The modern day Negev includes desert and canyon regions; from
Beersheva all the way down to Eilat, on the Red Sea. It covers
approximately 5,140 square miles; more than half of Israel's total
land area. The Negev receives a scant 2-4 inches of rainfall
annually. The climate is hot and dry, typical of a desert.
David Ben-Gurion Israel's first Prime-Minister was the man credited
as the key leader in the establishment of the modern State of
Israel in 1948. The Premier called for the establishment of
pioneering settlements in outlying areas, especially in the Negev.
After leaving the government, he returned to Kibbutz Sde Boker. His
retirement to this small agricultural community in the Negev was a
testimonial of his philosophy of developing the wilderness. During
one of my visits to Sde Boker in the 1960s I heard from the "Old Man"
as Ben-Gurion was called, his detailed dream of a desert based
agriculture, converting the hot desert sun into a useful energy
source and setting up a major University in Beersheva. Agriculture in
the desert was unlikely but Sdeh Boker's farmers raised impressively
sized peaches, and adjacent to the "Old Man's" modest shack roses
grew in the sand. "We succeed growing peaches but the lack of
rainfall forces us to bring potatoes from Central Israel," he mused.
Ben-Gurion's vision finally appears to be on the track to realization.
Recently, I participated in a tour of High-Tech Industries and
agrotechnology projects of the Negev area. The tour was hosted by the
Israel Export Institute and included a visit to the Rotem Industrial
Park, a subsidiary of the Negev Nuclear Research Center and located
near Dimona. Here, technologies originating from the Nuclear
Research Center are developed for commercial use. The Industrial Park
includes 15 companies and plants, as well as a Technology Incubator
and a Technological Training Center.
Also on the itinerary was a visit to Ramat Hanegev, an area noted
for advanced agro-industry including raising of fish in salt water,
the breeding of shrimps for export based on subterranean artesian
wells, and the production of olive oil from olive trees grown in the
desert.
Another high point was a visit to Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva
with its President Professor Avishai Braverman.
In this July issue we are pleased to publish an in-depth report
devoted to some of the highlights gleaned from an unusually exciting
visit to a thriving technology center in Israel's Negev desert.
The Negev, the southern part of modern day Israel, according to the
Old Testament Book of Genesis, in the years 1800-1600 BCE was a
favorite watering place of the Jewish Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac.
In the Old Testamenr Book of Numbers Moses is quoted as saying, "Go
up through the Negev and on, into the hill country".