Karmiel, Northern District, Israel

History | Geography | Health care | Culture | Environmental protection | Parks and gardens

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Karmiel is a city in northern Israel. Established in 1964 as a development town, Karmiel is located in the Beit HaKerem Valley which divides upper and lower Galilee. The city is located south of the Acre-Safed road, 32 km from Safed and 20 km from Ma'alot-Tarshiha and 20 km from Acre.

History In 1956, about 1,275 acres (5.16ย kmยฒ) of land in the area that is now Karmiel, owned by residents of the nearby Israeli Arab villages of Deir al-Asad, Bi'ina and Nahf, were declared "closed areas" by Israeli authorities. This area, near the main road between Acre and Safed, had been an important marble quarrying site. In 1961, the Israeli authorities expropriated the land to build Karmiel. The villagers offered "equally good land" in the area, but when Moshe Sneh (Maki) and Yusef Khamis (Mapam) brought the case to the Knesset on behalf of the villagers, the Knesset established that there was no such land. According to the Haredi newspaper She'arim, about 10 square km (3.9ย sqย mi) (394 lots) were confiscated by a court order on 4 March 1963, at the request of the Israel Development Authority. However, the land was rocky, uninhabited and unfit for agriculture. In 1964, when local Arabs applied for permission to move into the town, Minister of Housing Yosef Almogi replied that "Karmiel was not built to solve the problems for the people in the surrounding area". In February 1965, 400 protesters marched from Tel Aviv to protest against "discrimination of a group of our citizens". Representatives went to a local police station, informing the police that they were staying in the area without permission. Eventually, the perceived leaders were arrested and tried before a military tribunal.

Karmiel was one of the first cities in Israel to be established according to an urban master plan. It was built as part of the Central Galilee Development Project. Work began in 1963, and the official inauguration ceremony took place in October 1964. The first 16 families moved in at that time. A tender for the construction of Karmiel's main roads was issued in 1963, and Mekorot built a water pipe network connecting Karmiel, Rameh, Sha'ab and other nearby villages. In 1972, Karmiel was granted development town status, which bolstered its growth due to government-provided economic incentives to attract young couples.

In 1981, Karmiel was awarded the Beautiful Israel prize and the Kaplan Prize for Management and Services. Karmiel achieved city status on November 20, 1986. The first mayor was Baruch Venger, followed by Adi Eldar, who has remained in this position until Moshe Kuninsky took his place in 2018.

18,000 new immigrants settled in Karmiel between 1990 and 2002. And in the 2000s, some SLA families were resettled in Karmiel following the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.

During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah fired 180 Katyusha rockets into Karmiel and the neighboring villages, leading to casualties and damage to buildings, roads, and cars.

Geography Karmiel is located on the Acreโ€“Safed road, on the northern edge of the Lower Galilee. It lies in the Beit HaKerem Valley and its elevation is 330ย m (1,082.68ย ft). The Hilazon Stream passes slightly to the south of Karmiel. Its tributaries, the Shezor and Shagor Streams pass through Karmiel on the east and north, respectively. Karmiel sits on the Shagor mountain range, which stretches from Mount Hazon in the east (584ย m (1,916.01ย ft), next to Maghar) to Mount Gilon in the west (367ย m (1,204.07ย ft), at Gilon). Western Karmiel was built on the Karmi (362ย m) and Makosh (315ย m) mountains. Work on a new railway line linking Haifa and Karmiel began in 2011 and opened in 2017.

Health care In 2011, a Terem emergency care clinic was opened in Karmiel. The clinic is under the medical management of Dr. Walid Assadi and is open seven days a week, including Sabbath and holidays. Israel's four national health funds all maintain clinics in the city. In addition, Karmiel has dental clinics, general clinics, and private clinics.

Culture The city is known for the Karmiel Dance Festival, a yearly event since 1988. The festival is usually held for 3 days and nights in July, and includes dance performances, workshops, and open dance sessions. The festival began as a celebration of Israeli folk dance, but today it features many different dance forms from all around the globe, and attracts thousands of dancers and hundreds of thousands of spectators from many countries.

"Nitzotz-Machanayim" is a community centre which caters to the Russian-speaking population of Karmiel. It is one of a number of similar centres in Israel which operate in the framework of the Machanayim "Communities" project. Rabbi Eli Talberg is the director of Natzotz-Machanyim, which is located on the first floor of "Kikar Haโ€™Ir" (often called "The Old Mall"). Activities include a Beit-Midrash, conversion classes, Hebrew classes, a youth club, a women's club, and additional workshops and activities for all ages. The community also organizes regular educational tours throughout Israel and participates in sporting and social events with other branches of the Communities project.

Environmental protection Karmiel was the first Israeli city to receive ISO 9002 certification for the quality of its services. It is one of the few Israeli cities with ISO 1410 certification for environmental standards. Karmiel has enacted by-laws to protect the environment and prevent pollution, and become a centre for clean industries and advanced technology enterprises that abide by these standards.

Parks and gardens The Holocaust Memorial Park is located at the entrance to the city. The bronze sculptures were made by Jewish sculptor and artist Nicky Imber (1920-1996). The sculptures are separated into three groups: Holocaust, wondering and hope; which represent the story of the Jewish people from the time of the Holocaust to the return to the holy land.

The Karmiel Quarries Park is a 12.4-acre park developed on the site of a defunct limestone quarry. One section of the park is a sculpture garden. An amphitheater on the grounds of the park hosts local events and incorporates a drainage system that collects rainfall which is later used for watering greenery.

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Image: Adobe Stock STOCKSTUDIO #196891354

Karmiel has a population of over 46,252 people. Karmiel also forms one of the centres of the wider Galilee Region which has a population of over 1,200,000 people. It is also a part of the larger Northern District. Karmiel is situated 39 km north of Nazareth.

To set up a UBI Lab for Karmiel see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Karmiel has links with:

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Berat, Albania ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด Cรขmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Germany ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Denver, USA ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Hamar, Norway ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ Kisvรกrda, Hungary ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด Mangalia, Romania ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Metz, France ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Pittsburgh, USA
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Karmiel is: -144.689,-32.923

Locations Near: Karmiel 35.3108,32.9226

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Safad 35.483,32.95 d: 16.4  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Nof HaGalil 35.334,32.709 d: 23.8  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Acre 35.095,32.925 d: 20.2  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Nazareth 35.298,32.702 d: 24.6  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Nahariya 35.108,33.02 d: 21.8  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Nahariyya 35.083,33 d: 22.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Kiryat Ata 35.1,32.8 d: 23.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Kiryat Motzkin 35.079,32.83 d: 24  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Afula 35.288,32.61 d: 34.9  

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Haifa 34.989,32.816 d: 32.3  

Antipodal to: Karmiel -144.689,-32.923

๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ซ Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 18236.1  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ธ Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16667.8  

๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ด Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16735.3  

๐Ÿ‡ผ๐Ÿ‡ธ Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 16550.1  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 14057.5  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 13920.9  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 13901.9  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 13901.2  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 13900.8  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 13825.9  

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