Ashkelon ( ; , ; ) or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip.
The modern city is eponym the ancient seaport of Ascalon, which was destroyed in 1270 and whose remains are on the southwestern edge of the modern metropolis. The Israeli city, first known as Migdal (), was founded in 1949 approximately 4 km inland from ancient Ascalon at the Palestinian town of al-Majdal (). Its inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians, and the area had been allocated to the Palestine in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; on the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages.[B. Morris, The transfer of Al Majdal's remaining Palestinians to Gaza, 1950, in 1948 and After; Israel and the Palestinians.] leaving some 2700 inhabitants, of whom Israeli soldiers deported 500 in December 1948
Migdal, as it was called in Hebrew, was initially repopulated by Jewish immigrants and demobilized soldiers. It was subsequently renamed multiple times, first as Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon, until in 1953, the coastal neighbourhood of Afridar was incorporated, and the name Ashkelon was adopted for the combined town. By 1961, Ashkelon was ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000.
Etymology
The name Ashkelon is probably western Semitic, and might be connected to the
triliteral root ('to weigh', from a Semitic root , akin to Hebrew (שָקַל) or Arabic (ثِقْل), 'weight', perhaps attesting to its importance as a center for
mercantile activities. Its name appeared in Phoenician and
Punic language as (𐤔𐤒𐤋𐤍) and (𐤀𐤔𐤒𐤋𐤍). Majdal (Arabic) and Migdal (Hebrew) mean 'tower'.
History
Canaanites to Mamluks
The archaeological site of
Ascalon, today known as Tel Ashkelon, was the oldest and largest seaport in
Canaan, part of
Philistia, the
pentapolis (a grouping of five cities) of the
Philistines, north of
Gaza City and south of
Jaffa.
The site was an important city during Roman, Byzantine and Bilad al-Sham, and particularly during the period of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, due to its location near the coast and between the Crusader states and Egypt. The Battle of Ascalon was the last action of the First Crusade. In 1270, the Mamluk Sultanate Baybars ordered the fortifications and harbour at the site to be destroyed. As a result, the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into disuse.
Ottoman period
The Palestinian village of
Al-Jura (El-Jurah) stood northeast of and immediately adjacent to Tel Ashkelon and is documented in Ottoman tax registers. El-Jurah was depopulated during the 1948 war.
The Arab village of Majdal was mentioned by historians and tourists at the end of the 15th century.[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 144][Petersen, Andrew (2005). The Towns of Palestine under Muslim Rule AD 600–1600. BAR International Series 1381. p. 133.]
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Medschdel had a total of 420 houses and a population of 1175, though the population count included men only.[Socin, 1879, p. 157][Hartmann, 1883, p. 131, noted 655 houses]
British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine,
Majdal had a population of 5,064; 33 Christians and 5,031
Muslims,
[Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8] increasing in the 1931 census to 6,226 (6,166 Muslims and 41 Christians) with 172 in the suburbs (167 Muslims, 4 Christians, and one Jew).
[Palestine Office of Statistics, Vital Statistical Tables 1922–1945, Table A8.]
In the 1945 statistics Majdal had a population of 9,910; ninety Christians and 9,820 Muslims,[Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 32] with a total (urban and rural) of 43,680 of land, according to an official land and population survey. 2,050 dunams were public land; all the rest was owned by Arabs.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 46] of the dunams, 2,337 were used for citrus and bananas, 2,886 were plantations and irrigable land, 35,442 for cereals,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 87] while 1,346 were built-up land.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 137]
Majdal was known for the majdalawi weaving industry.[ Ashqelon, Eli Cohen Street] The town had around 500 looms in 1909. In 1920 a British Government report estimated that there were 550 cotton looms in the town with an annual output worth 30–40 million French franc.[Shelagh Weir, "Palestinian Costume". British Museum Publications, 1989. . pages 27–32. Other fabrics produced include Shash (white muslin for veils), Burk/ Bayt al-shem (plain cotton for underdresses), Karnaish (white cotton with stripes), "Bazayl" (flannelette), Durzi (blue cotton) and Dendeki (red cotton).]
In addition to agriculture, residents practiced animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the town. In 1943, they owned 354 heads of cattle, 168 sheep over a year old, 170 over a year old, 65 , 17 , 39 , 447 , 2966 , and 808 Domestic pigeon.
State of Israel
Majdal was occupied by the Egyptian army in the early stages of the 1948 war, along with the rest of the Gaza region that had been allocated to the Arab State in the United Nations plan. Over the next few months, the town was subjected to Israeli air-raids and shelling.
All but about 1,000 of the town's residents were forced to leave by the time it was captured by Israeli forces as a sequel to
Operation Yoav on 4 November 1948.
