Qiryat Mal'akhi
Encyclopedia
Kiryat Malakhi is a city council
City council (Israel)
A City council is the official designation of a city within Israel's system of local government.City council status may be granted by the Interior Minister to a municipality, usually a local council, whose population surpasses 20,000 and whose character is urban, defined as having areas zoned for...

-governed municipality in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

's Southern District, 17 kilometres (10.6 mi) from Ashkelon
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...

. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including population, society, economy, industry, education and physical infrastructure.It is headed by a...

 (CBS), at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,600. Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunam
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...

s (~4.6 km²). Moshe Katsav
Moshe Katsav
Moshe Katsav is an Israeli politician. He served as the eighth President of Israel, a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset, and a Cabinet Minister in its government....

, the eighth President of Israel
President of Israel
The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

, was a past mayor of Kiryat Malakhi.

History

Kiryat Malakhi, literally "City of Angels", was established in 1951 as a ma'abara
Ma'abarot
The Ma'abarot were refugee absorption camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Olim arriving to the newly independent State of Israel, replacing the less habitable immigrant camps or tent cities...

, or tent city, to house the masses of Jewish immigrants who arrived during the early days of the state, many of them part of the Jewish exodus from Arab lands
Jewish exodus from Arab lands
The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries was a mass departure, flight and expulsion of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Muslim countries, from 1948 until the early 1970s...

. The name was chosen to honor the Jewish community of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, which contributed much of the funding for its establishment. It later became one of several development town
Development town
Development town is a term used to refer to the new settlements that were built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing to a large influx of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from Europe and new immigrants , who arrived to the newly established State...

s in the Negev.

Moshe Katsav was elected mayor in 1969 at the age of 24. His younger brother, Lior Katsav, was also mayor of Kiryat Malakhi, whilst Yosef Vanunu
Yosef Vanunu
Dr. Yosef Vanunu is an Israeli economist and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party from 1992 until 1996.-Biography:Born in El Kelaa des Sraghna, Morocco in 1945, Vanunu's father was a prominent rabbi...

 held the post from 1981 until the 1990s. The current mayor is Motti Malka
Motti Malka
Motti Malka is the current mayor of the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malakhi. Malka is a member of the Mayors For Peace Network, an organization that aims to promote peace at a local, and civil society level across the world....

.

Demographics

The arrival of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union
Aliyah from the Commonwealth of Independent States in the 1990s
Russian Jewish immigration to Israel began en masse in the 1990s when the liberal government of Mikhail Gorbachev opened the borders of the USSR and allowed Jews to leave the country for Israel.-History:...

 and from Ethiopia
Aliyah from Ethiopia
The Jewish aliyah from Ethiopia began during the mid-1970s, during which the majority of the Jewish Ethiopians immigrated to Israel.- Eligibility of Jewish Ethiopians for Aliyah :...

 in recent years has increased the population of Kiryat Malakhi by 40 percent. Some 22,000 people now live in the city.

Income

According to CBS figures for 2000, there were 5,692 salaried workers and 458 self-employed persons in Kiryat Malakhi. The mean monthly wage for a salaried worker was 3,513 shekels, a real change of -3.4% over the course of 2000. Salaried men earned an average of 4,558 shekels (a real change of -3.1%) compared to 2,405 shekels for females (a real change of -4.9%). The mean income for the self-employed was 5,471. There were 472 people receiving unemployment benefits and 3,301 people eligible for income supplements.

There is a 1000 people football stadium named "Teddy Arena". The club Maccabi Kiryat Malakhi plays there.

Transportation

Kiryat Malakhi's main transportation hub is Malakhi Junction (also known as Qastina
Qastina
Qastina was a Palestinian village, located 38 kilometers northeast of Gaza City. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.-Location:...

, after the pre-state Arab village that was located here).

Education

According to CBS, there are 15 schools and 4,909 students in the city. They are spread out as 10 elementary schools and 2,867 elementary school students, and 9 high schools and 2,042 high school students. 47.9% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001.

Twin towns - sister cities

Kiryat Malakhi is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with: Piatra Neamţ
Piatra Neamt
Piatra Neamț , , ; is the capital city of Neamţ County, in the historical region of Moldavia, eastern Romania. Because of its privileged location in the Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is considered one of the most picturesque cities in Romania...

, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...


External links

Official website
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