The village was originally established in 1939 by European members of
Zionist youth movements who had fled
Nazi Germany to
Mandatory Palestine via
Youth Aliyah.
David Coren, later a member of the
Knesset, was also amongst the founders. It was named after the biblical village of the same name allocated to the
tribe of Benjamin (), located in the
Arabah plain, and means "House in the Desert". According to the
Jewish National Fund, the Kibbutz became famous for its experiments in
land reclamation, the residents reclaiming land that had never been previously cultivated. In 1947, Beit HaArava had a population of over 200. Its members were later temporarily housed in kibbutz
Shefayim, and ultimately split into two groups which in 1949 founded the kibbutzim of
Gesher HaZiv and
Kabri in the
Western Galilee. According to
ARIJ, in 1980 Israel expropriated 506
dunams of land from the
Palestinian site of
Nabi Musa in order to expand construction at Beit HaArava. In 1980, Beit HaArava was re-established as a
Nahal outpost. It became a civilian community in 1986. In 2000, the site of village moved 2 kilometres westwards. Today Beit HaArava has 70 families, 30 of them members of the kibbutz, numbering approximately 400 people, with an increase of 36,5% in 2019 being the fastest growing municipality in the whole of Israel. ==Economy==