Dimona (dīmō'nə) [Heb.,=wasting], town (1994 pop. 30,400), S Israel, in the Negev Desert. It is the seat of the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Mining and the production of textiles, chemicals, and processed minerals are also important. A development town, it was founded in 1955 and named for ancient Dimonah, which was located nearby. Because of its capacity as a site for nuclear weapons, Dimona was a target of Iraqi missiles in the Persian Gulf War.
Dimona
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Israeli frontier city.
Located 22 miles southeast of Beersheba and about 7 miles east of Yeruham, in Israel's southern region, the city is named after the biblical Dimona, a Judean city in the Negev. Initially a residential area serving the Dead Sea Industries workforce in Sodom and the operators of the potash works at Oron, Di-mona was originally settled by thirty-six Moroccan immigrant families, joined later by additional newcomers. During the period between 1978 and 1988 it registered a negative immigration balance. Subsequently, however, additional immigrants were brought in (in 1991 Dimona absorbed 1,500 families from Russia and Ethiopia).
Dimona is also home to the Hebrew Israelites, a group of some 2,000 African Americans who initially settled in Dimona in 1969 and who consider their immigration to Israel the final destination of their journey home. Their leader, Ben Ami Ben Israel Carter, supervises the group's communal life. Because, in their view, religions constitute a rift among people, the Hebrew Israelites do not consider themselves disciples of any religion.
Dimona is neither particularly large nor strategically located. Its population in 2002 was 33,700. It is, however, immensely important to Israel because it is home to scientists stationed at the nearby nuclear reactor. The Dimona reactor was built with the aid of the French; during the mid-1960s, it became a source of concern to both the Arabs and the United States, who feared that the reactor would be used to produce nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium. The Israelis gave assurances that the Dimona reactor was for peaceful use, but suspicions remained. In 1980 the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the Dimona reactor was capable of producing weapons-grade ore. Though it has never been publicly acknowledged, it is likely that the Israelis have used the Dimona reactor to help develop nuclear weapons.
In September 1986 Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear reactor, disclosed to the world that Israel had secretly produced 100 to 200 nuclear warheads. Before the publication of this information in the New York Times, Vanunu was kidnapped by the Israeli secret service. At a trial held in camera in Israel he was convicted of treason and espionage and was sentenced to eighteen years in prison; the first eleven and a half years were spent in solitary confinement. His petition for an early release was denied.
Bibliography
Cohen, Avner. Israel and the Bomb. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
— ZACHARY KARABELL
UPDATED BY YEHUDA GRADUS
| Dialing Code: The telephone dialing code for: Dimona, Israel |
The country code is: 972
The city code is: 7
| Wikipedia: Dimona |
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| District | South | |
| Government | City | |
| Hebrew | דִּימוֹנָה | |
| Arabic | ديمونة | |
| Population | 33,600 (2007) | |
| Area | 29,877 dunams (29.877 km2; 11.536 sq mi) | |
| Mayor | Meir Cohen | |
| Founded in | 1955 | |
| Coordinates | 31°4′N 35°2′E / 31.067°N 35.033°ECoordinates: 31°4′N 35°2′E / 31.067°N 35.033°E | |
Dimona (Hebrew: דִּימוֹנָה) is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the south of Beersheba and 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.[1]
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Etymology
The city's name is derived from a biblical town, mentioned in Joshua 15:21-22.
History
The Municipality of Dimona was one of the development towns that were created in the 1950s with the leadership of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Dimona itself was conceived in 1953, and settled in 1955, mostly by new immigrants from Northern Africa, who also constructed the city's houses. The emblem of Dimona (as a local council), adopted 2 March 1961, appeared on a stamp issued on 24 March 1965.
When the Israeli nuclear program started later that decade, a location not far from the city was chosen for the Negev Nuclear Research Center due to its relative isolation in the desert and availability of housing.
In spite of a gradual decrease during the 1980s, the city's population began to grow once again with the beginning of the Russian immigration in the 1990s. Currently, Dimona is the third largest city in the Negev, with the population of 33,900.[citation needed]
On 4 February 2008 an Israeli woman was killed and 38 others injured in the town by a Palestinian suicide bomber (see Dimona bombing).
Population
Dimona is home to Israel's Black Hebrew community, governed by its founder and spiritual leader, Ben Ammi Ben-Israel.[2] The Black Hebrews number about 3000 in Dimona, with additional families in Arad, Mitzpe Ramon and the Tiberias area. Their official status in Israel was an ongoing issue for many years, but in May 1990, the issue was resolved with the issuing of first B/1 visas, and a year later, issuing of temporary residency. Status was extended to August 2003, when the Israeli Ministry of Interior granted permanent residency.
Economy
In the early 1980s, textile plants, such as Dimona Textiles Ltd., dominated the industrial landscape. Many plants have since closed. Dimona Silica Industries Ltd. manufactures precipitated silica and calcium carbonate fillers.
About a third of the city's population works in industrial workplaces (chemical plants near the Dead Sea like the Dead Sea Works, high-tech companies and textile shops), and another third in the area of services. Due to the introduction of new technologies, many workers have been made redundant in the recent years, creating a total unemployment rate of about 10%.
Dimona has taken part of Israel's solar transformation. The Rotem Industrial Complex outside of the city has dozens of solar mirrors that focus the sun's rays on a tower that in turn heats a water boiler to create steam, turning a turbine to create electricity. Luz II, Ltd. plans to use the solar array to test new technology for the three new solar plants to be built in California for Pacific Gas and Electric Company.[3][4][5]
Transportation
In the early 1950s, an extension to Dimona and south was constructed from the Railway to Beersheba, designed for freight traffic. A passenger service began in 2005, after pressure from Dimona's municipality. Dimona Railway Station is located in the southwestern part of the city.
The main bus terminal is the Dimona Central Bus Station, with lines to Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Eilat, and nearby towns.
Famous Citizens
- Current Liverpool F.C. and Israeli footballer, Yossi Benayoun is a native of Dimona[6].
International relations
Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Israel
Twin towns — Sister cities
Dimona is twinned with:
Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (1975)
Sources
- ^ "Table 3 - Population of Localities Numbering Above 1,000 Residents and Other Rural Population". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008-06-30. http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2009/table3.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
- ^ "Ben Ammi". The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. http://www.africanhebrewisraelitesofjerusalem.com/ben_ammi.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
- ^ Calif. solar power test begins — in Israeli desert, Associated Press, June 12, 2008; accessed December 23, 2008.
- ^ Israel site for California solar power test, Ari Rabinovitch, Reuters, June 11, 2008.
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/team/squad/benayoun/
External links
- The African Hebrew Israelites: New black civilisation in the promised land" article written by Lester Holloway, January 1, 2004, for Black Information Link
- Video of a 3D tour of Dimona
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- Peter Hounam (British journalist who broke Vanunu story)
- Vanunu Affair
- Negev (region, Israel)
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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- Arotech Corp
- Courts-Martial (American history)
- Dimona Railway Station
- Ben Ami Ben-Israel
- Nuclear Capability and Nuclear Energy
