Ashalim is a small
communal settlementA community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer.By this selection process, a community...
in southern
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
. Located in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert about 35 km south of Be'er Sheva and on the eastern side of
Nahal BesorBesor , meaning 'glad news', 'cheerful', is a wadi in southern Israel. The stream begins at Mount Boker , and spills into the Mediterranean Sea near Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip....
, the largest stream in the Negev, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Ramat Negev Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 271.
The new Ashalim was founded as
moshav shitufiA Moshav shitufi is a type of cooperative village in Israel whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation...
in 1979 after moving from Bir Asluj Hill close to Golda Park (a nearby artificial lake).
Ashalim is a small
communal settlementA community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer.By this selection process, a community...
in southern
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
. Located in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert about 35 km south of Be'er Sheva and on the eastern side of
Nahal BesorBesor , meaning 'glad news', 'cheerful', is a wadi in southern Israel. The stream begins at Mount Boker , and spills into the Mediterranean Sea near Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip....
, the largest stream in the Negev, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Ramat Negev Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 271.
The new Ashalim was founded as
moshav shitufiA Moshav shitufi is a type of cooperative village in Israel whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation...
in 1979 after moving from Bir Asluj Hill close to Golda Park (a nearby artificial lake). It was named after the original village of Ashalim, one of three nahal settlements founded between Mashabei Sadeh and
NitzanaNitzana is an educational youth village and communal settlement in the western Negev desert in Israel, adjacent to the Egyptian border. It is named for the nearby Nabataean city of Nitzana and gives its name to the Nitzana Border Crossing....
in 1956. The name itself means
TamarixThe genus Tamarix comprises about 50-60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa....
es, a genus of shrubs and small trees. Today Ashalim functions as a communal settlement.
Ashalim is part of
Israel's solar power transformationSolar power in Israel and the Israeli solar energy industry has a history that dates to the founding of the country. In the 1950s, Levi Yissar developed a solar water heater to help assuage an energy shortage in the new country. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated their water with the...
. A 250 MW solar park in Ashalim has been in the planning stages for over five years, but it is not expected to produce power before 2013. In 2008 construction began on three solar power plants near the settlement; two
thermalSolar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for thermal energy . Solar thermal collectors are defined by the USA Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors. Low temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat swimming pools...
and one photovoltaic.
Kfar Adiel, a village for students of the
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBen-Gurion University of the Negev was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel.The university is mandated to promote development of the Negev region, inspired by the...
, was founded near Ashalim by the Ayalim Association, whose objective is to establish settlements for students and small entrepreneurs in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
and the
GalileeGalilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country...
.
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