Nirim ( he, נִירִים, ''lit.'' Meadows) is a
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
in the northwestern
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 ...
in
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 near the border with the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
, about 7 kilometers east of
Khan Yunis
Khan Yunis ( ar, خان يونس, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus; translation: ''Caravansary fJonah'') is a city in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 142,6 ...
, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Eshkol Regional Council
Eshkol Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית אשכול, ''Mo'atza Ezorit Eshkol'') is a regional council in the north-western Negev, in Israel's Southern District. The regional council's territory lies midway between Ashkelon and Beershe ...
.
[ In it had a population of .
]
History
The kibbutz was established in June 1946 as part of the 11 points in the Negev plan aimed at establishing a Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish presence in the Negev in order to claim it as part of a future Jewish state
In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the nation-state and sovereign homeland of the Jewish people.
Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as a polity to serve as the homeland for the Jewish people. ...
. It was named after the Nir brigade of the Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair ( he, הַשׁוֹמֵר הַצָעִיר, , ''The Young Guard'') is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary, and it was also the name of the group ...
youth movement, some of whose members helped establish the kibbutz, and was originally established on a site called "Dangour", where kibbutz Sufa is now. One of the founders was Dan Zur
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivo ...
, who became one of Israel's leading landscape architects.Landscape architect Dan Zur dead at 86
Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
At the outbreak of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
on 15 May 1948, the kibbutz was first Jewish settlement in Israel to be attacked by the
Egyptian army, in the
Battle of Nirim.
It had 39 defenders.
During the battle, the Egyptians came within 25 meters of the kibbutz perimeter and eight of the kibbutz defenders were killed, before Egyptians withdrew.
All of the houses were destroyed in the attack.
Nirim remained an
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) outpost against the Egyptian army throughout the war. After the war, the IDF wanted the site because of its strategic location, while the kibbutzniks wanted to move north, to the line of 200 millimeters of rain a year, so the kibbutz moved some 15 kilometers northeast to its present location, next to the site of an ancient
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
at
Horvat Maon
Horvat Maʿon (Hebrew) or Tell Maʿin / Khirbet el-Maʿin (Arabic) is an archaeological site located southwest of Gaza, southwest of Kibbutz Nirim in the Negev, the arid southern portion of Israel; in the Roman period, the site is thought to ...
.
During the
Mapam
Mapam ( he, מַפָּ״ם, an acronym for , ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.
History
Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatz ...
split of 1952,
Moshe Sneh
Moshe Sneh ( he, מֹשֶׁה סְנֶה ; 6 January 1909 – 1 March 1972) was a Haganah commander and an Israeli politician. One of the founders of Mapam, he later joined the Israeli Communist Party (Maki).
Biography
Mosze Klaynboym (lat ...
's supporters were banished from the kibbutz. Until 1956, it was targeted by
Fedayeen
Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign.
Etymology
The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: '' ...
attacks from the Gaza Strip.
[
Since 2000, Nirim has been hit by ]Qassam rocket
The Qassam rocket ( ar, صاروخ القسام ''Ṣārūkh al-Qassām''; also ''Kassam'') is a simple, steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. These rockets cannot be fired ...
s fired from the Gaza Strip. After Israel's launching of Operation Cast Lead
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
, in January 2009, most of Nirim's members, as well as other villages near the Gaza Strip, were evacuated. Dozens of families from Nirim stayed at kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek
Mishmar HaEmek ( he, מִשְׁמַר הָעֵמֶק, . "Guard of the Valley") is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Megiddo Regional Council. Mishmar HaEmek is one of ...
in the Jezreel Valley
The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
for a month, until the end of the operation. On August 26, 2014, on the last day of Operation Protective Edge, the head of security, Ze'ev "Ze'evik" Etzion and the assistant head of security Shachar Melamed, were killed in a rocket attack. They were both working with a team of electricians and other kibbutz members, attempting to reinstate the electricity to the community after the high voltage tower that supplied electricity to the whole kibbutz was hit by a rocket earlier the same day. The same rocket attack that killed Ze'evik and Shachar, blew off the legs of Gadi Yarkoni, who has since been elected mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, and currently serving his second term.
Economy
Nirim produces organically grown
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...
peanuts, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, wheat, barley, avocado and other vegetables, and exports them to Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. The farmers work the land right up to the Gaza Strip barrier. After Israel's disengagement from Gaza
The Israeli disengagement from Gaza ( he, תוכנית ההתנתקות, ') was the unilateral dismantling in 2005 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Israeli settlers and army from inside the Gaza Strip.
Th ...
in 2005, the Defense Ministry
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
decided to construct a security strip in the area surrounding Gaza, which was to run through Nirim agricultural territory. Nirim was asked to concede NIS
Nis, Niš, NiS or NIS may refer to:
Places
* Niš, a city in Serbia
* Nis, Iran, a village
* Ness, Lewis ( gd, Nis, links=no), a village in the Outer Hebrides islands
Businesses and organizations
* Naftna Industrija Srbije, Petroleum Industry o ...
1 million of its compensation funds.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Kibbutzim
Kibbutz Movement
Populated places established in 1946
Gaza envelope
Populated places in Southern District (Israel)
1946 establishments in Mandatory Palestine