Lod

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Lod


Lod's city centre
Country Israel
District Center
Government City
Hebrew לֹד, לוֹד
Arabic اَلْلُدّْ
Population 67,000[1] (2007)
Area 12,226 dunams (12.226 km2; 4.720 sq mi)
Mayor Ilan Harari

Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד‎; Arabic: اَلْلُدّْ‎, al-Ludd; Greco-Latin Lydda) is a city located on the Sharon Plain 15 kilometers (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2007, it had a population of 67,000, roughly 80 percent Jewish and 20 percent Arab.

The city has been known as Lydda (derived from Biblical Lod[2]) in the English-speaking world throughout most of its existence. When it was conquered in July 1948 by Israel, tens of thousands of its Arab inhabitants were expelled and the city was settled by Jewish immigrants.[3] Since then, it has been known as Lod, its biblical name.[4]

Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously called Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located in the city.

Contents

[edit] Ancient history

Old map showing the location of the town

.

Pottery finds have dated the city's initial settlement to 5600–5250 BCE.[5] The earliest written record is in a list of towns in Canaan drawn up by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak in 1465 BCE.[6] From the 5th century BCE until the Roman conquest in 70 CE, the city was a well-known centre of Jewish scholars and merchants.[7] Martin Gilbert writes that, during the Hasmonean period, which lasted from 166 BCE to 37 CE, Jonathan Maccabee and his brother Simon Maccabaeus enlarged the area under Jewish control, which included conquering the city.[8]

The city is mentioned several times in the Bible: in Ezra 2:33 , it is mentioned as one of the cities whose inhabitants returned after the Babylonian captivity, and in the New Testament, it is the site of Peter's healing of a paralytic man in Acts 9:32-38.[9]

The Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center showcases the magnificent mosaics from ancient Lod.

[edit] Roman occupation

Saint George's tomb

[In 43 CE, Cassius, the Roman governor of Syria, sold the city`s inhabitants into slavery. The Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, razed the town on his way to Jerusalem in 66 CE. It was occupied by Emperor Vespasian in 68 CE.[10]

In 200 CE, the emperor Septimius Severus established a Roman city there, calling it Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis.[11] At that point, most of its inhabitants were Christian. It later became known as Georgiopolis because St. George, a soldier in the Guard of Emperor Diocletian, was killed there in 303 for refusing to recant his Christian faith.[12] The city's Church of St. George was built as a memorial.[6]

[edit] Arab conquest

It became an important city after the Arab conquest of Palestine by Khalid ibn al-Walid in 636 CE during the Muslim conquests, when it served as the capital, though this was later moved to Ramla.[7][13]

[edit] Crusader period

The Crusaders occupied the city in 1099 and named it St. Jorge de Lidde.[7] It was briefly conquered by Saladin, but retaken by the Crusaders in 1191. For the English Crusaders, it was a place of great significance as the birthplace of Saint George. The Crusaders made it the seat of a Latin rite diocese,[14] and it remains a titular see.[15] According to the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, there was one Jewish family living there in 1170.[16]

[edit] Modern history

[edit] Ottoman period and the British Mandate

Lydda in 1903
In 1920
In 1948

The missionary Dr. William M. Thomson visited Lydda in the mid 19th century, describing it as:

[A] flourishing village of some 2,000 inhabitants, embosomed in noble orchards of olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry, sycamore, and other trees, surrounded every way by a very fertile neighborhood. The inhabitants are evidently industrious and thriving, and the whole country between this and Ramleh is fast being filled up with their flourishing orchards. Rarely have I beheld a rural scene more delightful than this presented in early harvest ... It must be seen, heard, and enjoyed to be appreciated.[17]

The first railway station in the entire region was established in the city under the rule of the Ottoman empire in 1892.[18] In the second half of the 19th century, Jewish merchants migrated to the city but left after conflict between Zionists and Arabs escalated in the 1921 Jaffa riots.[18] By this time, Lydda was under the administration of the British Mandate in Palestine, as per a League of Nations decree that followed World War I. During World War II, the British set up supply posts in and around Lydda and its railway station, also building an airport, renamed Ben Gurion Airport after the establishment of Israel in 1948.[18]

[edit] Arab–Israeli conflict

Main article: Exodus from Lydda
Further information: Operation Danny, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Arab-Israeli conflict, 1948 Palestine war, 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and 1948 Palestinian exodus

Until 1948, Lydda was an exclusively Arab town with a population of around 20,000—18,500 Muslims and 1,500 Christians.[19][20] In 1947, the United Nations proposed dividing Palestine into two states, one Jewish state, one Arab; Lydda was to form part of the proposed Arab state.[21] The proposal was rejected by the Arabs, and on May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. Several Arab states attacked, and in the ensuing war Israel captured Arab towns outside the area the UN had allotted it, including Lydda.

