City in Israel
Kiryat Malachi
(
Hebrew
:
????? ?????
,
[2]
also spelled
Kiryat Malahi
,
Kiryat Malakhi
, or
Qiryat Mal'akhi
) is a city in the
Southern District
of
Israel
, 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the city of
Ashkelon
. In 2022 it had a population of 25,705.
[1]
Its jurisdiction is 4,632
dunams
(~4.6 km
2
).
History
[
edit
]
Kiryat Malachi, literally "City of Angels" in
Hebrew
, was established in 1951 as a
ma'abara
(
lit.
'temporary residential'), to house the masses of Jewish immigrants who have arrived during the early years of the newly established State of Israel, many of them part of the
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries
. The name was chosen to honor the
Jewish community of Los Angeles
, which contributed much of the funding for its establishment.
[3]
It has been one of several
development towns
of the
Negev
, at that time being.
[
citation needed
]
Moshe Katsav
, later Israel's
8th president
, was elected mayor in 1969, at the age of 24. His younger brother Lior Katsav has also been a mayor of Kiryat Malachi; whilst
Yosef Vanunu
held the post from 1981 until the 1990s. The current mayor is Eliyahu "Lalo" Zohar.
[4]
On 15 November 2012 missile attacks were launched by Palestinian militant groups from the
Gaza Strip
as a response to Israel's
Operation Pillar of Defense
. These attacks resulted in the deaths of three residents of the city.
[5]
Demographics
[
edit
]
The arrival of
new immigrants from the former Soviet Union
as well as
from Ethiopia
in a few previous decades, has increased the population of Kiryat Malachi by 40 percent. Some 22,000 people now reside in the city.
[6]
In January 2012, Israeli television publicized a case of a seller in the municipality creating a restrictive
covenant
barring the sale or lease of property to Ethiopian Jews. The case led to public outcry and demonstrations of hundreds of people, and caused the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
to call on the Registrar of Real Estate to revoke the licence of real estate agents who practice such discrimination.
[7]
Sports
[
edit
]
There is a 1,000-seat football (soccer) stadium named Teddy Arena, being held as the home-grounds for the local association club of
Maccabi Kiryat Malachi
.
Transportation
[
edit
]
The city's main transportation hub is the
Malachi Junction
(also known as
Qastina
).
Education
[
edit
]
According to CBS, there are 15 schools and 4,909 students in the city. They are spread out as 10 elementary schools and 2,867 elementary school students, and 2 high schools and 2,042 high school students.
[
citation needed
]
Twin towns ? sister cities
[
edit
]
Kiryat Malachi is
twinned
with:
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Kiryat Malakhi
at Wikimedia Commons