EILAT

Eilat, courtesy, Yigal Dekel / Wikipedia

Eilat is Israel's southernmost city, a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, along the Gulf of Eilat. With a population of approximately 52,000, the city is considered a destination for domestic and international tourists. Eilat is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arava plains, almost adjacent to the Sinai village of Taba to the south, the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to the east, and within sight of Haql, Saudi Arabia, across the gulf to the southeast. Aside from the Arava, the city is surrounded on the north, by the Eilat Mountains which can rise up to 2,900 feet above sea level. To the south, lies Eilat’s seashore. Eilat is first mentioned in the Tanakh in the Book of Exodus. The areas in and around the city served as one of the stopping stations surrounding the Promised Land for the Israelites after they left Egypt.

Thousands of years ago, before the coming of the Israelites, the site must have been covered in pistacia trees since the name “Eilat”, in all probability, derives from the Hebrew word Elah meaning Pistacia tree. However, due to its geographic location, the city of Eilat wasn’t even supposed to exist. There was nothing in the area to maintain and sustain a sizable population. But according to archaeologist and historian Uzi Avner, "The main elements that influenced the region's history were the copper resources and other minerals, the ancient international roads that crossed the area, and its geopolitical and strategic position. These resulted in a settlement density that defies the environmental conditions." Indeed, archaeological excavations have uncovered impressive prehistoric tombs dating back to the 7th millennium BCE at the western edge of Eilat which implied a well-to-do populace.

When King David conquered Edom, he also took over Eilat, the border city shared by both Israel and Edom. The commercial port city and copper based industrial center were, however, maintained by Egypt, until reportedly rebuilt by Solomon at an adjacent location known as Etzion-Gever (I Kings 9:26). Solomon also built a "navy of ships" at Etzion-Gever from where it sailed to Ophir manned by his servants and those of Hiram, king of Tyre (i Kings 9:26; i Chron. 8:17). It was a prosperous Judean trading port from the 9th through 7th centuries BCE. In 2 Kings 14:21–22, many decades later, "All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He rebuilt Elath, and restored it to Judah, after his father's death." Later, in 2 Kings 16:6, during the reign of King Ahaz: "At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, and drove out the people of Judah and sent Edomites to live there, as they do to this day."

Israelites/Jews continued to live in Eilat, however, for centuries thereafter. In the period preceding the Arab invasion in the 7^th century, delegations were sent to conclude protective treaties with Muhammad, once his fame had begun to spread, and included Jews from Eilat who were accompanied by Jews from the neighboring communities of Adhruh and Jarbā, between Petra and Maān in what is today, Arab-occupied Jordan. But treaties notwithstanding, Muhammad began to kill or expel the Jewish tribes from Arabia, with many finding refuge in Eilat, particularly in the neighborhood of Aila (today, lying in Jordan). The Jewish community, and the town in general, continued to exist until the middle of the tenth century or possibly until the Crusader period beginning in 1099 when the area was destroyed and became deserted and in ruins. It remained in this state since then, with the exception of the occasional mud hut.

The Port of Eilat had its beginnings in 1947, which probably allowed the area to be designated as part of the Jewish state in the UN Partition Plan. During the War of Independence against Arab invaders and terrorists, the Israeli army consolidated control over Eilat as part of Operation Uvda. This happened without a fight, and there, occurred the famous raising of the Ink Flag on the site. After the war, the Arab countries maintained a state of hostility with Israel. In the first half of the 1950s, the Arabs of Egypt would often close the Straits of Tiran, the oceanic passage way to Eilat, to Israeli shipping and foreign shipping bound for Israel thus, hampering the local economy.

Despite all this though, construction of the city began shortly after the war. A first step in establishing a civilian settlement was made in December 1949 when members of the Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uḥad movement set up a temporary camp on the Eilat shore. An airport was opened the same year (it closed in 2019). The first water pipeline to Eilat was laid in 1952. A concerted effort by the Israeli government to develop Eilat began in 1955 when Jewish immigrant families from Morocco were resettled there. During this phase of development, a few services established for excursionists, experimental coastal fishing, and mineral exploration provided the inhabitants' principal occupations.

