The modern city isnamed after the ancient seaport ofAscalon, 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 ofal-Majdal (Arabic:الْمِجْدَل,romanized: al-Mijdal; Hebrew:אֵל־מִגְ׳דַּל,romanized: ʾĒl-Mīǧdal). Its inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in theUnited Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; on the eve of the1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands morePalestinian refugees from nearby villages.[2][3] The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled,[4] leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of whom 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948[4] and most of the rest were deported by 1950.[5] Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish.
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, MigdalGad and Migdal Ashkelon, until in 1953 the coastal neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the nameAshkelon was adopted for the combined town. By 1961, Ashkelon was ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000.[6] In 2022 the population of Ashkelon was 153,138, making it the third-largest city in Israel'sSouthern District.[1]
The archaeological site ofAscalon, today known as Tel Ashkelon, was the oldest and largest seaport inCanaan, part of thepentapolis (a grouping of five cities) of thePhilistines, north ofGaza City and south ofJaffa.
The site was an important city during theRoman,Byzantine andEarly Islamic periods, and particularly during the period of theCrusades, due to its location near the coast and between theCrusader states and Egypt. TheBattle of Ascalon was the last action of theFirst Crusade. In 1270, theMamluk sultanBaybars ordered the fortifications and harbour at the site to be destroyed. As a result of it, the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into disuse.
The Palestinian village ofAl-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.[8] In 1596, Ottoman records showed Majdal to be a large village of 559 Muslim households, making it the 7th-most-populous locality in Palestine afterSafad,Jerusalem,Gaza,Nablus,Hebron andKafr Kanna.[9][10]
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed thatMedschdel had a total of 420 houses and a population of 1175, though the population count included men only.[11][12]
In the1922 census of Palestine,Majdal had a population of 5,064; 33 Christians and 5,031Muslims,[13] increasing in the1931 census to 6,226 (6,166 Muslims and 41 Christians) with 172 in the suburbs (167 Muslims, 4 Christians, and one Jew).[14]
In the1945 statistics Majdal had a population of 9,910; ninety Christians and 9,820 Muslims,[15] with a total (urban and rural) of 43,680dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. 2,050 dunams were public land; all the rest was owned by Arabs.[16] of the dunams, 2,337 were used for citrus and bananas, 2,886 were plantations and irrigable land, 35,442 for cereals,[17] while 1,346 were built-up land.[18]
Majdal was known for its weaving industry.[19] 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 millionfrancs.[20] But the industry suffered from imports from Europe and by 1927 only 119 weaving establishments remained. The three major fabrics produced were "malak" (silk), 'ikhdari' (bands of red and green) and 'jiljileh' (dark red bands). These were used for festival dresses throughout Southern Palestine. Many other fabrics were produced, some with poetic names such asji'nneh u nar ("heaven and hell"),nasheq rohoh ("breath of the soul") andabu mitayn ("father of two hundred").[21]
In addition to agriculture, residents practicedanimal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the town. In 1943, they owned 354 heads ofcattle, 168sheep over a year old, 170goats over a year old, 65camels, 17horses, 39mules, 447donkeys, 2966fowls, and 808pigeons.[22]
1931-2 map of central El Majdal. Nearly all Palestinians who lived here and survived the 1947-8Nakba were at first confined to a ghetto, then later expelled
Weavers in Majdal, 1934–39
State of Israel
The beginnings of the modern city of Ashkelon shown in the 1950sSurvey of Israel. The built up area labeled אשקלון (Ashkelon) is the area previously known as Majdal. To the left is Afridar. The ruins ofHamama,Al-Jura,Ni'ilya andAl-Khisas are also shown.
Majdal was occupied by the Egyptian army in the early stages of the1948 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.[4] 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 toOperation Yoav on 4 November 1948.[4] GeneralYigal 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.[4][8] Most of them were elderly, women, or children.[8] 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".[6][8][23]Moshe Dayan and Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, whileMapam and the Israeli labor unionHistadrut objected.[4] The government offered the Palestinians positive inducements to leave, including a favorable currency exchange, but also caused panic through night-time raids.[4] The first group was deported to theGaza Strip by truck on 17 August 1950 after an expulsion order had been served.[24] The deportation was approved by Ben-Gurion and Dayan over the objections ofPinhas Lavon, secretary-general of the Histadrut, who envisioned the town as a productive example of equal opportunity.[25] By October 1950, twenty Palestinian families remained, most of whom later moved toLydda or Gaza.[4] 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.[8] 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."[25] Acting on an Egyptian complaint, the Egyptian-IsraelMixed Armistice Commission ruled that the Palestinians transferred from Majdal should be returned to Israel, but this was not done.[26]
Majdal was granted to Israel in the1949 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.[6] The Israeli national plan of June 1949 designated al-Majdal as the site for a regionalurban center of 20,000 people.[6] From July 1949, new immigrants anddemobilized soldiers moved to the new town, increasing the Jewish population to 2,500 within six months.[6] These early immigrants were mostly fromYemen,North Africa, andEurope.[27]
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 fromSouth Africa,[28] and in 1953 it was incorporated into the city. The current name Ashkelon was adopted and the town was grantedlocal council status in 1953.
