Editing Dead Sea (section)

===British Mandate period===
In the early part of the 20th century, the Dead Sea began to attract interest from chemists who deduced the sea was a natural deposit of [[potash]] (potassium chloride) and [[bromine]]. A [[Concessions in Mandatory Palestine|concession was granted by the British Mandatory government]] to the newly formed Palestine Potash Company in 1929. Its founder, Siberian Jewish engineer and pioneer of [[Lake Baikal]] exploitation, [[Moshe Novomeysky|Moses Novomeysky]], had worked for the charter for over ten years having first visited the area in 1911.<ref name="Norris2013"/> The first plant, on the north shore of the Dead Sea at [[Kalya]], commenced production in 1931<ref name="Norris2013">{{cite book|author=Jacob Norris|title=Land of Progress: Palestine in the Age of Colonial Development, 1905–1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hV9zeYpzCawC&pg=PA159|date=11 April 2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-966936-3|pages=159–|access-date=22 December 2018|archive-date=30 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030075942/https://books.google.com/books?id=hV9zeYpzCawC&pg=PA159#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> and produced potash by solar evaporation of the brine. Employing Arabs and Jews, it was an island of peace in turbulent times.<ref name = "PM Nov 1930">{{Cite magazine | title = Wealth From The Dead Sea | magazine = Popular Mechanics | volume = 54 | issue = 5 | pages = 794–798 | publisher = Hearst Magazines | location = Chicago | date = November 1930 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uOQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA794 | access-date = 2020-09-28 | archive-date = 2023-10-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231030075942/https://books.google.com/books?id=uOQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA794#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status = live }}</ref> In 1934 a second plant was built on the southwest shore, in the [[Mount Sodom]] area, south of the [[Lisan Peninsula|'Lashon' region]] of the Dead Sea. Palestine Potash Company supplied half of Britain's potash during [[World War II]]. Both plants were destroyed by the Jordanians in the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1o_pCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA136 |title= Saline Lakes V: Proceedings of the Vth International Symposium on Inland Saline Lakes, held in Bolivia, 22–29 March 1991 |first= Stuart H. |last= Hurlbert |date= 6 December 2012 |publisher= Springer Science & Business Media |via= Google Books |isbn= 978-94-011-2076-0 |access-date= 13 September 2020 |archive-date= 30 October 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231030075943/https://books.google.com/books?id=1o_pCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA136#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status= live }}</ref>