:''For other meanings see
Beersheba (disambiguation).''
Beersheba (; officially
Be'er Sheva; ; ; ; , ''''; ) is the largest
city in the
Negev desert of southern
Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the
seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300.
Beersheba grew in importance in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks built a regional police station there. The Battle of Beersheba was part of a wider British offensive in World War I aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba. In 1947, ''Bir Seb'a'' (), as it was known, was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Following the declaration of Israel's independence, the Egyptian army amassed its forces in Beersheba as a strategic and logistical base. In October 1948, the city was conquered by the Israel Defense Forces.
Beersheba has grown considerably since then. A large portion of the population is made up of Jews who immigrated from Arab countries after 1948, and has been significantly boosted since 1990 by immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. With the influx of Russian immigrants, chess became a major sport in Beersheba. The city is now Israel's national chess center, home to more chess grandmasters than any city in the world.
There are several
etymologies for the origin of the name "Beersheba": The oath of
Abraham and
Abimelech (''well of the oath''); the seven wells dug by
Isaac (''seven wells''), though only three or four have been identified; the oath of Isaac and Abimelech (''well of the oath''); the seven ewes that sealed Abraham and Abimelech's oath (''well of the seven'').
''Be'er'' is the Hebrew word for ''well''; ''sheva'' could mean "seven" or "oath" (from the Hebrew word ''shvu'a'').
Human settlement in the area dates from the
Copper Age. The inhabitants lived in caves, crafting metal tools and raising cattle. Findings unearthed at
Tel Be'er Sheva, an
archaeological site a few kilometers northeast of modern day Beersheba, suggest the region has been inhabited since the
4th millennium BC. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries.
The town was founded by the
Israelites during the
10th century BC, on the site of what is today referred to as
Tel Be'er Sheva, after the land was conquered by
King David. The ruins of the original Israelite settlement remain largely intact.
The site was probably chosen due to the abundance of water, as evidenced by the numerous wells in the area. According to the Bible, the wells were dug by Abraham and Isaac when they arrived there. The streets were laid out in a grid, with separate areas for administrative, commercial, military, and residential use. According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was the southernmost city of the territories actually settled by Israelites, hence the expression "from Dan to Beersheba" to describe the whole kingdom.
Beersheba is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in connection with Abraham the Patriarch and his pact with Abimelech. Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23–33). Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10–15 and 46:1–7). Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Shimon and Judah (Joshua 15:28 and 19:2). The prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed (I Kings 19:3). The sons of the prophet Samuel were judges in Beersheba (I Samuel 8:2). Saul, Israel's first king, built a fort for his campaign against the Amalekites (I Samuel 14:48 and 15:2–9). The prophet Amos mentions the city in regard to idolatry (Amos 5:5 and 8:14). Following the Babylonian conquest and subsequent enslavement of many Israelites, the town was abandoned. After the slaves returned from Babylon, the town was resettled.
During the
Roman and later
Byzantine periods, the town served as a front-line defense against
Nabatean attacks. The last inhabitants of Tel Be'er Sheva were the Byzantines, who abandoned the city during the
Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century.
The Turkish
Ottomans, who had controlled
Palestine since the 16th century, took no interest in Beersheba until the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, Beersheba was portrayed by European
pilgrims as a barren stretch of land with a well and a handful of
Bedouins living nearby. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Ottomans built a
police station in Beersheba in order to keep the
Bedouin in check. They built roads and a number of small buildings from local materials which are still standing today. A town plan was created by a Swiss and a German architect, which called for a
grid street pattern, a pattern which can still be seen today in Beersheba's Old City. All houses built during that period were of one storey, and the two-storey police station towered above them. Most of the residents at the time were Arabs from Hebron and the Gaza area, although
Jews also began settling in the city, and a slew of Bedouin abandoned their nomadic lives and built homes in Beersheba.
During World War I, the Turks built a military railroad from the Hejaz line to Beersheba, inaugurating the station on October 30, 1915. The celebration was attended by the Turkish army commander Jamal Pasha, along with senior government officials. The train line was active until the British Army took over the region.
Beersheba played an important role in the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. On October 31, 1917, three months after taking
Rafah,
General Allenby's troops breached the line of Turkish defense between
Gaza and Beersheba. 800 soldiers of the Australian 4th and
12th Regiments of the 4th
Light Horse Brigade under
Brigadier General William Grant, with only horses and bayonets, charged the Turkish trenches, overran them and captured the wells of Beersheba in what has become known as the "last successful cavalry charge in British military history." On the edge of Beersheba's Old City is a Commonwealth cemetery containing the graves of Australian and British soldiers. The town also contains
a memorial park dedicated to them.
