Be'er Ora ( he, בְּאֵר אוֹרָה) is a

community settlement A community settlement ( he, יישוב קהילתי, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of village in Israel and the West Bank. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the village's residents are organized in ...

19 kilometers north of

Eilat Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan ...

in the far south of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located in the Arava region, just west of Highway 90, north of kibbutz

Eilot Eilot ( he, אֵילוֹת; is the southernmost kibbutz in Israel. It is located in the Arabah, Aravah valley, near the border with Jordan. Eilot is less than a kilometer north of Eilat, and just over 3 kilometers north of the Red Sea. It falls ...

, and south of Elifaz and

Timna Park The Timna Valley (תִּמְנָע, ) is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arava/Arabah, approximately north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the city of Eilat. The area is rich in copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Hevel Eilot Regional Council Hevel Eilot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית חבל אילות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Hevel Eilot'') is a regional council in the Southern District of Israel, near the city of Eilat. It is the southernmost regional council in Israel. ...

. In its population was .

History

Before the settlement was founded, Be'er Ora was previously the site of an Israeli army base. In 1968, Be'er Ora was the site of the bombing of a school bus carrying Israeli high school students, an incident that led to Israeli Defense Forces retaliating against a

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

base in neighboring

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in the

Battle of Karameh The Battle of Karameh ( ar, معركة الكرامة) was a 15-hour military engagement between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and combined forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) in the Jor ...

. Myra Williamson, ''Terrorism, War and International Law: The Legality of the Use of Force Against Afghanistan in 2001'' (Routledge, 2016) p127 The current Be'er Ora settlement was founded in 2001 as part of a program to populate the Arava and to bring people from central Israel to the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...

, which was determined to be a preferred place for new settlement. Previously there was a Gadna army base, also called Be'er Ora, in that location. The word "Be'er" means "well of water". Before the community was established, there was a well within its area that served as the first source of freshwater for Eilat, before Eilat was connected to the national water network. The word "Ora" (light) is borrowed from the nearby Ora Mountain and Ora Creek.

Aviation

In 2004, the government decided to move the activity of

Eilat Airport Eilat Airport ( he, שְׂדֵה הַתְּעוּפָה אֵילַת, Namal HaTe'ufa Eilat; ar, مطار إيلات ), also known as J. Hozman Airport, was an airport located in Eilat, Israel. It was named after Arkia Airlines founder Yakov Ho ...

to a then empty area near Be'er Ora.

Ramon Airport Ramon Airport ( he, נמל התעופה רמון, Arabic: مطار رامون) , named after Ilan and Asaf Ramon and unofficially also known as Eilat-Ramon Airport, is an international airport located in the Timna Valley in southern Israel. Ram ...

opened in 2019.

References

{{Hevel Eilot Community settlements Populated places in Southern District (Israel) Populated places established in 2001 2001 establishments in Israel