The Negev blooms
From News From Jerusalem:
David Ben Gurion – Israel's first prime minister, had a dream that one day the country would make the Negev desert bloom. Now it looks as though that dream is becoming a reality.
With the opening of Route 6 and a new railroad to the Negev's capital city, Beersheva, the route into the desert has never been easier. Today Beersheva boasts more than 200,000 residents while the standard of living at nearby cities, Dimona and Yeruham, once poor, development towns, is rising rapidly.
Industrial, biotech, clean-tech and high-tech companies, both from Israel and abroad, are moving in and new technology industrial zones like the Negev Advanced Technology Park are going up fast in response.
The Israel Defense Force is relocating many of its training bases to Beersheva, a new mega mall is being developed, a biotech research center is planned, as is a new renewable energy research center deep in the Arava desert in the southern Negev, with a new water technology center to follow.
Find out more about these exciting developments in our stories below.
With fewer fish in the sea with each passing year, Israel's Grow Fish Anywhere has found a way to grow them in the desert.
As we become more conscious of the size of our ecological footprints, it's good to know that in Israel we can go green in our leisure options as well.
New renewable energy research center
A renewable energy research center is to be established in southern Israel. It will be operated by theArava Group, initiated by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Eilat-Elot municipality.
US and Israel cooperate on new Beersheva tech park
American construction and real estate entrepreneurs know that there are huge business opportunities waiting for them in rapidly expanding countries like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Beijing.
Growing life sciences at home, in the desert
Hoping to reverse Israel's brain and biotech innovation drain, the new NGO BioNegev plans to transform the Negev Desert into a major biotechnology hub.
Luring low- and high-tech to the Negev desert
In a tribute to founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, two former IDF colonels have set up a technology incubator designed to green southern Israel.
Tires with a little piece of the Negev
An Israeli company has discovered a way to turn waste left over from the country's phosphate industry into an important green ingredient in tires.
Fight desertification – feed the world
Experts at transforming the disadvantages of the desert into advantages, Israel is sharing its solutions for the growing problem of desertification with the world.