Beersheba was a major administrative center during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. A railway was constructed between Rafah and Beersheba in October 1917; it opened to the public in May 1918, serving the Negev and settlements south of Mount Hebron. In 1928, at the beginning of the tension between the Jews and the Arabs over Palestine, and wide-scale rioting which left 133 Jews dead and 339 wounded, many Jews abandoned Beersheba, although some returned occasionally. After an Arab attack on a Jewish bus in 1936, which escalated into the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the remaining Jews left.
The
1947 UN Partition Plan included Beersheba in the territory allotted to the proposed Arab state as the city's population of 4,000 was primarily Arab. The
Egyptian army was stationed in Beersheba in May 1948. During
1948 Arab-Israeli War, Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion ordered the city conquered, calling for the "conquest of Beersheba, occupation of outposts around it, [and] demolition of most of the town."
Israeli Air Force bombing raids began during the night of October 18/19, 1948. The Arab residents fled en masse the next day on foot and in buses. More bombing raids followed that night, and on October 21 at 4:00 in the morning, the 8th Brigade's 89th
battalion and the
Negev Brigade's 7th and 9th battalions moved in, some of the troops advancing from
Mishmar HaNegev junction, north of Beersheba, others from the Turkish train station and
Hatzerim. By 09:45, the Egyptian forces were surrounded and Beersheba was in Israeli hands. Around 120 Egyptian soldiers were taken prisoners, and the remaining civilians, 200 men and 150 women and children, were taken to the police fort. On October 25, the women, children, disabled, and elderly were driven by truck to the Gaza border. The Egyptian soldiers were interned in POW camps. Some men lived in the local mosque and were put to work cleaning but when it was discovered that they were supplying information to the Egyptian army, they were also deported.
Looting on the part of Israeli troops occurred and was criticized by
David Ben-Gurion and Dov Shafrir, the first
Custodian of Absentees Property.
In the 1950s, Beersheba expanded northward. The majority of Indian Jews emigrated to the newly independent Israel after the 1948 Partition estimated to be around 20,000, and the main place for them to settle was Beersheba. Soroka Hospital opened its doors in 1960, and The Negev University, later renamed Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was established in 1970. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited Beersheba in 1979. As part of its Blueprint Negev project, the Jewish National Fund is funding major redevelopment projects in Beersheba. One project is the Beersheba River Walk, a riverfront district with green spaces, hiking trails, a 3,000-seat sports hall, a boating lake made from recycled waste water, promenades, restaurants, cafés, galleries, boat rentals, a 12,000-seat amphitheater, playgrounds, and a bridge made up of Mekorot water pipes. Four new shopping malls are planned, including a 115,000-square meter ecologically planned mall with pools for collecting rainwater and lighting generated by solar panels on the roof. It will be situated next to an 8,000-meter park with bicycle paths.
In recent years, some $10.5 million has been invested in renovating Beersheba's Old City, preserving historical buildings and upgrading infrastructure.
On August 31, 2004, sixteen people were killed in two
suicide bombings on buses in Beersheba for which
Hamas claimed responsibility. On August 28, 2005, another suicide bomber attacked the central bus station, seriously injuring two
security guards and 45 bystanders. During
Operation Cast Lead, which began on December 27, 2008, Hamas fired multiple
Grad rockets from Gaza into Beersheba. The
rocket attacks have continued, but have only been partially effective since the introduction of the
Iron Dome rocket defense system.
In 2010 an Arab attacked and injured two with an axe . In 2012 Palestinian from
Jenin had been stopped before a stabbing attack in a "safe house".
Beersheba is located on the northern edge of the
Negev desert south-east of
Tel Aviv and south-west of
Jerusalem. The city is located on the main route from the center and north of the country to
Eilat in the far south. The Valley of Beer Sheva has been populated for thousands of years due to the presence of water which flows from the Hebron hills in the winter and is stored underground in vast quantities. The main river in Beersheba is ''Nahal Beersheva'', a
wadi which floods in the winter. The Kovshim and Katef streams are other important wadis which pass through the city. Beersheba is surrounded by a number of satellite towns, including
Omer,
Lehavim, and
Meitar, and the
Bedouin localities of
Rahat,
Tel as-Sabi, and
Lakiya.
