Lod
Hebrew transcription(s)
• Hebrew	לֹד, לוֹד
• ISO 259	Lodd
Arabic transcription(s)
• Arabic	الْلُدّ al-Ludd
Lod city centre
Logo
Lod
Coordinates: 31°56′54.59″N 34°53′20.4″E / 31.9484972°N 34.889°E / 31.9484972; 34.889Coordinates: 31°56′54.59″N 34°53′20.4″E / 31.9484972°N 34.889°E / 31.9484972; 34.889
District	Center
Government
• Type	City
• Mayor	Meir Nitzan
Area
• Total	12,226 dunams (12.226 km2 or 4.720 sq mi)
Population (2010)[1]
• Total	70,000

Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד‎‎; Arabic: الْلُدّ‎ al-Ludd; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis) is a city 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2011, it had a population of 74,000.

The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod.^[2] When al-Ludd, as it was known by its Arab inhabitants was captured by Israel, the Arab inhabitants fled or were expelled^[3] and the city was settled by Jewish immigrants, most of them refugees from Arab countries.^[4][5] Of the former Arab population, only 1,056 inhabitants remained.^[4] It is today known as Lod, its biblical name.^[6]

Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously known as Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located on the outskirts of the city.

Etymology[link]

The Hebrew name Lod appears in the bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In the New Testament it appears as its Greek form, Lydda.^[7][8] The city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where 'Dajjal' (the Anti-Christ) will be slayed before the Day of Judgment.^[9][10]

History[link]

Canaanite period[link]

Pottery finds have dated the city's initial settlement to 5600–5250 BC.^[11] The earliest written record is in a list of Canaanite towns drawn up by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak in 1465 BC.^[12]

Jewish period[link]

From the 5th century BC until the Roman conquest in 70 AD, the city was a Jewish city, and a well-known centre of Jewish scholars and merchants.^[13] According to Martin Gilbert, during the Hasmonean period, Jonathan Maccabee and his brother Simon Maccabaeus enlarged the area under Jewish control, which included conquering the city.^[14]

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.^[15]

In 43 AD, Cassius, the Roman governor of Syria, sold the inhabitants of Lod into slavery. During the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, razed the town on his way to Jerusalem in 66 AD. It was occupied by Emperor Vespasian in 68 AD.^[16]

During the Kitos War, the Roman army laid siege to Lod, then called Lydda, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappus. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterwards, permitted fasting even on Ḥanukkah. Other rabbis condemned this measure.^[17] Lydda was next taken and many of the Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.^[18]

Roman period[link]

In 200 AD, emperor Septimius Severus elevated the town to the status of a city, calling it Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis.^[19] The name Diospolis ("city of gods") may have been bestowed earlier, possibly by Hadrian.^[20] At that point, most of its inhabitants were Christian. In 415, the Council of Diospolis was held here to try Pelagius; he was acquitted. In the sixth century the city was renamed Georgiopolis^[21] after St. George, a soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian, who was born there between 256 and 285 AD.^[22] Church of St. George is named for him.^[12]

Arab period[link]

Old Khan

After the Muslim conquest of Palestine by Amr ibn al-'As in 636 AD,^[23] Lod which was referred to as "al-Ludd" in Arabic served as the capital of Jund Filastin ("Military District of Palestine") before the seat of power was moved to nearby Ramla during the Umayyad Caliphate of Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-716. Afterward, the population of al-Ludd was relocated to the newly-found city of Ramla.^[24] With the relocation of its inhabitants and the construction of the White Mosque in Ramla, al-Ludd lost its importance and fell into decay.^[25]

The city was visited by the local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in 985, during the Abbasid Caliphate and was noted for its Great Mosque which served the residents of al-Ludd, Ramla and the nearby villages. He also wrote of the city's "wonderful church (of St. George) at the gate of which Christ will slay the Antichrist."^[26]

Crusader and Ayyubid period[link]

Tomb of Saint George

The Crusaders occupied the city in 1099 and named it St. Jorge de Lidde.^[13] 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,^[27] and it remains a titular see.^[28] According to the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, there was one Jewish family living there in 1170.^[29]

In 1226 Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited al-Ludd and stated it was part of the Jerusalem District during Ayyubid rule.^[30]

Ottoman era[link]

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."^[31]

In 1870, under the rule of the Ottoman empire, the Church of Saint George was built. In 1892 the first railway station in the entire region was established in the city.^[32] In the second half of the 19th century, Jewish merchants migrated to the city but left after the 1921 Jaffa riots.^[32]

