Today, the Arava Power Company opens the first solar field in Israel, at Kibbutz Ketura, located in the southern Arava desert. Soon to provide electricity to two other kibbutzim, Lotan and Grofit, with an equivalent to 17 percent of the energy needs of Eilat, said Yosef Abramowitz, founder and president of the company, who came to Israel from Massachusetts

five years ago. "Keturah is in the right place" because of the sunlight intensity in the third world's harshest desert as it is located along the national power network, said Abramowitz, whose partners include Ed Hofland, living in Ketura, and the American businessman David Rosenblatt (pictured). The field consists of 18,500 solar panels, about 200 in each row of columns. "We are also creating one of the greatest works of art in the world", he boasted, as in the coming months, an image of former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, the great promoter of people desert, will be seen on the solar panels and can be viewed on Google Earth and from aircraft. "We're patenting, and will be the world's first solar canvas." During the ceremony  a mezuzah will be placed in the shape of a sundial and will be blessed by Rabbi Michael Cohen, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies Ketura, and the spiritual leader Abu Krinat Bedouin