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Lydda (Lod)
A town in the coastal plain of Israel, 10 miles southeast of Tel Aviv-Jaffa,
is first recorded in Thutmose III's list of towns of Canaan (1465 b.c.e.).
According to the Bible it was founded by Shemed, a Benjaminite (I Chronicles
8:12). In the Hellenistic period Lydda was outside the boundaries of Judea.
In 145 b.c.e. it was detached from Samaria and given by Demetrius II to
Jonathan the Hasmonean.
In Maccabean times it was a purely Jewish town, and later Julius Caesar
is reported to have restored the privileges of its Jews, taken away by
the Greeks. In 43 c.e. Cassius, the governor of Syria, sold its inhabitants
into slavery. The Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, burned Lydda
on his way to Jerusalem in 66 c.e. Captured by John the Essene at the
eginning of the first Jewish war (66--70), it was occupied by Vespasian
in 68 c.e.
Between the First and Second Jewish Wars the town flourished. It had
a large market, raised cattle and ran textile, dyeing and pottery industries.
It was a seat of the Sanhedrin, and its scholars included Akiva and Eliezer
ben Hyrcanus. It also had a Christian community at the time of Peter (Acts
9:32--35). In the year 200 Septimus Severus, the Roman emperor, established
a Roman city there. Still partly Jewish, it took part in the revolt against
the emperor Gallus in 351 and was punished when this failed.
By the Byzantine era, the town was predominantly Christian. It was the
legendary birthplace of St. George, patron saint of England, and was called
Georgiopolis. Captured by the Muslims in 636, it served as the headquarters
of the province of FilastiŻn. The Crusaders occupied the town in 1099;
there was only one Jewish family there in 1170, according to Benjamin
of Tudela. But more Jews settled there again after the conquest by Saladin.
During the early Ottoman period there seem to have been no Jews living
there, though a small Jewish community was founded in the 19th century.
The Jews were forced out by the 1921 Arab riots; by 1944 Lydda had a population
of 17,000 Arabs, one-fifth of them Christian. During the War of Independence,
Israel forces occupied Lydda in July 1948. The majority of Arabs abandoned
the town. At the end of 1990 the population numbered 43,000 including
over 4,000 Muslims and Christian Arabs.
Israel's international airport, renamed in honor of David Ben-Gurion,
was originally built on the outskirts of Lydda by the British Mandatory
government in 1936. It is the home base for Israel's El Al airlines. Almost
three million passengers passed through it in 1991. Both the airport and
Israel Aircraft Industries are important sources of employment for the
local population. Other industries include papermaking, food preserves,
electrical appliances, cigarettes and oil refining.
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by C.D.I. Systems 1992 (LTD) and Keter.
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