Ofira ( he, אופירה) was an
Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
in the
Sharm el-Sheikh area of the southern
Sinai Peninsula, an
Egyptian territory that was under
Israeli occupation
Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...
from 1967 to 1982. Ofira was settled from 1969 and was meant to accommodate 500 families. An airfield was opened in 1976, today known as
Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport.
It was named after the
Biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
Ophir, an
African land where
gold was
mined.
Ofira overlooked Sharm el-Maya Bay and the Nesima area. Six kilometers north at
Naama Bay, Israel constructed its first tourist village.
During the
Yom Kippur War, it was the site of an
air battle, where Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat's half brother
Atef
Atef is the specific feathered white crown of the ancient Egyptian deity Osiris. It combines the Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Egypt, with curly ostrich feathers on each side of the crown for the Osiris cult. The feathers are identified as os ...
was killed.
[Gawrych, p. 81.]
In the spring of 1982, Ofira was vacated as the Sinai was returned to Egypt pursuant to the
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retrea ...
that led to the
Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Unlike
Yamit, Ofira was not demolished. Instead, it was given to Egypt and populated by Egyptians.
References
External links
*
Former Israeli settlements in Sinai
1969 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate
1982 disestablishments in the Israeli Military Governorate
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