Israel and You Spaces and Places in Israel
Dead Sea Works
DSW is based on the know-how of Moshe Novomeysky and the Palestine Potash Company concession established in 1930. In 1951, the company was nationalized by the Israeli government. The young State of Israel then established the Dead Sea Works as a state-owned company in 1952. Eventually the potash production monopoly was purchased by private investors in 1999. DSW became a giant complex, which in its immediate area alone provides a living for thousands of families and has become a major factor in the accelerated development of the northern Negev. The Dead Sea Works holds the concessions for development of the Dead Sea resources, the sea bottom, and the water to the west and south.
What a curiosity?
- According to the company’s website homepage, The Dead Sea Works (DSW) is the world’s seventh largest producer and supplier of potash products.
- However according to the company’s About page the Dead Sea Works is the world’s fourth largest producer and supplier of potash products.
- IsraelandYou.com contacted DSW for clarification and this is their answer:-
“ICL is sixth in Potash after Uralkali, Belaruskali, PotashCorp, Mosaic and K+S. The iclFertilizers website is now being under review and will be replaced soon…”
You must admit that the surrealistic steel skeleton of the DSW plant has an immense effect on the surroundings.
The Dead Sea Works committed the company to environmental responsibility and substantial investment in pursuit of ecological excellence and preservation of the irreplaceable Dead Sea ecosystem. Even so, the Dead Sea Works has been blamed by conservationists for polluting the environment and contributing to the Dead Sea’s evaporation.
The DSW is owned by Israel Chemicals Ltd., also known as ICL. The ICL advertising campaign on Israeli TV states, “ICL is the Negev.”
You had better believe it.
Did you know?
In 1996, Uri Ben Nun, Director and General Manager of the DSW also an Othodox Jew, decided to provide a full scale model of the altar of the holy Temple in Jerusalem (5 meters high and 16 meter wide) to be housed at the DSW works. The full size model would enable the staff of the Temple Institute to practice rituals relating to sacrifices. The connection is that salt is required on the altar’s sacrifices. The model aroused much interest and so much criticism that it had to be stored out of site of visitors and photographers. A later General Manager ordered the model to be disassembled.
What a loss to Dead Sea tourism!