General
Yigal Allon ordered the expulsion of the remaining Palestinians but the local commanders did not do so and the Arab population soon recovered to more than 2,500 due mostly to refugees slipping back and also due to the transfer of Palestinians from nearby villages.
Most of them were elderly, women, or children.
During the next year or so, the Palestinians were held in a confined area surrounded by barbed wire, which became commonly known as the "ghetto".
[Morris, 2004, pp. 528 −529.] Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, while
Mapam and the Israeli labor union
Histadrut objected.
The government offered the Palestinians positive inducements to leave, including a favorable currency exchange, but also caused panic through night-time raids.
The first group was deported to the
Gaza Strip by truck on 17 August 1950 after an expulsion order had been served.
[Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel (1968), p.57] The deportation was approved by Ben-Gurion and Dayan over the objections of
Pinhas Lavon, secretary-general of the Histadrut, who envisioned the town as a productive example of equal opportunity.
By October 1950, twenty Palestinian families remained, most of whom later moved to
Lod or Gaza.
According to Israeli records, in total 2,333 Palestinians were transferred to the Gaza Strip, 60 to Jordan, 302 to other towns in Israel, and a small number remained in Ashkelon.
Lavon argued that this operation dissipated "the last shred of trust the Arabs had in Israel, the sincerity of the State's declarations on democracy and civil equality, and the last remnant of confidence the Arab workers had in the Histadrut."
Acting on an Egyptian complaint, the Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission ruled that the Palestinians transferred from Majdal should be returned to Israel, but this was not done.
Majdal was granted to Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Re-population of the recently vacated Arab dwellings by Jews had been official policy since at least December 1948, but the process began slowly.
In 1949, the town was renamed Migdal Gaza, and then Migdal Gad. Soon afterwards it became Migdal Ashkelon. The city began to expand as the population grew. In 1951, the neighborhood of Afridar was established for Jewish immigrants from South Africa,
In 1955, Ashkelon had more than 16,000 residents. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000.
In 1949 and 1950, three immigrant transit camps (ma'abarot) were established alongside Majdal (renamed Migdal) for Jewish refugees from Arab world, Romania and Poland. Northwest of Migdal and the immigrant camps, on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village al-Jura, entrepreneur Zvi Segal, one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence, established the upscale Barnea neighborhood.
A large tract of land south of Barnea was handed over to the trusteeship of the South African Zionist Federation, which established the neighborhood of Afridar. Plans for the city were drawn up in South Africa according to the garden city model. Migdal was surrounded by a broad ring of orchards. Barnea developed slowly, but Afridar grew rapidly. The first homes, built in 1951, were inhabited by new Jewish immigrants from South Africa and South America, with some native-born Israelis. The first public housing project for residents of the transit camps, the Southern Hills Project (Hageva'ot Hadromiyot) or Zion Hill (Givat Zion), was built in 1952.
Under a plan signed in October 2015, seven new neighborhoods comprising 32,000 housing units, a new stretch of highway, and three new highway interchanges will be built, turning Ashkelon into the sixth-largest city in Israel.
Landmarks
Ashkelon National Park
The ancient site of
Ascalon is now administered as the Ashkelon National Park. The walls that encircled the city are still visible, as well as Canaanite earth ramparts. The park contains mainly Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader ruins.
The largest dog cemetery in the ancient world was discovered in Ashkelon.
A Roman burial tomb two kilometres north of Ashkelon National Park was discovered in 1937. There are two burial tombs, a painted Hellenistic cave and a Roman cave. The Hellenistic cave is decorated with paintings of nymphs, water scenes, mythological figures and animals.
Bathhouses
In 1986 ruins of 4th- to 6th-century baths were found in Ashkelon. The bathhouses are believed to have been used for prostitution. The remains of nearly 100 mostly male infants were found in a sewer under the bathhouse, leading to conjectures that prostitutes had discarded their unwanted newborns there.
Religious sites
The remains of a 4th-century Byzantine church with marble slab flooring and glass mosaic walls can be seen in the Barnea Quarter.
Remains of a synagogue from this period have also been found.
Maqam al-Imam al-Husayn
An 11th-century mosque, Maqam al-Imam al-Husayn, a site of pilgrimage for both
Sunni and
Shia Muslims,
[Brief History of Transfer of the Sacred Head of Hussain ibn Ali, From Damascus to Ashkelon to Qahera By: Qazi Dr. Shaikh Abbas Borhany PhD (USA), NDI, Shahadat al A'alamiyyah (Najaf, Iraq), M.A., LLM (Shariah) Member, Ulama Council of Pakistan. Published in Daily News, Karachi, Pakistan on 3 January 2009 [10] .][Meron Rapoport, 'History Erased,' Haaretz, 5 July 2007.]
A domed structure housing the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Awad sits atop a hill overlooking Ashkelon's northern beaches.
