Urim, Israel


Urim is a kibbutz in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Located near the border of the Gaza Strip and about 30 kilometers west of Beersheba, the kibbutz falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In, it had a population of.
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History

Kibbutz Urim was founded on 6 October 1946 as one of the 11 points in the Negev by a gar'in of young Jews from Bulgaria, later joined by North American members of Habonim. According to Walid Khalidi, Urim was established on land which had belonged to the Palestinian village of Al-Imara. Al-Imara became depopulated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and Urim was established about 1 km south of the village site.

Economy

Kibbutz Urim operated a blanket factory that was devastated by fire in the 1980s. Today Noam Urim manufactures needle-punched nonwoven fabrics. Kibbutz Urim is a co-owner of Ora Field Crops, which is operates together with Kibbutz Kissufim also in the northwestern Negev.
The cultivated area is about 27,000 dunam. Over two-thirds of the fields are irrigated from water sources supplied by water mains with hydraulic valves, communications and automation networks. Autumn crops include potatoes, carrots, radishes, wheat, barley and onions; spring crops include sunflowers, peanuts and corn. The summer crop is table grapes.

Equine therapy project

Olympic equestrian Daniel Bluman has an equine therapy project in Israel that he operates in conjunction with Kibbutz Urim.

Military

Near the kibbutz are the military bases of Unit 8200 of the Military Intelligence Directorate, unit 414 of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps), and the Southern District of the Home Front Command.

October 7 attacks

In the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, several locations near Urim were attacked.
Allegedly, Hamas militants were looking for a particularly sensitive Unit 8200 military base known as "Yarkon" and got lost.
The kibbutzim's Equine therapy project project was also attacked. Bluman said:
This touches very close to home... I am both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, because I am pro-life, pro-human rights, and unfortunately right now the only way to get to that is by eradicating Hamas and terrorists groups that are fighting religious wars.

Erez Kalderon from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a student in the equine therapy program, was kidnapped by Hamas when the boy was 11 years old, and was held hostage. In December 2023, for the first time since the attack on the program, the program was able to work with children.

Notable residents