The Israel Defence Forces entered Lydda on July 11, 1948. The following day, under the impression that it was under attack,[22] the 3rd Battalion was ordered to shoot anyone "seen on the streets." According to the Israeli army, 250 Arabs (men, women, and children) were killed. Other estimates are higher: Palestinian historian Aref al Aref estimated 400, and Nimr al Khatib 1700.[23][24]

An image of the Arab's three-day march out of Lydda

During 1948, the population had swollen to 50,000 people as Arab refugees fleeing other areas had made their way there.[18] All but 700[25] were expelled by order of the Israeli high command, and forced to walk 17 kilometers to Arab Legion lines on one of the hottest days of the year. Many died from exhaustion and dehydration; estimates vary from a handful to 355.[26][27] The town was subsequently sacked by the Israeli army. The few hundred Arabs who remained in the city were not permitted to live in their own homes,[28] but were concentrated into a ghetto. They were soon vastly outnumbered by the influx of Jewish immigrants who moved into the town from August 1948 onwards, as a result of which Lydda became a predominantly Jewish town and came to be known as Lod.[20][29]

[edit] Lod airport massacre

Main article: Lod Airport massacre

On May 30, 1972, 28 passengers were gunned down at Ben Gurion International Airport by members of the Japanese Red Army in collaboration with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The founder of the PFLP, George Habash, was among those expelled from Lod by the IDF when he was a child. Five weeks later, PFLP spokesman Ghassan Kanafani was killed by a Mossad car bomb in Beirut.

[edit] Today

[edit] Demographics

Synagogue, church, and mosque in Lod

According to the CBS, in 2001 the ethnic and religious makeup of the city was 80.3% Jewish and other non-Arab, and 19.7% Arab (18.6% Muslim and 1.1% Christian). There are 561 "olim", or new immigrants to Israel, included in these figures. See Population groups in Israel.

According to CBS, in 2001 there were 32,400 males and 33,700 females. The population of the city was spread out with 36.7% 19 years of age or younger, 16.4% between 20 and 29, 19.2% between 30 and 44, 14.5% from 45 to 59, 3.7% from 60 to 64, and 9.5% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 1.7%.

According to CBS, there are 38 schools and 13,188 pupils in the city. They are spread out as 26 elementary schools and 8,325 elementary school pupils, and 13 high schools and 4,863 high school pupils. 52.5% of 12th grade pupils were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001.

[edit] Economy and income

Old Khan

The airport and related industries are a major source of employment for the residents of Lod. The Jewish Agency Absorption Centre, the main facility for handling olim arriving in Israel, is also located in Lod.

According to CBS figures for 2000, there were 23,032 salaried workers and 1,405 self-employed. The mean monthly wage for a salaried worker was NIS 4,754, a real change of 2.9% over the course of 2000. Salaried men had a mean monthly wage of NIS 5,821 (a real change of 1.4%) versus NIS 3,547 for women (a real change of 4.6%). The mean income for the self-employed was NIS 4,991. There were 1,275 people receiving unemployment benefits and 7,145 receiving an income supplement.

Plagued by a poor image for decades, projects are under way to improve services in Lod. New upscale neighborhoods are expanding the city to the east, among them Ganei Ya'ar and Ahisemah.[30]

[edit] Sports

The city's major football club, Hapoel Bnei Lod, currently plays in Liga Leumit (the second division) and is based at the Lod Municipal Stadium. The club was formed by a merger of Bnei Lod and Rakevet Lod in the 1980s. Two other clubs in the city play in the regional leagues; Hapoel MS Ortodoxim Lod in Liga Bet and Maccabi Lod in Liga Gimel.

Until the 2000s, Hapoel Lod, who played in the top division during the 1960s and 1980s, and won the State Cup in 1984, were they city's major club. However, after several relegations they folded in 2002. A new club, Hapoel Maxim Lod (named after former mayor Maxim Levy) was established soon after, but folded in 2007.