However, as long as the Straits were closed, Eilat's growth was extremely slow. The port area became vital to Israel’s development, not only as regards to oil imports, but also for communications, commerce, trade, and other interactions with the countries of Africa and Asia. In addition, the Arabs of Egypt also denied passage through the Suez Canal to any ship with an Israeli connection. In 1956, their final closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping effectively blockaded the port of Eilat leading to Israel's participation alongside Britain and France in war against Egypt. This became known as the Suez Crisis. In the aftermath, Israel liberated the Sinai Peninsula thus opening up the Straits, and Eilat began to develop rapidly. But Prime Minister Ben Gurion allowed the international community to pressure Israel to give up the Sinai Peninsula immediately after the war and return it to Egypt. UN troops would take over security matters – at the discretion of the Egyptian Arabs.  

Eilat developed rapidly after the war though. In 1957 the Eilat–Mizpeh Ramon–Beersheba road was built, and opened to traffic the next year. The original port anchorage was repeatedly enlarged to cope with the mounting sea cargo traffic, and an oil port was installed in the southwest of the city. The first 16 in. oil pipeline connecting Eilat with Haifa was laid in 1958/59. A new port was built at an investment of $5.7 million and opened in 1964. In 1965, a thermal distillation plant was opened, which simultaneously supplied electricity to the town.

In 1967, the Egyptian Arab army returned to the Sinai with the UN’s blessing, and the Straits of Tiran were closed again. Oil tankers that were due to pass through the straits were delayed. The Six Day War led to the opening up of the Straits once again as well as the re-liberation of the Sinai. Even though Arab saboteurs made numerous attempts to attack the city, development resumed. Mineral exports (potash, phosphates, copper) through Eilat increased in 1966/67. The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline was laid in 1968. The city’s airfield was enlarged and daily flights connected it with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 1974, the Lotar Eilat special unit was formed especially for the defense of the city. Tourism was the main reason for the great Eilat shoreline project with its numerous hotels and artificial lagoons and land tongues. Following peace treaties signed with Egypt in 1979 when Israel was, once again, forced to give up the Sinai, and Jordan in 1994, Eilat's borders with its neighbors were finally opened allowing many affluent Arabs from Jordan and Egypt to visit Eilat in the summer months as well as allowing Israelis to depart Eilat for the Sinai or Aqaba. To encourage tourism further, the city became a free trade zone in 1985 and also received a VAT exemption that same year. In 2007, over 200 Sudanese refugees who arrived in Israel illegally on foot were given work and allowed to stay in Eilat.

Every year Eilat hosts two major cultural events: a jazz festival and a classical music festival with international participation. Eilat has been utilized by film and television productions - domestic and foreign - for location shooting since the 1960s, most notably in the early 90s as a tropical locale for season 2 of the Canadian production Tropical Heat. It was also used in the films She, Madron, Ashanti and Rambo III.

Two major terrorist incidents occurred in Eilat in recent years: the 2007 Eilat bakery bombing which killed three civilian bakers, and the 2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks when terrorists infiltrated from the Sinai. In response, Israel has built the Israel-Egypt barrier, a steel barrier equipped with cameras, radar and motion sensors along the country's southern border. The fence was completed in January 2013.

Sites of interest in and around Eilat include:

The Egyptian temple of Hathor; King Solomon's Pillars sandstone formation; the Eilat–Sedom highway put into use in 1967; the Eilat-Sharm el Sheikh road constructed in 1969; the Yoseftal Medical Center, established in 1968, Israel's southernmost hospital, and the only hospital covering the southern Negev; the Marine Museum; the Hesder Yeshiva Ayelet Hashachar, established in 1997; the Eilat Sports Center, a $3 million project, completed in 2013; the SPNI's Eilat Field School on the outskirts of Eilat offers special hiking tours that focus on desert ecology, the Red Sea, bird migration and other aspects of Eilat's flora and fauna; the Birdwatching and ringing station; the International Birding & Research Center; the Coral Beach Nature Reserve, an underwater marine reserve of tropical marine flora and fauna; the Coral World Underwater Observatory, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, located at the southern tip of Coral Beach, has an aquaria, a museum, simulation rides, and shark, turtle, and stingray tanks; Dolphin Reef, a marine biology and research station where visitors can swim and interact with dolphins; the Marina, with some 250 yacht berths; "What's Up", a portable astronomical observatory with programs in the desert and on the promenade; the Ice Mall which contains an ice skating rink and shopping mall; Eilat City Museum; Eilat Art Gallery.