Billions of locusts hatched in southern Israel

Published on May 7, 2013

Billions of newly hatched locusts are spreading throughout Israel's South.

Knesset panel advances plan regulating Bedouin settlements

Published on May 6, 2013

A Knesset committee advanced a plan that would require the resettlement of some 30,000 Bedouin.

Israel Film Festival explores unfamiliar territory

By Tom Tugend
Published on April 10, 2013

Among its other benefits, the Israel Film Festival takes even those of us familiar with the country to places and people we know only superficially, or not at all.

Beresheet Hotel: A Desert Dream

By Elyse Glickman
Published on April 10, 2013

When the Beresheet hotel opened for business two years ago in the Negev Desert, Israeli President Shimon Peres was reported to say at the grand opening gala, “For me, this is a dream come true. As I travel a lot in the world, I can tell you this is the Taj Mahal of Israel.”

Another swarm of locusts in Israel sparks new concerns

Published on March 18, 2013

Another swarm of locusts entered Israel, spurring concerns that they will continue to infest the country for several weeks.

Canadian fertilizer corp. determined to buy Israeli chemical company

Published on February 28, 2013

A Canadian fertilizer company is determined to buy a major Israeli chemical company despite opposition among lawmakers and employees of the Israeli company.

Study: Sderot rocket attacks increased miscarriages

Published on February 25, 2013

Rocket attacks on Sderot significantly increased the number of miscarriages that occurred in women from the southern Israeli city, according to a new study.

Knesset approves plan to recognize Bedouin settlement

Published on January 28, 2013

Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to formalize the status of Bedouin settlement in the Negev.

67 years later, Holocaust survivor reunites with rescuer

Published on November 26, 2012

Even though 67 years had passed since they last saw each other, Wladyslawa Dudziak and Rozia Beiman reunited as if they hadn't missed a moment.

Three soldiers wounded in Gaza rocket attack

Published on November 16, 2012

Three Israeli soldiers were lightly injured by a Palestinian rocket attack on the northern Negev.

Iran has photos of Israeli restricted areas, lawmaker says

Published on October 29, 2012

An Iranian lawmaker said that Iran has photos of Israeli military bases and other restricted areas.

Israel must stop squatting Bedouin, lawmaker says

Published on October 9, 2012

Israel must find a way to halt the illegal squatting of Israeli Bedouin, in order to help the Bedouin and to assert Israel's claim to the land, lawmaker Yuli Edelstein told a special forum.

Israeli military downs drone over Negev

Published on October 8, 2012

The Israeli Air Force shot down a drone that entered Israeli airspace.

One L.A. party raises $7 million for Israel Defense Forces

By Danielle Berrin
Published on September 27, 2012

It could well be a happy new year for Israel’s military, as their friends on the West Coast just raised a bundle for Israeli soldiers through the organization Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). At a Western Region summer party hosted by real estate entrepreneur Daniel Mani and his wife, Tsipi, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) came one step closer to realizing a longtime dream of constructing “a city of training bases” in the Negev.

Harvesting solar power in Negev Desert

Published on September 27, 2012

Yosef Abramowitz is running out of time. With only minutes to go until he has to speak to a group of donors at the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Abramowitz looks like he just finished a workout. He’s wearing sneakers, shorts and a white T-shirt featuring an outline of David Ben-Gurion’s head superimposed on the picture of a sun.

Israelis helping Syrian refugees in Jordan

Published on July 13, 2012

Israelis from humanitarian groups are in Jordan are assisting Syrian refugees fleeing that country's uprising.

Rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel despite truce

Published on June 26, 2012

Four rockets were fired from Gaza at a Jewish community in the Negev.

Cross-border violence continues between Israel and Gaza

Published on June 22, 2012

An Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian militant and wounded two men in the Gaza Strip on Friday, Israel and Hamas medical officials said, two days after an Egyptian-brokered truce had calmed an outbreak of cross-border violence.

Hamas says it is ready for Egypt-brokered truce

Published on June 20, 2012

Palestinian Hamas militants announced on Wednesday they were ready to stop the latest round of cross-border violence as long as Israel followed suit, in a statement issued after Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in a third day of fighting.

IAF strikes two Gaza targets as escalation in south continues

Published on June 20, 2012

The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday evening struck two targets in the northern Gaza Strip, in response to earlier rocket fire.

Kassam strikes southern Israel

Published on March 19, 2012

A Kassam rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israel, ending a two-day lull in rocket fire.

