The Negev: A Region on the Periphery of Israeli Social and Economic Development

The Negev, it is said, is where God first spoke to Abraham and where monotheism began. It is the “land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass” (Deuteronomy 8:9). As early as the fourth century B.C.E., the Nabateans formed large communities in the Negev based on artificial irrigation and carefully devised schemes for storing and using available water.