[edit] Notable residents

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Table 3 - Population of Localities Numbering Above 1,000 Residents and Other Rural Population" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008-06-30. http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2009/table3.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-10-18. 
  2. ^ The Madaba Mosaic Map, Jerusalem 1954, 61-62
  3. ^ Morris, Benny. (2004) The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press, pp. 414-461.
  4. ^ Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 29: "The occupation of Lydda by Israel in the 1948 war did not allow the realization of Pocheck's garden city vision. Different geopolitics and ideologies began to shape Lydda's urban landscape ... [and] its name was changed from Lydda to Lod, which was the region's biblical name."; also see Pearlman, Moshe and Yannai, Yacov. Historical sites in Israel. Vanguard Press, 1964, p. 160.
  5. ^ Schwartz, Joshua J. Lod (Lydda), Israel: from its origins through the Byzantine period, 5600 B.C.E.-640 C.E.. Tempus Reparatum, 1991, p. 39.
  6. ^ a b "Excursions in Terra Santa". Franciscan Cyberspot. http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/sbf/escurs/TS/02_TSen.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-22. 
  7. ^ a b c "Lod," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009.
  8. ^ Gilbert, Martin. Dearest Auntie Flori: The Story of the Jewish People. Harper Collins 2002, p. 82; also see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14:208
  9. ^ "Lod," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009. "And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda," Acts 9:32-38.
  10. ^ Michael Avi-Yonah, Encyclopaedia Judaica, ad v. "Lydda"
  11. ^ Roth, Cecil. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, p. 619.
  12. ^ Frenkel, Sheera and Low, Valentine. Why Lod, the other land of St George, isn't for the faint-hearted, The Times, April 23, 2009.
  13. ^ Petersen, Andrew. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. Routledge 1996, p. 230.
  14. ^  "Lydda". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Lydda. 
  15. ^ Lydda Catholic-hierarchy.org
  16. ^ Pringle, 1993, p. 11.
  17. ^ Thomson, W.M. (1861). The Land and the Book. T Nelson and Sons, p. 525.
  18. ^ a b c d Shahin, 2005, p. 260.
  19. ^ "Lod," January 2, 1949, IS archive Gimel/5/297 in Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 31.
  20. ^ a b Monterescu and Rabinowitz, 2007, pp. 16-17.
  21. ^ Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, pp. 91-92.
  22. ^ Tal, David. War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy. Routledge, 2004, p. 311.
  23. ^ Sefer Hapalmah ii (The Book of the Palmah), p.565; and KMA-PA (Kibbutz Meuhad Archives - Palmah Archive). Quoted in Morris, 1987.
  24. ^ Morris, 1987, p. 205. Morris writes: "[...] dozens of unarmed detainees in the mosque and church in the centre of the town were shot and killed."
  25. ^ The figure comes from Bechor Sheetrit, the Israeli Minister for Minority Affairs at the time, cited in Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 32.
  26. ^ Spiro Munayyer, The Fall of Lydda, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 1998), pp. 80-98. See also Yitzhak Rabin's diaries, quoted here.
  27. ^ Holmes et al., 2001, p. 64.
  28. ^ Hoffman, Carl (16 December 2008). "Lod: In need of a major makeover". © 2008-2009 The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728141422&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved on 2009-06-02. 
  29. ^ Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 29.
  30. ^ Ganei Ya'ar in Lod The Jerusalem Post, 7 February 2008

[edit] Bibliography

  • Holmes, Richard; Strachan, Hew; Bellamy, Chris; Bicheno, Hugh (2001), The Oxford companion to military history (Illustrated ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198662092, 9780198662099 
  • Monterescu, Daniel; Rabinowitz, Dan (2007), Mixed towns, trapped communities: historical narratives, spatial dynamics, gender relations and cultural encounters in Palestinian-Israeli towns (Illustrated ed.), Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0754647323, 9780754647324 
  • Morris, Benny (1987), The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521330289 
  • Morris, Benny (1989), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521338891 
    • Morris, Benny. (2004) The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521009677
  • Morris, Benny (2008), 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War 
  • Prior, Michael P. (1999), Zionism and the state of Israel: a moral inquiry (Illustrated ed.), Routledge, ISBN 0415204623, 9780415204620 
  • Pringle, Denys (1993), The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521390370 
  • Sa'di, Ahmad H.; Abu-Lughod, Lila (2007), Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the claims of memory (Illustrated ed.), Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231135793, 9780231135795 
  • Shahin, Mariam (2005), Palestine: A Guide, Interlink Books, ISBN 156656557X 
  • Tal, David (2004), War in Palestine, 1948. Strategy and Diplomacy, Routledge 

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 31°56′54.59″N 34°53′20.4″E / 31.9484972°N 34.889°E / 31.9484972; 34.889

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