Kiryat Malakhi

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KIRYAT MALAKHI

KIRYAT MALAKHI (Heb. קִריַת מַלְאכִי), development town in southern Israel, 12 mi. (20 km.) N.E. of Ashkelon. Its name is the Hebrew for Los Angeles, whose Jews financed its first housing scheme.

Kiryat Malakhi was founded in 1950 as a *ma'barah (immigrant transit camp). It gradually became a center based on the variegated produce of the quickly developing agricultural hinterland. In 1965 Kiryat Malakhi received municipal council status and in 1998 city status. Its area is around 2 sq. mi. (5 sq. km.). In 1968 it had 7,500 inhabitants, 50% of whom were from Asian and African countries, 35% were Israeli-born or veteran Israelis, and 15% from Eastern Europe. A large poultry slaughterhouse and packing plant, an ice-cream factory, and factories for textiles, cardboard, plastics, leatherwear, and metal were located in the town. In 2002 the population was 19,100, including about 3,000 Ethiopian Jews, with income about half the national average. Israel's president, Moshe *Katzav, was a former mayor of the town.

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]