Sdot Negev Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Sdot Negev'', ''lit.'' Negev Fields Regional Council), formerly Azata Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Azata''), is a regional council in the northwestern

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or 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 southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

desert in the Southern District of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

History

The Sdot Negev region council was established in 1951 by the

Religious Zionist Religious Zionism () is a religious denomination that views Zionism as a fundamental component of Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' (), and in Israel, they are most commonly known by the plural form of the fi ...

HaPoel HaMizrahi settlement movement. The council encompasses 16 communities: two

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

im, 12

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

im and two

community settlements A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geo ...

. Despite frequent rocket attacks from the nearby

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

, the population of the Sdot Negev region has increased 55 percent in 2006–2012. Residents have cited the educational system, atmosphere and rural lifestyle as incentives for moving to this part of the Negev.

List of communities

Kibbutzim: * Alumim * Sa'ad Moshavim: * Beit HaGadi * Givolim * Kfar Maimon * Mlilot * Sharsheret * Shibolim * Shokeda * Shuva * Tkuma * Yoshivia * Zru'a * Zimrat Community settlements: * Ma'agalim * Tushia

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 31, 25, N, 34, 33, E, source:kolossus-nlwiki, display=title Regional councils in Israel 1951 establishments in Israel