Beersheba has an
arid climate (
Köppen climate classification ''BSh'') with
Mediterranean influences. The city has both characteristics of Mediterranean and desert climates. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are cool and rainy. In summer, the temperature is high in daytime and nighttime with an average high of and an average low of . In winter, the temperature are cool and the weather is rainy and snow is very rare. Winters have an average high of and average low of .
Precipitation in summer are rare, the most rainfalls come in winter between September to May, but the annually amount is low, with each year. Sandstorms, haze and fog are common especially in winter, as a result of the high humidity.
Beersheba had a population of 185,400 by the end of 2006, compared to 110,800 in a survey conducted 20 years earlier. In the 1990s, the population was substantially increased by a large influx of Russian and Ethiopian Jews. In 2001, the ethnic make-up of the city was 98.9% Jewish and other non-Arab, with no significant Arab population (see Population groups in Israel). In 2001, there were 86,500 males and 91,400 females living in Beersheba. The population breakdown by age was 31.8% for 19 years old or younger, 17.4% for 20–29 year olds, 19.6% for 30–44 year olds, 15.8% for 45–59 year olds, 4.0% for 60–64 year olds, and 11.4% for 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 2.9%.
Many people live in Beersheba for short periods of time, e.g. while studying at the university or working at the nearby army bases. According to CBS, Beersheba had 61,016 salaried workers and 3,010 self-employed citizens in 2000. Salaried workers earned an average monthly wage of 5,223 NIS. Men earned an average monthly wage of NIS 6,661 (a real change of 5.2%) compared to NIS 3,760 for females (a real change of 3.9%). Self-employed persons had an average income of NIS 6,533. A total of 4,719 persons received unemployment benefits, and 26,469 persons received income supplements.
In 1982, Israel airlifted a large part of the Ethiopian Jewish community to Israel, and many settled in Beersheba. There are now approximately 10,000 Ethiopian Israelis in the city, with a community center built in the style of the thatched tukuls of Ethiopia.
The largest employers in Beersheba are the municipality,
Israel Defense Forces, Ben-Gurion University and the Soroka Medical Center. There are also a number of electronics and chemical plants including
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in and around the city. A large high-tech park is also being built near the
Be'er Sheva North Railway Station. A major
Israel Aerospace Industries complex is located in the main industrial zone, north of
Highway 60. There are three industrial zones on the southeastern side of the city – Makhteshim, Emek Sara and Kiryat Yehudit – and a light industry zone between Kiryat Yehudit and the Old City. A high-tech park is located near
Omer. A
Science Park funded by the RASHI-SACTA Foundation, Beersheba Municipality and private donors was completed in 2008. The tallest buildings in the city are the towers of the
Rambam Square complex. Rambam Square 2 is the tallest
apartment building in Israel outside of the
Gush Dan Tel Aviv
Metropolitan Area.
The Beersheba municipality was plagued for many years by an ineffectual leadership, political problems and poor financial planning. Since 2005, attention has been focused on developing parks and infrastructure. A new youth center opened in 2005, and a new cultural centre opened in 2008. In 2006, after many years of financial struggle,the municipality has achieved a balanced budget. The official emblem of the municipality of Beersheba depicts an ''eshel'' (
tamarisk tree), the tree planted by Abraham according to Genesis, and the observation tower connected to the municipality building.
The mayor of Beersheba is Ruvik Danilovich, who was deputy mayor under Yaakov Turner.
According to CBS, Beersheba has 81 schools and a student population of 33,623: 60 elementary schools with an enrollment of 17,211, and 39 high schools with an enrollment of 16,412. Of Beersheba's 12th graders, 52.7% earned a
Bagrut matriculation certificate in 2001. The city also has several private schools and
Yeshivot which cater to the religious sector. Beersheba is home to one of Israel's major universities,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev located on an urban campus in the city (Dalet neighborhood). Other schools in Beersheva include:
open univerity of Israel located in the Old city
Sami Shamoon Academic College of Engineering
Kaye Academic College of Education
Practical Engineering College of Beersheba (''Hamichlala ha technologit shel Be'er sheva'')
A campus of the Israeli Air and Space college (''
Techni Be'er sheva '')
The historic mosque in Beersheba was renovated and used as a municipal museum, as the city had no significant Arab population, but Muslim groups in the vicinity are negotiating for its reopening as a functioning mosque.
After Israeli independence, Beersheba became a "laboratory" for
Israeli architecture. Mishol Girit, a neighborhood built in the late 1950s, was the first attempt to create an alternative to the standard public housing projects in Israel. Hashatiah (lit. "the carpet"), also known as Hashekhuna ledugma ("the model neighborhood"), was hailed by architects around the world. Today, Beersheba is divided into seventeen residential neighbourhoods in addition to the Old City and Ramot, an umbrella neighborhood of 4 sub-districts. Many of the neighbourhoods are named after letters of the
Hebrew alphabet, which also have numerical value, but descriptive place names have been given to some of the newer neighborhoods.
