| Slowly but surely, the OR Movement has relocated thousands of families to Israel's Negev desert. |
The OR Movement -- founded in 2002 by a group of young, idealistic Israelis -- aims to populate Israel's Negev desert, which represents 60 percent of Israel's land mass but is home to just 8 percent of the country's population.
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After two months of constant rocket fire and unrest in Israel's southern region this summer, the OR Movement and JNF brought a busload of Israeli families to visit the Negev in hopes of motivating them to relocate to the south and help the desert flourish. Within days of the visit, six families committed to move to a kibbutz near the Gaza border, Nahal Oz, which lost a 4-year-old boy to a mortar hit during Operation Protective Edge and was largely evacuated during the final days of the crisis. When asked about the risk of living in a community that's experienced such duress, one man replied, "We are so proud to be Israeli, so moving here is what we will do."
Help more Israelis develop the sparsely populated south by supporting the JNF's Blueprint Negev initiative, which to date has brought 110,000 new residents to Be’er Sheva and the Negev as part of a plan to settle 500,000 in the coming decade.
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| Two young boys in Israel's south wear their OR Movement T-shirts. |
