Three lookouts
[2] These lookouts, Revivim, Gvulot, and Beit Eshel, later served as a springboard for further Jewish population of the Negev.
[3] The residents of the lookouts made extensive geophysical surveys and conducted agricultural experiments for this purpose.
On the other hand, World War II had broken out and the Yishuv sought to broaden its areas of settlement in order to have greater capacity to house Jewish refugees from Europe.
[4] In general, the Yishuv, which was vehemently opposed to the White Paper, was interested in settling the Negev and conducting geological and hydrological surveys there.
On April 29, 1942, a number of Yishuv notables, including Arthur Rupin, Eliezer Kaplan and Yosef Weitz, toured the area to determine its adequacy for settlement.
[4] Weitz eventually proposed creating ten such outposts, that would each employ 10–12 workers living in a walled building.
[8] In 1943, Weitz ordered Yoav Tzukerman to buy lands near Rafah/Khan Younis, in Wadi Shiniq (HaBesor Stream), and near 'Asluj and Beersheba.
The group consisted of native Jews and a number of immigrants from Bulgaria from the Kibbutz HaShomer HaTzair Gimel organization.
Most of those who planned to settle in Gvulot stayed in Rishon LeZion, and the lookout was managed from the moshava Beit Gan in the north of the country.
[10] Revivim was founded on July 28, 1943, by the organization HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, and originally named Tel Tzofim.
[10] Many of the early settlers, unable to adjust to the intense heat during the day, freezing temperatures at night, and plagues of mosquitoes, packed up and left.
Those who remained built uniform settlements consisting of a square courtyard surrounded by walls, a watchtower, living quarters and service buildings.
[18] When these were unavailable or could not be used, the residents of Revivim and Beit Eshel relied on outside means—British vehicles traveling to and from the base at 'Asluj and public transport between Gaza and Beersheba, respectively.
Gvulot was more isolated and while attempts were made to create a dirt road to Khan Yunis, in the end the residents had to take the route through Rafah.
[23] In Beit Eshel, many of the residents were forced to move to Ness Ziona due to lack of jobs.
Gvulot planned to build a diamond processing plant, but the relevant equipment was destroyed in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
[25] During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, beginning with an attack on May 17, 1948 by the Muslim Brotherhood, Beit Eshel was besieged by Egyptian forces and destroyed.
[26][27] The three lookouts are located in different parts of the Negev desert with different characteristics; Gvulot was founded close to Wadi Shiniq (Beersheba Stream), on a plateau 125 m above sea level.
Beit Eshel was also built on a plateau, about 300 m above sea level, 3 km east of Beersheba, on loess soil.
[11] As intended, the founding of the lookouts led to a number of important scientific researches which assisted future Jewish agricultural settlement in the Negev desert.
The measurements also concluded that the amount of dew falling in the northern and western Negev was higher than in any other part of Mandatory Palestine.
[30] Hydrological surveys were conducted by Leo Picard, who concluded that none of the three lookouts would serve as suitable locations for extracting ground water, which was either nonexistent or suffered from excessive salinity.
In Revivim, vegetable harvests were rich, but much water was required to maintain the crops (275 m3 per dunam in for corn and 360 m3 for radish and beet), therefore making the venture unprofitable.
[33] Orchards were planted at low density (about 4 trees per dunam) of olives, peaches, apricots, almonds and pomegranates.
[34] Trees were planted in the lookouts in order to shield the agricultural land from storms and moving sand.
