, before falling, respectively, to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire. During the classical era, the region was ruled by the Achaemenid, Macedonian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. The Maccabean Revolt gave rise to the Hasmonean kingdom, before the Roman Republic took control a century later. The subsequent Jewish–Roman wars resulted in widespread destruction and displacement across Judea. Under Byzantine rule, Christians replaced Jews as the majority. From the 7th century, Muslim rule was established under the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates. In the 11th century, the First Crusade asserted European Christian rule under the Crusader states. For the next two centuries, the region saw continuous wars between the Crusaders and the Ayyubids, ending when the Crusaders lost their last territorial possessions to the Mamluk Sultanate, which ceded the territory to the Ottoman Empire at the onset of the 16th century.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| ILS | Israeli new shekel | ₪ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| AR | Arabic language |
| EN | English language |
| HE | Hebrew language |