Beersheba is the home base of the Israel Sinfonietta, founded in 1973. Over the years, the Sinfonietta has developed a broad repertoire of symphonic works, concerti for solo instruments and large choral productions, among them Handel's "Israel in Egypt," masses by Schubert and Mozart, Rossini's "Stabat Mater" and Vivaldi's "Gloria." World-famous artists have appeared as soloists with the Sinfonietta, including Pinhas Zuckerman,
Jean-Pierre Rampal,
Shlomo Mintz,
Gary Karr and
Paul Tortelier. In the 1970s, a memorial commemorating fallen Israeli soldiers designed by the sculptor
Danny Karavan was erected on a hill north-east of the city. The Beersheba Theater opened in 1973.
The Light Opera Group of the Negev, established in 1980, performs musicals in English every year. The Negev Museum reopened as an art museum, and an art and media center for young people was established. In 2009, a new tourist and
information center, Gateway to the Negev, was built. Landmarks in the city include Abraham's Well and the old Turkish train station, now the focus of development plans.
Beersheba is the central transportation hub of southern Israel, served by roads, railways and air. Beersheba is connected to
Tel Aviv via
Highway 40, the second longest highway in Israel, which passes to the east of the city and is called the Beersheba bypass because it allows travellers from the north to go to southern locations, avoiding the more congested city center. From west to east, the city is divided by
Highway 25, which connects to
Ashkelon and the
Gaza Strip to the northwest, and
Dimona to the east. Finally, Highway 60 connects Beersheba with
Jerusalem and the Shoket Junction, and goes through the
West Bank. On the local level, a partial
ring road surrounds the city from the north and east, and Road 406 (Rager Blvd.) goes through the city center from north to south.
Metrodan Beersheba, established in 2003, has a fleet of 90 buses and operates 19 lines in the city, most of which depart from the Beersheba Central Bus Station. These lines were formerly operated by the municipality as the 'Be'er Sheva Urban Bus Services'. Inter-city buses to and from Beersheba are operated by Egged, Egged Ta'avura and Metropoline.
Israel Railways operates two stations in the city that form part of the railway to Beersheba: the old Be'er Sheva North University station, adjacent to Ben Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center, and the new Be'er Sheva Central station, adjacent to the central bus station. Between the two stations, the railway splits into two, and also continues to Dimona and the Dead Sea factories. An extension is planned to Eilat and Arad.
The Be'er Sheva North University station is the terminus of the line to Dimona. All stations of Israel Railways can be accessed from Beersheba using transfer stations in Tel Aviv and Lod. Currently, the railway line to Beersheba uses a slow single-track configuration with several sharp curves limiting speed. However, its alignment is being improved and the entire line converted to dual-track. The project will significantly decrease travel time from Tel Aviv and Haifa to Beersheba, at a cost of NIS 1.885 billion.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva plays in the
Israeli Premier League, the top tier of
Israeli football, having been promoted in the
2008–2009 Liga Leumit season. The club has won the Israeli championship twice, in 1975 and 1976, as well as the
State Cup in 1997. Beersheba has two other local clubs,
Maccabi Be'er Sheva (based in
Neve Noy) and MS Be'er Sheva (based in the north of
Dalet), a continuation of the defunct
Beitar Avraham Be'er Sheva. Hapoel and Maccabi both play at the
Vasermil Stadium, a 14,000-capacity concrete bowl located in the
Bet neighbourhood.
Beersheba has become Israel's national chess center; thanks to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of chess grandmasters of any city in the world. The city hosted the World Team Chess Championship in 2005, and chess is taught in the city's kindergartens. The Israeli chess team won the silver medal at the 2008 Chess Olympiad and the bronze at the 2010 Olympiad. The chess club was founded in 1973 by Eliyahu Levant, who is still the driving spirit behind it.
The city has the second largest wrestling center (AMI wrestling school) in Israel. The center is run by Leonid Shulman and has approximately 2,000 students most of whom are from Russian immigrant families since the origins of the club are in the Nahal Beka integration camp. Maccabi Be'er Sheva has a freestyle wrestling team, whilst Hapoel Be'er Sheva has a Greek-Romi wrestling team. In 2010 world championships by FILA in wrestling 5 medals were won by AMI students. Cricket is played under the auspices of Israel Cricket Association. Beersheba is also home to a rugby team whose senior and youth squads have won several national titles (including the recent Senior National League 2004–2005 championship). Beersheba's tennis center, which opened in 1991, features eight lighted courts, and the Be'er Sheva (Teyman) airfield is used for gliding.
