City in Israel
Kiryat Gat
, also spelled
Qiryat Gat
(
Hebrew
:
??????? ????
), is a city in the
Southern District
of
Israel
. It lies 56 km (35 miles) south of
Tel Aviv
, 43 km (27 mi) north of
Beersheba
, and 68 km (42 mi) west southwest of
Jerusalem
. In 2022 it had a population of 64,437.
[2]
The city hosts one of the most advanced
semiconductor fabrication plants
in the world,
Intel
's Fab 28 plant producing
7 nm process
chips and the currently under construction Fab 38 plant due to open in 2028 and to produce
3 nm process
using
EUV lithography
.
Etymology
[
edit
]
Kiryat Gat is named for
Gath
, one of the five major cities of the
Philistines
. In Hebrew, "gat" means "winepress". In the 1950s, archaeologists found ruins at a nearby
tell
(
Tel Erani
) which were mistaken for the Philistine city of Gath. The location most favored for Gath now is
Tel es-Safi
, thirteen kilometers (8.1 miles) to the northeast.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Kiryat Gat was founded in 1954, initially as a
ma'abara
. The following year it was established as a
development town
by 18 families from
Morocco
.
[4]
It was founded just west of the ruins of the
Palestinian Arab
village of
Iraq al-Manshiyya
, which was depopulated in 1949 after the
1948 Arab?Israeli War
.
[5]
[6]
The former location of Iraq al-Manshiyya is now within the built-up area of Kiryat Gat.
[6]
By 1992, Kiryat Gat had grown and spread also onto the land that formerly belonged to the village of
Al-Faluja
.
[7]
The population of Kiryat Gat rose from 4,400 inhabitants in 1958 to 17,000 in 1969, mostly Jewish immigrants from
North Africa
. The economy was initially based on processing the agricultural produce of the
Lachish
region, such as cotton and wool. In December 1972, Kiryat Gat's municipal status was upgraded and it became Israel's 31st city.
[8]
During the 1990s, the
mass immigration of Soviet Jews
to Israel brought many new residents to the town and its population grew to 42,500 by 1995.
[9]
The development of the Rabin industrial zone on the eastern edge of the city, and the opening of
Highway 6
further improved the economy of the city.
Demographics
[
edit
]
In 2012, the ethnic makeup of the city was 93.8 percent
Jewish
.
[10]
In its early years, Kiryat Gat was populated mainly by Jews of
Sephardi
/
Mizrahi
origin. Since the
mass immigration
of
Soviet Jews
, approximately one third of the inhabitants hail from the former
Soviet Union
.
[11]
Economy
[
edit
]
The
Polgat
textile factory was the main employer in the town until it closed in the 1990s. In 1999,
Intel
opened a chip
fabrication plant
, known as Fab 18, to produce Pentium 4 chips and
flash memories
. Intel received a grant of $525 million from the Israeli government to build the plant. In February 2006, the cornerstone was laid for Intel's second Kiryat Gat plant, Fab 28. Despite this, Kiryat Gat has one of Israel's highest unemployment rates.
[11]
[12]
In 2021, Intel announced a $10 billion investment in new manufacturing in Kiryat Gat.
[13]
The headquarters and small-arms (guns) manufacturing facility of Israeli Weapons Industries is now located in Kiryat Gat.
[14]
Transportation
[
edit
]
Kiryat Gat is served by the
Kiryat Gat Railway Station
on the Tel Aviv - Be'er Sheva inter-city line of
Israel Railways
. Kiryat Gat is situated between two major highways,
Highway 40
to the west of the town and
Highway 6
.
Education
[
edit
]
Kiryat Gat has 25 schools with an enrollment of 10,676. Of these schools, 18 are elementary schools with a student population of 5,498, and 13 are high schools with a student population of 5,178. In 2001, 54.7% of Kiryat Gat's 12th grade students graduated with a matriculation certificate. Kiryat Gat has a Pedagogic Center, science centers, a computerized library and a center devoted to industry, art and technology.
