Jewish National Fund bulldozers and earthmovers are working throughout the daylight hours to prepare the ground for the industrial park of the town of Yamit, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. Some 350,000 cubic meters of sandy soil have already been shifted, according to JNF officials. Other JNF equipment is still working in Yamit itself–the industrial zone is slightly to the north of the town–preparing another 150 dunams for residential settlement.
There are presently 58 families living in Yamit, 20 from the Soviet Union, 20 from the U.S. and the rest are Israelis. Many of the settlers themselves are quick to complain to visitors that not enough is being done to develop Yamit into a major Jewish town. Housing is not going up fast enough, they say, and not enough jobs are being created. They say thousands would come to live there if the conditions were favorable.
Their fear is that the government is still ambivalent about Yamit and is therefore holding back on development work there. Officials in Jerusalem, however, deny this. They say Yamit is being built according to plan and predict its rapid expansion in the months ahead.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
