History

Sderot was founded in 1951 as a transit camp for Kurdish and Persian Jewish immigrants who lived in tents and shacks during the Jewish exodus from Muslim countries before permanent housing was completed in 1954.

Sderot received a symbolic name, after the numerous avenues and standalone rows of trees planted in the Negev, especially between Beersheba and Gaza, to combat desertification and beautify the arid landscape. 


Like many other localities in the Negev, Sderot's name has a green motif that symbolizes the motto "making the desert bloom," a central part of Zionist ideology.

In the 1961 census, the percentage of North African immigrants, mostly from Morocco, was 87% in the town, whilst another 11% of the residents were immigrants from Kurdistan. 

In the 1950s, the city continued to absorb a large number of immigrants from Morocco and Romania. It reached local council status in 1958.

Sderot absorbed another large wave of immigrants during the Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1990s, doubling its population. In 1996, it was declared a city.