Aref al-Aref, Arab historian
Orna Banai, Israeli actress, comedian, and entertainer
Elyaniv Barda, football (soccer) player
Zehava Ben, singer
Avishay Braverman, professor and politician
Anat Draigor, basketball player
Ronit Elkabetz, actress
Zvika Hadar, comedian and show host
Victor Mikhalevski, chess grandmaster
David Newman, professor and Dean of Social Science and Humanities, BGU
Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut; died in the Columbia disaster
Yehudit Ravitz, singer
Eli Zizov, football (soccer) player
Ze'ev Zrizi, second mayor of Beersheba
Almog Cohen, soccer player
Beersheba is
twinned with twelve other towns and cities:
|
| * Adana, Turkey (since 2001)
|
* Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (since 2004)
|
* Cluj-Napoca, Romania
|
* Montreal, Canada
|
* La Plata, Argentina
|
* Lyon, France (since 1977)
|
* Niš, Serbia
|
|
Oni, Georgia |
[[Parramatta, New South Wales>Parramatta, Australia
|
* Rosenheim, Germany
|
* Seattle, United States
|
* Winnipeg, Canada (since 1983)
|
* Wuppertal, Germany(since 1977)
|
* Meknes, Morocco(since 2006)
|
Battle of Beersheba (First World War)
Beer Sheva Park, Seattle
Thareani-Sussely, Yifat, "The 'Archaeology of the Days of Manasseh' Reconsidered in the Light of Evidence From The Beersheba Valley," ''Palestine Exploration Quarterly'', 139,2 (2007), 69-77.
Beersheba City Council
Selection of photos from Beer-Sheva from flickr
Ben-Gurion University
The city of Beersheba: a tourist's guide
Beer-Sheva – Historical article from the Catholic Encyclopaedia
Light Horse charges again Article written by Martin Chulov, published in The Australian, November 1, 2007, the descendants of the Australian light-horsemen rode into the centre of Beersheva, re-enacting the gallant gallop of October 31, 1917
Israel Builds Expansion and architecture of Beersheva in the 1960s and 1970s
Blueprint for Beersheba
Category:Chess in Israel
Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations
*
af:Suidelike distrik
ar:بئر السبع
bg:Беер Шева
ca:Beerxeba
cs:Beerševa
da:Beersheba
de:Be'er Scheva
et:Be'er-Sheva
el:Μπερ Σεβά
es:Beerseba
eo:Be'er Ŝeba
fa:بئرشبع
fr:Beer-Sheva
ko:베르셰바
hr:Beer Ševa
id:Beersheba
it:Be'er Sheva
he:באר שבע
jv:Beersheba
kl:Beersheba
ka:ბეერ-შევა
lb:Beersheba
lt:Beer Ševa
hu:Beér-Seva
nl:Beër Sjeva
ja:ベエルシェバ
no:Beersheba
pl:Beer Szewa
pt:Bersebá
ro:Beer Șeva
ru:Беэр-Шева
sco:Beersheba
simple:Beer Sheba
sk:Beer Ševa
sr:Биршеба
fi:Beerseba
sv:Be'er Sheva
tl:Berseba
tr:Beerşeba
uk:Беер-Шева
vi:Beersheba
war:Beersheba
yi:באר שבע
zh:贝尔谢巴
![Tel Be'er Sheva (Hebrew: תל באר שבע) is an archeological site in southern Israel believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Be'er Sheva [1] The modern town of Beersheba is situated west of the tel. The Bedouin town of Tel Sheva lies to the east.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120611045001/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/ea/b2/fe1ee74fd00c874f243aa4cb485f_medium.jpg "Tel Be'er Sheva (Hebrew: תל באר שבע) is an archeological site in southern Israel believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Be'er Sheva [1] The modern town of Beersheba is situated west of the tel. The Bedouin town of Tel Sheva lies to the east.")
![Dimona (Hebrew: דִּימוֹנָה) is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the south of Beersheba and 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120611045001/http://cdn0.wn.com/pd/e4/47/95ac8bb3ffe3c055042450f3d5a5_medium.jpg "Dimona (Hebrew: דִּימוֹנָה) is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the south of Beersheba and 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.[1]")
