Israelis Encouraged to Move to Negev Desert CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief February 08, 2008 By Julie Stahl Negev Desert, Israel (CNSNews.com) - The recent Egypt-Gaza border breach, the continuing rocket fire on southern Israel, and Monday's suicide bombing in Dimona make it imperative for Israel to develop the Negev Desert, say people who already live there. The Negev Desert comprises about 60 percent of Israel, but only eight percent of the Israeli population lives there, said Adva Lloyd, spokeswoman for a Negev regional council and the quasi-governmental Negev Development Authority (NDA). The Negev includes a 140-mile open border with Egypt. Dimona, home of Israel's nuclear reactor is located there; and parts of the Negev have come under rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which borders the Negev. "The main goal of the NDA is to enlarge the population of the Negev from 600,000 to one million people," Lloyd told Cybercast News Service. Although the Negev Desert in the south and the Galilee region in the north are well within Israel's borders, some Israelis believe they could actually lose control of those regions, either because the demographic balance tilts in favor of Arabs or because those regions are poorer and less developed. A growing movement to develop those regions aims to attract young, energetic and enterprising Jewish families - both religious and secular. Pioneers Many who are moving to the Negev Desert say they are following in the footsteps of the early Zionists -- pioneer forefathers who returned to settle the Land of Israel in the last century. Because Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip unilaterally in the summer of 2005 and is still being bombarded by rockets, Negev resident Ronen Brami said he is even more determined now that the Negev Desert must be developed. "It's good for the Israeli media to know and the world media to know what's happening [in Gaza] right now that [the Palestinians] don't want only the Gaza Strip or only the West Bank. They want all of the country, and if we want to be here we have to make a strong community," said Brami, 35, of the northern Negev community of Givot Bar. The minarets of nearby Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in Israel, are visible from Givot Bar, and it is very hot in the summer. But the community has its attractions. An 800-square-meter lot - very large by Israeli standards -- costs only $35,000. The same size lot, very scarce in the center of the country -- might cost $1 million, Brami estimated. Brami, who has lived in Givot Bar since August, said he can build a five-bedroom, freestanding house (most Israelis live in apartments or duplexes), with two separate guesthouses out back on the lot for $200,000. But that is not the only reason he wants to raise his family here. Most of the 28 families of Givot Bar - many of whom are still living in mobile homes while their permanent houses are being built -have come to the Negev to take control of this part of the country, said Brami. "As you can see around us, there are a lot of Arab citizens." Brami said it's important for his two daughters, ages four and six, to grow up here so they will understand their responsibility to this part of the country. They love it, he said. "[It's like] they're in Club Med everyday." Ofir Fisher is founder of the Or Movement, which established Givot Bar four years ago. It is one of two organizations that is working to settle families in the Negev and Galilee regions. "The biggest problem we have today in Israel is a lack a vision and a lack of goals," Fisher told Cybercast News Service. "When people came here in the beginning of the State of Israel, they knew that they [were] coming to establish Israel. We lost that in the last 20-30 years, we lost this vision. Developing and dealing with the Negev and the Galilee is actually bringing this back," he said. The Or Movement, founded in 2000, wants to bring 100,000 people to live in the Negev (and Galilee) over the next five to 10 years. So far, the group has established five new communities in the Negev, among them Givot Bar, and it is in the process of establishing four more, including Carmit. Carmit, in hilly area, will border the southernmost end of Israel's West Bank security barrier. Planners have designated 470 of the 2,700 lots there to be sold to immigrants from English-speaking countries. The mixed secular/religious community is slated to include a golf course. (There are only two golf courses in Israel right now.) A couple of families from Chicago have expressed interest in moving to Carmit, Fisher said. Answering Hamas David Gliksberg, 28, is deputy director of Ayalim, a group that was started five years ago to encourage some of the 80,000 university students who study in the Negev and Galilee regions to remain there after they graduate. So far, about 80 have stayed on, said Glicksberg, who was born and raised in Jerusalem, and describes himself as a "Negev addict." Ayalim - named after a couple murdered in terror attack in the West Bank in 2002 -- built student villages in "tough places" and offered very cheap rent on the condition that residents perform 500 hours of community service each year. So far, the group has established eight villages housing some 500 students, Glicksberg said. Two of the villages are in Dimona. One of them is in Sderot and is being hit by Kassam rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. The students there work with the children of Sderot who have been traumatized by the ongoing rocket attacks, he said. "It's a good answer for Hamas," said Glicksberg.