Ha-Tikva Pedestrian Mall

The story

Ha-Tikva pedestrian mall passes through the Civic Center neighborhood and connects the Beersheba municipality building in the north with the Be'er Sheva Merkaz railway station in the south. Its length is about six hundred and fifty meters, and it stretches from Eliyahu Navi Square in the south up to Menachem Begin Square in the north; at its center it is crossed by Henrietta Szold Boulevard, and apart from this crossing there is no passage for vehicles in it. Along it stand the main institutions of government of the city, and on weekdays it is one of the most bustling public spaces in Beersheba. Navi Square is its southern end. It extends over about ten dunams and includes shaded seating areas, an ornamental garden and a fountain, and in its southwestern corner stand the railway station and the central bus station. In the section between the square and Szold Boulevard stand residential and commercial towers in the south, and in the north — to the east the mall of the government compound, in which are branches of the ministries of the interior, of health, of education, of labor and welfare and of justice, and to the west the building of the National Insurance Institute and the district court. North of Szold Boulevard the pedestrian mall passes between commercial and office centers, and in the northeast stand the Keren towers, at the place where the Keren cinema operated. Menachem Begin Square, at the northern end, is surrounded by public buildings: the Culture Hall in the southwest, Beit Yad LaBanim in the northwest and the municipality building in the northeast. Along most of the pedestrian mall there are plots of vegetation, trees or shading canopies and benches, and in parts of it colonnades. In the plaza between the court and the government compound demonstrations are held from time to time, and in its southern part street singers appear regularly. With the end of the working day the traffic thins out, and on Saturdays and holidays the businesses are all closed and the pedestrian mall empties completely.

• Municipality
• Beersheba