Editing Dimona (section)

==History==
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 4566 Dimona renewal.JPG|thumb|Palm boulevard in Dimona]]

Dimona was one of the [[development town]]s created in the 1950s under the leadership of Israel's first Prime Minister, [[David Ben-Gurion]]. Dimona itself was conceived in 1953. The location chosen was close to the [[Dead Sea Works]]. It was established in 1955. The first residents were Jewish immigrants from [[North Africa]], with an initial 36 families being the first to settle there. Its population in 1955 was about 300. The North African immigrants also constructed the city's houses. The population was composed mainly of North African, particularly Moroccan immigrants, though immigrants from Yemen and Eastern Europe also arrived, as did [[Bene Israel]] immigrants from India.

When the [[Nuclear weapons and Israel|Israeli nuclear program]] began in 1958, a location not far from the city was chosen for the [[Negev Nuclear Research Center]] due to its relative isolation in the desert and availability of housing. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived. A textile factory was opened in 1958. That same year, Dimona became a [[Local council (Israel)|local council]]. In 1961, it had a population of 5,000. The emblem of Dimona (as a local council), adopted 2 March 1961, appeared on a stamp issued on 24 March 1965. Dimona was declared a city in 1969. In 1971, it had a population of 23,700.

In spite of a gradual decrease during the 1980s, the city's population began to grow once again in the 1990s when it took in immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Currently, Dimona is the third largest city in the Negev, with the population of almost 34,000. Due to projected rapid population growth in the Negev, the city is expected to triple in size by 2025.<ref>{{cite web|last=Udasin |first=Sharon |url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=248711 |title='1.2 million residents in the Negev by 2025' &#124; JPost &#124; Israel News |date=2 January 2012 |publisher=JPost |access-date=2013-03-26}}</ref>