Museums
Ashkelon Khan and Museum contains archaeological finds, among them a replica of Ashkelon's Canaanite silver calf, whose discovery was reported on the front page of The New York Times.
The Outdoor Museum near the municipal cultural center displays two Roman burial coffins made of marble depicting battle and hunting scenes, and famous mythological scenes.
Marina and water park
The Ashkelon Marina, located between Delila and Bar Kochba beaches, offers a shipyard and repair services. Ashkeluna is a water-slide park on Ashkelon beach.
Palestinians and Ashkelon
Origins of Hamas
Most of the founding members of Hamas were born in Mandatory Palestine, outside of the Gaza strip, or have parents who were. Many of them were from villages that were in the vicinity of present-day Ashkelon, including most of the party's leaders:
Palestinian conflict with modern Ashkelon
On 1–2 March 2008, rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip (some of them Grad rockets) hit Ashkelon, wounding seven, and causing property damage. Mayor Roni Mahatzri stated that "This is a state of war, I know no other definition for it. If it lasts a week or two, we can handle that, but we have no intention of allowing this to become part of our daily routine."
On 12 May 2008, a rocket fired from the northern Gazan city of Beit Lahia hit a shopping mall in southern Ashkelon, causing significant structural damage. According to The Jerusalem Post, four people were seriously injured and 87 were treated for shock. Fifteen people suffered minor to moderate injuries as a result of the collapsed structure. Southern District Police chief Uri Bar-Lev believed the Grad-model Katyusha rocket was manufactured in Iran.
In March 2009, a Qassam rocket hit a school, destroying classrooms and injuring two people.
In November 2014, the mayor, Itamar Shimoni, began a policy of discrimination against Arab workers, refusing to allow them to work on city projects to build bomb shelters for children. His discriminatory actions brought criticism from others, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat who likened the discrimination to the anti-Semitism experienced by Jews in Europe 70 years earlier.
On May 11, 2021, Hamas fired 137 rockets on Ashkelon
On October 10, 2023, during the Gaza war, Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas, warned all citizens of Ashkelon to evacuate before 5:00 P.M. local time via a post to his Telegram channel. Once the deadline hit, Hamas launched a barrage of missiles towards Ashkelon.
Demographics
In the early years, the city was primarily inhabited by Mizrahi Jews, who fled to Israel after being expelled from Muslim lands. Today, Mizrahi Jews still constitute the majority of the population. In the early 1950s, many South African Jews settled in Ashkelon, establishing the Afridar neighbourhood. They were followed by an influx of British Jews.
Ashkelon today
Economy
Ashkelon is the northern terminus for the Trans-Israel pipeline, which brings petroleum products from Eilat to an Oil depot at the port. The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant is the largest in the world.[ Israel is No. 5 on Top 10 Cleantech List in Israel 21c A Focus Beyond Retrieved 2009-12-21]
Since 1992, Israel Beer Breweries has been operating in Ashkelon, brewing Carlsberg Group and Tuborg Brewery beer for the Israeli market.
Culture and sports
The Ashkelon Sports Arena opened in 1999. The "Jewish Eye" is a Jewish world film festival that takes place annually in Ashkelon. The festival marked its seventh year in 2010.
Health care
Ashkelon and environs is served by the Barzilai Medical Center, established in 1961.[ PM Netanyahu's remarks at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon]
Education
The city has 19 elementary schools, and nine junior high and high schools. The Ashkelon Academic College opened in 1998, and now hosts thousands of students. Harvard University operates an archaeological summer school program in Ashkelon.
Twin towns – sister cities
Ashkelon is twinned with:
-
Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, Canada
-
Grodno, Belarus
-
Xinyang, China
-
Iquique, Chile
-
Aix-en-Provence, France
-
Vani, Georgia
-
Kutaisi, Georgia
-
Aviano, Italy
-
Pankow, Germany
-
Sopot, Poland
-
Entebbe, Uganda
-
Portland, Oregon, United States
-
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
-
Sacramento, California, United States
Notable people
-
Ahmed Yasin (born before 1948), Palestinian, the first leader of Hamas.
-
Yitzhak Cohen (born 1951), Israeli politician, from the Shas faction.
-
Avi Dichter (born 1952), Israeli politician, from the Likud faction.
-
Eva Erben (born 1930), Czech-Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor
-
Boris Polak (born 1954), world champion and Olympic sport shooter.
-
Shlomo Glickstein (born 1958), professional tennis player.
-
Yael Abecassis (born 1967), actress and model.
-
Topaz Luk (born 1992), political advisor.
See also
-
Scallion and shallot, types of onion known from and named after ancient Ascalon – Ascalōnia caepa or Ascalonian onion
[ "scallion", at Balashon – Hebrew Language Detective, 5 July 2006. Retrieved 28 Feb 2024.]
Bibliography
External links
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