Teaching English Underground: My Gap Year in Southern Israel

By Masa Israel Journey
Published on December 6, 2011

Bedouin villagers clash with foresters in Negev

Published on February 10, 2011

Residents of a Bedouin village razed more than a dozen times clashed with workers from the Jewish National Fund who came to plant trees in the area. Six people were injured in Thursday's clashes in the unrecognized village of Al-Arakib in the Negev and three were arrested for throwing rocks, Ynet reported.

Q&A with Fakheri about new “Project Jacob” program

By Karmel Melamed
Published on November 12, 2010

Ariel Sharon moved to ranch first time since coma

Published on November 12, 2010

Ariel Sharon was moved to his ranch for the first time since he fell into a coma in January 2006.

Ariel Sharon going home

Published on September 22, 2010

Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for nearly five years, is expected to be moved from an Israeli hospital to his Negev ranch.

Kassam from Gaza strikes Negev

Published on May 20, 2010

A Kassam rocket from Gaza was fired into the western Negev.

Science and Zionism Bloom Side by Side in the Desert

By Dikla Kadosh
Published on April 20, 2010

“It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested,” David Ben-Gurion once famously said. Israel’s first prime minister was a passionate advocate of developing the sparsely populated and barren southern desert into a thriving center of learning, technology, culture and innovation. Three decades after his death, a university named in his honor is carrying out his vision. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), with campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sde Boker and Eilat, has as its central mission the goal of developing the Negev by attracting bright scholars to the region, conducting world-class research, promoting industry and agriculture in the desert, improving education, investing in the surrounding immigrant communities, and pioneering green technology and arid zone research.

A Vineyard Blooms in the Negev

By Adam Wills
Published on April 2, 2009

“It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested,” David Ben-Gurion said more than 50 years ago.

Israel’s first prime minister expected others to follow after he moved into Israel’s southern desert in 1954, when he was still in office. He would live there for nearly two decades, but few would move to join him.

Israel confronts shared future with Bedouin citizens

By Carin M. Smilk
Published on June 28, 2007

A nomadic people, "Bedouin" is the general name for Arabic-speaking tribes in the Middle East and North Africa that originate from the Arabian Peninsula, the Jazirat al-Arab. Before 1948, Bedouin were for generations the only residents of the Negev, a land mass that makes up some 60 percent of present-day Israel but comprises less than 10 percent of the total population.

God Was With Us That Night in the Negev

By Daniella Kaufman
Published on August 31, 2006

This was by far the most spiritual moment in my life. I gazed up at the stars as I chanted the V'Ahavta prayer with amazing new friends, standing around the same rocks that our people had wandered past thousands of years before. My eyes couldn't help but tear up as we moved on to the Mi Chamocha, the song of freedom. At that moment I felt as though God truly was with us.

Program Tries to Sell Youth on Negev

By Dina Kraft
Published on January 19, 2006

The two-day event over Chanukah, dubbed "Light Up the Negev," was organized by the Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (JNF) with the express purpose of "selling" the Negev to Israel's youth.

The Final Frontier

By Amy Klein
Published on July 21, 2005

Professor Ron Folman leads me down a few staircases of the science building of Ben Gurion University (BGU) in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva to show me his million-dollar, state-of-the-art nanotech laboratory.

It feels like we're descending to some basement bomb shelter of an old Israeli building. Actually, we are. Very recently, the laboratory was a bomb shelter. And despite the double doors leading to a white, clean room with an air-pressurized system to keep the expensive equipment immaculate, there is still a feel of the makeshift here, in the wall coverings, in the tiled ceilings, in the fact that it was formerly a bomb shelter before Folman came along.

"Building a lab was the condition for me to do my high-tech here," said Folman, a scientist in his 40s who is darkly handsome in a 1970s professorial way. Sometimes it's "frustrating," added the head of the Atom Chip Laboratory, to make do with a lab that's been improvised into a basement bomb shelter, "but in the big picture we're doing more than science. We're helping the Negev and making a difference. These are not just words for me."

Negev: Full of Adventures

By Tom Tugend
Published on August 29, 2002

Amid the gloomy statistics of declining tourism to Israel, there are a couple bright spots for the foreign visitor willing to explore beyond the beaten track and eager to save some serious money.

For one, there are few places in the world where the ancient and the modern meet and meld as spectacularly as in the northern Negev.