Editing Sderot (section)

===20th century===

The Israeli [[Negev Brigade]] had [[List of towns and villages depopulated during the 1947–1949 Palestine war|depopulated]] the area on which Sderot would be built on between the 2 May and 13 May 1948, during the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]], expelling the 422 Muslim farmers there who cultivated citrus, bananas and cereals from the Palestinian village of [[Najd, Gaza|Najd]].<ref name=fisk /> The latter were relocated in Gaza as refugees.<ref name="morris1" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25632612|title=All that remains : the Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948|date=1992|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|others=[[Walid Khalidi|Khalidi, Walid]].|isbn=0-88728-224-5|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=25632612}}</ref><ref name="Peteet" >Julie Peteet, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NxeUDwAAQBAJ&dq=sderot%2Bnajd&pg=PA214 'Engaging Evil and Excess in Israel/Palestine,'] in William C.Olson, Thomas  J. Csordas (eds.,) ''Engaging Evil: A Moral Anthropology,' [[Berghahn Books]] 2019 {{isbn|978-1-789-20213-7}} pp199-223 pp.213-214.</ref><ref name=fisk>[[Robert Fisk]], [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-suffering-of-sderot-how-its-true-inhabitants-were-wiped-from-israel-s-maps-and-memories-8348734.html The suffering of Sderot: how its true inhabitants were wiped from Israel's maps and memories] [[The Independent]] 26 November 2012.</ref> 

Sderot was founded in 1951 as a [[ma'abarot|transit camp]] for Jewish immigrants, primarily from [[Kurdistan]] and [[Iran]]. The settlement initially housed 80 families and was originally called Gabim Dorot,<ref>''Israel Directory,'' Miksam Limited, 2003 p.212.</ref> before later being renamed Sderot, a symbolic nod to the numerous avenues of trees planted in the Negev to combat [[desertification]] and beautify the arid landscape. Like many localities in the [[Negev]], a green motif was chosen in keeping with the Zionist vision of "making the desert bloom."<ref name="sasson137"/>

The development served as part of a chain of settlements designed to block infiltration from Gaza.<ref name ="LaGuardia" >Anton La Guardia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi8qtb7qcEMC&pg=PT311  ''Holy Land, Unholy War: Israelis and Palestinians,''] Penguin 2007 p.311</ref><ref name="heeb" /> Permanent housing was completed three years later, in 1954.<ref name="heeb" />

[[File:PikiWiki Israel 6558 Settlements in Israel.jpg|thumb|School in Sderot, early 1950s]]

From the mid-1950s, the town attracted many Moroccan Jews.<ref name="LaGuardia" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Sderot.html|title=Sderot - Jewish Virtual Library |work=jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> [[History of the Jews in Romania|Romanian Jewish]] immigrants also began settling in Sderot. In 1956, Sderot was recognized as a [[local council (Israel)|local council]].<ref name="hareuveni908" /> In the 1961 census, North African immigrants, mostly from [[History of the Jews in Morocco|Morocco]], made up 87% of the population, with 11% from Kurdistan.<ref name="haaretz-rapoport" />

{{Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel}}

Sderot absorbed another large wave of immigrants, from the former [[Soviet Union]], during the [[1990s post-Soviet aliyah]]. Immigrants from [[Ethiopia]] also arrived during this time, doubling its population. In 1996, it was declared a [[city council (Israel)|city]]. A number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were resettled in Sderot beginning in 1997 after cooperating with the [[Shin Bet]].<ref name="ynet-hadad" />