First housing plots in new Negev community go up for sale

Carmit, located 15 minutes from Beersheba, looks to attract Anglo olim and native Israelis.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
Carmit 311 (photo credit: OR Movement)
Carmit 311
(photo credit: OR Movement)
The first 116 plots in the new Negev settlement of Carmit went on sale this week, until the end of the month.
The settlement, located outside Beersheba, is looking to attract families of Anglo olim as well as those born in Israel. This year, 235 oneeighth- acre plots will be sold, and the eventual goal is a settlement of more than 2,500 families.
The Construction and Housing Ministry, the Israel Lands Authority and the Jewish National Fund, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency and the Metar Regional Council, are aiming to create a multifaceted new community with a heavy emphasis on encouraging young Anglo immigrant families to settle in the Negev.
Construction of the first neighborhood has already begun, with residents expected to move in by 2013.
Absorption to Carmit is being carried out through the Jewish Agency, the Metar Regional Council and the OR Movement, a group involved in promoting settlement in the Negev.
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The movement has already established six new communities in the Negev and Galilee – Sansana, Merhav Am, Mitzpe Ilan, Haruv, Be’er Milka and Givot Bar – and created dozens of young core groups in the periphery communities, according to a press statement.
Carmit is located near the Yatir and Kramim Forests at the junction of Routes 60 and 31. An IDF Intelligence Center is expected to be created nearby, and a planned intersection for Route 6 is not far. Carmit will be 15 minutes from Beersheba and an hour from Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
“Marketing the plots for detached houses in the new community of Carmit is the next step in increasing the supply of land for residential purposes in the sought-after area of the northern Negev,” Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias said in a statement.
“The community offers identical standards to those in the surrounding communities, such as Omer and Lehavim, and we hope that increasing the supply of plots in the region is another stage on the road to reducing housing costs,” he added.
Metar Regional Council head Avner Ben-Gera stated that “like the veteran community of Metar, Carmit is leading the vision of living in the Negev, excellence in education, quality of the environment, and an involved and qualitative community.
This is another phase in strengthening the Negev and making it bloom, and serves as a Zionist realization, and a national objective of the first order.”
JNF chairman Effie Stenzler remarked that his organization “maintains that the first priority in Israel is the development of the Negev and Galilee, and that is why we have joined forces in the establishment of Carmit. The goal for the establishment of this community is to bring hundreds of new immigrant families, along with young native Israelis from central Israel.”
Roni Flamer, CEO of the OR Movement, concluded, “Finally, after six years of intense work, the moment to realize the dream combining immigration, settling the land, and action by young people in the Negev has arrived.”
The community’s website is www.carmit.org.il.