Founded 1955 | ||
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The Tamar Regional Council (Hebrew: מועצה אזורית תמר, Mo'atza Ezorit Tamar) is a regional council in Israel's Southern District, on the south and western edges of the Dead Sea along the Arava valley. The council was established in 1955 with the opening of lodging at Sodom near the Dead Sea Works, and its jurisdiction covers an area of 1,650 km2.
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Map of Tamar Regional Council, Israel
The first council head was Yehuda Almog (Kopelivitch), who had lived in the area from 1934. The present Mayor of the Tamar Regional Council is Mr. Dov Litvinoff.
The council today encompasses communal villages, agriculture, factories, tourist sites, and military and civilian installations. Tamar council has a permanent population of 2,300, half of which is Jewish and lives in 5 communities, and half of which is Arab living in unrecognized communities. A large number of people from other areas are employed both year-round and seasonally at the Dead Sea Works, the Dead Sea hotel district at Neve Zohar, and numerous other tourist spots like Ein Gedi and Masada. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the total population of the regional council in 2006 was 2,300.
List of settlements
Ir Ovot was disbanded as a kibbutz in the mid-1980s, but an unincorporated group of families still live on the site.