25
31°3′28″N / 34°51′7″E
November 22, 2011. Initial earthworks and excavation in the construction of ‛Ir HaBahadim (lit., “city of training bases”), as it is commonly known, to be named the Ariel Sharon Training Complex, after the former Prime Minister. Planned for 30,000 army personnel, this mega-base is scheduled to open in 2015. The base will house the Israeli Military Armaments School, Logistics Training School, Military Police School, and other military training centers that are being transferred for budgetary reasons to the central Negev from their former sites in the prime real estate areas of greater Tel Aviv. The base will include training facilities, sports areas, a shopping mall, synagogues, hotels, cinemas, and entertainment facilities. There are unrecognized Bedouin villages east of the site, and some families of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wādi al-Mshash are contained within it (see 23).