08/24/2012
Learn some facts about the city the Eagles get their name from - Eilat, Israel!
Sister City: Toronto, ON, Canada
Population: 47,800 (28th Largest in Israel)
Geography: Israel’s southernmost city, a busy port as well as a popular resort, located at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Eilat. Home to 46,000 people, the city is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arava.
Demographics: In 2007, over 200 Sudanese refugees from Egypt who arrived in Israel illegally on foot were given work and allowed to stay in Eilat. Eilat's population includes a large number of foreign workers, estimated at over 10,000 (about 30% of the city's population) working as caregivers, hotel workers and in the construction trades.
Education: Eilat’s educational system accommodates more than 9,000 youngsters in eight day-care centers, 67 pre-kindergartens and kindergartens, 10 elementary schools, and four high schools. Ben Gurion University of the Negev maintains a campus in Eilat. The Eilat branch has 1,100 students, about 75 percent from outside the city. In 2010, a new student dormitory was funded and built by the Jewish Federation of Toronto, the Rashi Foundation, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the municipality of Eilat. The Eilat Field School on the outskirts of Eilat offers special hiking tours that focus on desert ecology, the Red Sea, bird migration, and other aspects of Eilat's flora and fauna.
Economy: In the 1970s tourism became increasingly important to the city's economy as other industries shut down or were drastically reduced. Today tourism is the city's major source of income, although Eilat became a free trade zone in 1985. Eilat is known as the “jewel in the crown” of Israel's bird watching hot spots. The unique combination of extreme habitats in the form of mountains, deserts, agricultural fields, wadis, salt pans and the Red Sea accommodate a wide range of species at almost all times of the year.
