Sderot - History

History

Sderot was founded in 1951 as a transit camp for Kurdish and Persian Jewish immigrants who lived in tents and shacks during the Jewish exodus from Muslim countries before permanent housing was completed in 1954. It was built on the lands of the Palestinian Arab village of Najd and is located a few miles south of its ruins. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by the Negev Brigade as part of Operation Barak, and the villagers were "driven out" to Gaza. In 1956, Sderot was recognized as a local council.

Sderot received a symbolic name, after the numerous avenues and standalone rows of trees planted in the Negev, especially between Beersheba and Gaza, to combat desertification and beautify the arid landscape. Like many other localities in the Negev, Sderot's name has a green motif that symbolizes the motto "making the desert bloom," a central part of Zionist ideology.

In the 1961 census, the percentage of North African immigrants, mostly from Morocco, was 87% in the town, whilst another 11% of the residents were immigrants from Kurdistan. In the 1950s, the city continued to absorb a large number of immigrants from Morocco and Romania. It reached local council status in 1958.

Sderot absorbed another large wave of immigrants during the Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1990s, doubling its population. In 1996, it was declared a city.

The population declined as families left the city in desperation. The mayor said in 2008 that the population had dropped by 10%-15%, while aid organizations said the figure was closer to 25%. Many of the families that remained were those who could not afford to move out or are unable to sell their homes.

According to a study carried out at Sapir Academic College in 2007, some 75% of the population was suffering from PTSD in the wake of rocket attacks on the city, and 1,000 residents were receiving psychiatric treatment at the community mental health center.

In May 2011, the British Ambassador to Israel visited Sderot and met with Mayor David Buskila, who described the suffering of children in both Sderot and Gaza:

"Believe me that I feel bad for my children, for the children that live here in Sderot, but I also feel pain for the children that live in the other side of the border in Gaza ... This situation that the children from this place and the other place is because of the behaviour of the leaders of the terror organisations. We can create another quality of life, it is so close."