Netanya is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel and is the capital of the Sharon plain. The city a popular seaside resort and is famous for its 14 kilometres.
Like most Israeli cities it has a diverse population with immigrants from the former Soviet Union, France, and Ethiopia and has large population of English-speaking immigrants from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The city is Israel’s 7th largest and the population is expected to reach a of 350,000 by 2020.
Netanya is located near the ancient site of Poleg. It was named it in honor of Nathan Straus co-owner of Macy’s department store who gave two-thirds of his personal fortune to projects benefiting Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The name literally means ‘gift of Gd’.
Moshe Shaked began digging for water at the site where Zion Square is today on December 14th 1928. Subsequently the first settlers moved onto the land cultivating it for the first time. In the following years Netanya continued to grow and in 1933, the British architect Cliff Holliday proposed a plan for Netanya to become a holiday town. In the first urban plan for the city, it was divided into three sections with a tourism district along the coastline, housing, farms and commerce in the center, and agriculture and industry to the east. In 1937 the cornerstone was laid for a new commercial centre and the establishment of the Ein HaTchelet neighborhood. Following the connection of Netanya to the Tel Aviv and Haifa expansion continued.
Natanya use to be famous for its diamond industry. Today industry is chiefly divided between four industrial parks. In the south of the city, the newest Poleg, houses the first branch of IKEA in Israel as well as many technology companies, such as LogiTag. Netanya’s beautiful coastline has insured that tourism still plays a major role in the area.