Nitzan ( he, ניצן, lit. ''Flower bud'') is a religiously observant community settlement in southern Israel. Located within the

Nitzanim Sand Dune Reserve The Nitzanim Sand Dune Nature Reserve is a 21,600 dunam area within the area between Ashdod and Ashkelon on the Southern Coastal Plain of the Israeli Mediterranean Sea coast.Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a population of , including a large concentration of Bnei Menashe (10–20% of the population) from the India and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

regions bordering India.

History

Kibbutz Nitzanim

The first settlement on Nitzan's current grounds was the kibbutz of Nitzanim in 1943. The kibbutz was established after the

Jewish National Fund Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...

purchased a plot of land and a large house known as the "mansion" in 1942. The first residents were immigrants, some of whom were Holocaust survivors. It later absorbed more immigrants from Poland and Romania. The kibbutz was conquered by Egypt during 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 ...

, but recaptured by Israel towards the end of the conflict. However, the kibbutz was re-established to the south.

Nitzanim youth village

The original site became a youth village. It operated as Nitzanim Youth Village in 1949-1990.

Nitzan

In 1990, the modern community settlement of Nitzan was established on the site of the youth village. By 1995 it had a population of 105. It experienced rapid expansion in the mid-2000s after being selected to temporarily house a large group of families evacuated from

Gush Katif Gush Katif ( he, גוש קטיף, , Harvest Bloc) was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. In August 2005, the Israeli army forcibly removed the 8,600 residents of Gush Katif from their homes after a decision from the Ca ...

as part of the disengagement plan. (Many of them were Bnei Menashe immigrants.) 500 temporary caravillas were constructed on the eastern end of Nitzan (an area that became Nitzan Bet), and 250 more were ordered by the

Israeli Government The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...

. Several environmental organisations objected to the new construction, which increased Nitzan's area by four-and-a-half times. They feared damage to the fragile sand dune ecosystem. The neighbourhood was also the target of criticism by settlers and Israeli human-rights groups, citing a lack of adequate housing and facilities. They argued that governmental negligence resulted in a housing shortage, forcing large families to separate into multiple caravillas, and that basic infrastructure like a youth area, nursery, and synagogue were absent. On 12 July 2012, the organization United With Israel delivered bomb shelters to the residents of Nitzan. It was a major event for the residents of Nitzan, whose children needed kindergarten bomb shelters. The event included children painting the shelters with murals, supervised by a professional mural artist.

References

{{Hof Ashkelon Regional Council Community settlements Religious Israeli communities Populated places in Southern District (Israel) Populated places established in 1949 1949 establishments in Israel