[4]
In 2012, a high school student from Kiryat Gat won first prize in the
First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics
competition.
[15]
Twin towns ? sister cities
[
edit
]
Kiryat Gat is
twinned
with:
Notable people
[
edit
]
- Tali Fahima
(born 1976), pro-Palestinian activist
- Adi Nes
(born 1966), photographer
- Miri Regev
(born 1965), politician and a former Brigadier General. She is a member of the Cabinet as the Minister of Culture and Sport from 2015?2020 and the Minister of Transportation since 2020
[19]
[20]
- Miki Zohar
(born 1980), politician. He is a former member of the Kiryat Gat City Council, a member of Knesset from 2015 to 2023, and a member of Cabinet as the Minister of Culture and Sport since 2022.
[21]
- Ninet Tayeb
(born 1983), singer and actress
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Ultra-Orthodox retake Beit Shemesh, former Haifa mayor Yona Yahav returns to office"
.
www.timesofisrael.com
. Retrieved
2024-04-13
.
- ^
a
b
"Regional Statistics"
. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
. Retrieved
21 March
2024
.
- ^
Horton Harris (2011). "The location of Ziklag: a review of the candidate sites, based on Biblical, topographical and archaeological evidence".
Palestine Exploration Quarterly
.
143
(2): 119?133.
doi
:
10.1179/003103211x12971861556954
.
S2CID
162186999
.
- ^
a
b
"Partnership 2000, Kiryat Gat"
.
Jewish United Fund
. Retrieved
2008-10-20
.
- ^
Khalidi, Walid
(1992).
All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948
.
Washington D.C.
:
Institute for Palestine Studies
. p. 108.
ISBN
0-88728-224-5
.
- ^
a
b
Sheet
Hebron
of 100,000 topological map series, Survey of Israel, 1956.
- ^
Khalidi, 1992, p. 97
- ^
Ed.
Cecil Roth
, ed. (1997). "Kiryat Gat".
Encyclopaedia Judaica
(CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0)
. Keter Publishing House.
ISBN
965-07-0665-8
.
- ^
"Kiryat Gat- Municipality Profile"
(PDF)
(in Hebrew).
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
. 2005. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2007-09-30
. Retrieved
2007-06-27
.
- ^
"Local Authorities in Israel 2012, Publication No. 1573. Kiryat Gat"
??????? ???????? ?????? 2012, ????? ??' 1573. ????? ??
(PDF)
(in Hebrew). ????? ??????? ??????????
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
. Retrieved
2014-07-16
.
- ^
a
b
Rosenthal, Donna (2003).
The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land
. New York: Free Press. pp.
124?126
.
ISBN
0-684-86973-X
.
- ^
Gazzar, Brenda (2006-01-05).
"Intel's Inside"
.
The Jerusalem Post
. Retrieved
2012-07-08
.
- ^
"Intel to Invest $10B in New Israeli Manufacturing Site"
.
The Media Line
. 2021-05-03
. Retrieved
2021-09-14
.
- ^
Etsion, Udi (2019-09-05).
"Scoot Over, Uzi, There's a new Gun in Town"
.
CTECH - www.calcalistech.com
. Retrieved
2021-07-02
.
- ^
Kiryat Gat teen wins first prize in international physics competition
,
Haaretz
- ^
"Partnership Together"
. Jewish United Fund
. Retrieved
2023-08-08
.
- ^
"Buffalo, New York & Kiryat Gat, Israel"
. Sister Cities International. Archived from
the original
on 2014-07-26
. Retrieved
2014-07-16
.
- ^
"Градови побратими"
. Град Крушевац
. Retrieved
2014-07-16
.
- ^
"All Governments of Israel"
.
main.knesset.gov.il
. The Knesset. n.d
. Retrieved
20 March
2021
.
- ^
"Knesset Member, Miri Regev"
.
knesset.gov.il
. The Knesset. n.d
. Retrieved
20 March
2021
.
- ^
"All Past and Present MKs"
.
main.knesset.gov.il
. The Knesset. n.d
. Retrieved
8 August
2023
.
External links
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