Kiryat Gat

Location

The city of Kiryat Gat is located in the northern Negev between Israel’s congested center and its sparse periphery.  It is situated along the strategic junctions linking Tel Aviv with Beersheva and Ashkelon with Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.  The cit covers an area of approximately 3.2 sq. miles (which is about 8.4 sq. kilometers) and covers 4,250 acres (17,000 Dunams).

Population

The city was established in 1955 by 18 families from Morocco.  Very quickly they were followed by other new immigrants, mostly from North Africa (Tunisia and Morocco).  In recent years, Kiryat Gat’s population has doubled in size.  New immigrants have boosted the city’s population from almost 28,000 in 1989 to over 50,000 residents.  90% of those more recent immigrants arrived from the Former Soviet Union and the remainder from Ethiopia and Argentina.

Challenges

Although the huge wave of immigration into the city in the 1980s enabled it to flourish in many ways, it also placed a significant strain on its educational, social and medical systems, which is felt until today.  Education plays an important role in the city, and the local municipality provides formal an informal education for some 15,000 students of all ages.

The Region is underdeveloped and struggles to meet the challenge of relatively high unemployment.  Several factories in the city (Polgat and Bagir for example) which provided employment for local residents have implemented cutbacks, having lost a significant portion of their business to their competitors in the Far East.  Intel however opened a chip-manufacturing plant; yet the local residents require upgraded education in order to work there.

Solutions

Partnership 2000 has implemented any number of projects in order to do its part in helping to upgrade the Region.  It has granted scholarships to university students from the Region; it supplements the teaching of English from an early age; it provides exciting opportunities for students of excellence, while trying to narrow the gaps for children who have to struggle a bit harder.  Kiryat Gat is also home to a Pedagogic Center, science centers, a computerized library and a center for the study of Industry, Art and Technology.

Intel opened its first plant in Kiryat Gat in 1999 (a second is under development), establishing a good relationship with the community.  Kiryat Gat has become a model for cooperation and corporate sponsorship, and more than 20 other companies joined Intel in the new industrial zone.

Mayor Aviram Dahari

The Mayor of Kiryat Gat, Aviram Dahar, was elected in November 2003.  Aviram spent his earliest years on Moshav Maishan near Ashkelon and then moved to Kiryat Gat.  He has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computers from Ben Gurion University in Beersheva and he also holds a Masters of Science in Business Management.  He has worked in cellular communications for Nortel and has founded three start-up companies.