British Mandate era[link]

Lydda, 1920

From 1918, 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 that was renamed Ben Gurion Airport after the establishment of Israel.^[32]

Until 1948, Lydda was an Arab town with a population of around 20,000—18,500 Muslims and 1,500 Christians.^[33][34] 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.^[35] 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,^[36] the 3rd Battalion was ordered to shoot anyone "seen on the streets." According to Israel, 250 Arabs (men, women, and children) were killed. Other estimates are higher: Arab historian Aref al Aref estimated 400, and Nimr al Khatib 1700.^[37][38]

State of Israel[link]

Lydda, 1948

During 1948, the population rose to 50,000 people as Arab refugees fleeing other areas made their way there.^[32] All but 700^[39] to 1,056^[4] 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.^[40][41] 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,.^[42] They were soon outnumbered by the influx of Jewish immigrants who moved into the town from August 1948 onwards, most from Arab countries.^[4] as a result of which Lydda became a predominantly Jewish town.^[34][43]

The new Jewish immigrants came in waves, first from Morocco and Tunisia, and later from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.[1]. The city continues to influence the work of Israeli artists and thinkers, such as Dor Guez's 2009 exhibit Georgeopolis at the Petach Tikva art museum.

Within the city of Lod, a three meter-high wall has been erected to separate Jewish districts from Arab ones. Arab suburbs have been restricted from growing, while the Israeli government has encouraged building in Jewish areas. Some municipal services, such as street lighting and rubbish collection, are only provided to Jewish areas.^[44][45]

Demographics[link]

Synagogue, mosque and church in Lod

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the population of Lod in 2010 was 69.5 thousand people.^[46] Of these about 25 percent are Arabs, the rest Jewish Israelis. Thirty-three percent of the population are "olim", or new Jewish immigrants to Israel. See Population groups in Israel.

An Israeli government report in 2003 singled out Lod as a focal point for social and demographic problems.^[47] The report noted the high rate of drug use and crime, the large number of poor and social service cases (about 10 percent of the population), and, in particular, the cramped and substandard living conditions of Lod's Arab population. ^[47]

Education[link]

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.

Economy[link]

Reception hall, Ben Gurion International Airport

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.

Urban renewal[link]

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.^[48]

Archaeology[link]

Detail of mosaic floor

A well-preserved mosaic floor dating to the Roman period was excavated in 1996 as part of a salvage dig conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Municipality of Lod, prior to widening HeHalutz Street. The mosaic was covered over with soil at the conclusion of the excavation for lack of funds to conserve and develop the site.^[49] The mosaic is now part of the Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center.

Sports[link]

The city's major soccer club, Hapoel Bnei Lod, plays in Liga Leumit (the second division). Its home base is 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.

Hapoel Lod played in the top division during the 1960s and 1980s, and won the State Cup in 1984. The club folded in 2002. A new club, Hapoel Maxim Lod (named after former mayor Maxim Levy) was established soon after, but folded in 2007.

Notable residents[link]

• DAM, a hip-hop group
• George Habash (1926–2008), founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
• Tamer Nafar, rapper
• Salim Tuama, footballer
• Rabbi Akiva, Talmudic Sage
• Eliezer ben Hurcanus, Talmudic Sage
• Joshua ben Hananiah, Talmudic Sage
• Rabban Gamliel, Talmudic Sage
• Eleazar bar Zadok, Talmudic Sage
• Rav Zadok, Talmudic Sage
• Rabbi Tarfon, Talmudic Sage
• Jose the Galilean, Talmudic Sage
• Rav Bisa, Talmudic Sage
• Rav Hama, Talmudic Sage from the period after Bar-Kochba revolt.
• Bar Kappara, Talmudic Sage from the period after Bar-Kochba revolt.
• Joshua ben Levi, Talmudic Sage
• Rabbi Simeon Ludia, Talmudic Sage
• Rav Huna, Talmudic Sage

Twin towns-sister cities[link]

Lod is twinned with:

• Piatra Neamţ, Romania^[50]

See also[link]

• Exodus from Lydda
• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian exodus
• Operation Danny
• 1948 Arab–Israeli war
• 1948 Palestinian exodus

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, http://www.archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lod

• City council (Hebrew)
• al-Lydd Palestine Remembered
• Lydda (Lod), Jewish Agency for Israel