Gevulot
GEVULOT
GEVULOT (Heb. גְּבוּלוֹת), kibbutz in southern Israel, 20 mi. (32 km.) W. of Beersheba, affiliated with Kibbutz Arẓi ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'ir, founded in 1943 as the first of the three "observation outposts" established to explore settlement conditions in the Negev (the other two were *Bet Eshel and *Revivim). The sandy loess soil of the region proved cultivable despite the severe lack of water. In 1946, on the basis of Gevulot's successful experiments, 11 additional settlements were erected in the south and the Negev. In the *War of Independence (1948) the isolated kibbutz held out against the long Egyptian siege until Operation Ten Plagues (October 1948). With water made available through the Yarkon-Negev pipeline in the 1950s, the kibbutz developed intensive farm branches such as field crops, dairy cattle, poultry, and flowers. Its factory made polymers products. The kibbutz also made a living from tourism, including a guesthouse and its Watch Tower tourist site. In 2002 its population was 251. Gevulot's name, "Borders," was chosen as the kibbutz was, at the time of its founding, the Jewish settlement nearest to the Egyptian border.
[Efraim Orni]