In 1955, Ashkelon had more than 16,000 residents. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000.[6] This grew to 43,000 in 1972 and 53,000 in 1983. In 2005, the population was more than 106,000.
In 1949 and 1950, three immigrant transit camps (ma'abarot) were established alongside Majdal (renamed Migdal) for Jewish refugees fromArab countries,Romania and Poland. Northwest of Migdal and the immigrant camps, on the lands of the depopulatedPalestinian villageal-Jura,[29] entrepreneurZvi Segal, one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence, established the upscale Barnea neighborhood.[30]
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 thegarden 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 fromSouth 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.[30]
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.[31][needs update]
High-rise residential development along the beach (2007)
Holiday Inn and 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Awad
Landmarks
Ashkelon National Park
The ancient site ofAscalon is now administered as theAshkelon 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.[32] The largest dog cemetery in the ancient world was discovered in Ashkelon.[33]
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.[34]
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.[35]
Religious sites
The remains of a 4th-centuryByzantinechurch with marble slab flooring and glass mosaic walls can be seen in the Barnea Quarter.[34] Remains of a synagogue from this period have also been found.[36]
Maqam al-Imam al-Husayn
An 11th-century mosque,Maqam al-Imam al-Husayn, a site of pilgrimage for bothSunni andShia Muslims,[37]: 185–186 [38][39] which had been built under theFatimids byBadr al-Jamali and where tradition held that the head of Mohammad's grandsonHussein ibn Ali was buried, was blown up by theIDF under instructions fromMoshe Dayan as part of a broader programme to destroy mosques in July 1950.[40][41][42] The area was subsequently redeveloped for a local Israeli hospital,Barzilai. After the site was re-identified on the hospital grounds, funds fromMohammed Burhanuddin, leader of aShi'a Ismaili sect based in India, were used to construct a small marble prayer platform, which is visited by Shi'ite pilgrims from India and Pakistan.[37][39][41][43]
A domed structure housing the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Awad sits atop a hill overlooking Ashkelon's northern beaches.[44]
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 ofThe New York Times.[34]
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.[34]
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.[34]
Most of the founding members of Hamas were born inMandatory Palestine, outside of theGaza 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:
Ashkelon is located in the 20–30 seconds' run to safety area due toBM-21 Grad rocket range.
Palestinian conflict with modern Ashkelon
On 1–2 March 2008, rockets fired byHamas from theGaza Strip (some of themGrad rockets) hit Ashkelon, wounding seven, and causingproperty damage. Mayor Roni Mahatzri stated that "This is astate 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."[51] In March 2008, 230 buildings and 30 cars were damaged by rocket fire on Ashkelon.[52]
On 12 May 2008, a rocket fired from the northern Gazan city ofBeit Lahiya hit a shopping mall in southern Ashkelon, causing significant structural damage. According toThe Jerusalem Post, four people were seriously injured and 87 were treated forshock. Fifteen people suffered minor to moderate injuries as a result of the collapsed structure. Southern DistrictPolice chief Uri Bar-Lev believed the Grad-modelKatyusha rocket was manufactured inIran.[53]
In March 2009, a Qassam rocket hit a school, destroying classrooms and injuring two people.[54]
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 MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu andJerusalem mayorNir Barkat who likened the discrimination to the anti-Semitism experienced by Jews in Europe 70 years earlier.[55][56]
On May 11, 2021, Hamas fired 137 rockets on Ashkelon[57][58] killing 2 and injuring many others.[59]
On October 10, 2023, during theIsrael–Hamas war,Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas, warned all citizens of Ashkelon to evacuate before 5:00 P.M. local time via a post to hisTelegram channel. Once the deadline hit, Hamas launched a barrage of missiles towards Ashkelon.[60]
TheAshkelon 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.[68] The Breeza Music Festival has been held yearly in and around Ashkelon's amphitheatre since 1992. Most of the musical performances are free.Israel Lacrosse operates substantial youth lacrosse programs in the city and recently hosted the Turkey men's national team in Israel's first home international in 2013.[69]
Ashkelon and environs is served by theBarzilai Medical Center, established in 1961.[43] It was built in place ofHussein ibn Ali's 11th-century mosque, a center of Muslim pilgrimages, destroyed by theIsraeli army in 1950.[70] Situated ten kilometres (6 mi) fromGaza, the hospital has been the target of numerousQassam rocket attacks, sometimes as many as 140 over one weekend. The hospital plays a vital role in treating wounded soldiers and terror victims.[71] A rocket and missile-proof emergency room opened in February 2018.[72]
The city has 19 elementary schools, and nine junior high and high schools. TheAshkelon Academic College opened in 1998, and now hosts thousands of students.Harvard University operates an archaeological summer school program in Ashkelon.[73]
^abcdefGolan, Arnon (2003). "Jewish Settlement of Former Arab Towns and their Incorporation into the Israeli Urban System (1948–1950)".Israel Affairs.9 (1–2):149–164.doi:10.1080/714003467.ISSN1353-7121.S2CID144137499.
^abcdeOrna Cohen (2007)."Transferred to Gaza of Their Own Accord" The Arabs of Majdal in Ashkelon and their Evacuation to the Gaza Strip in 1950. The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
^Shelagh Weir, "Palestinian Costume". British Museum Publications, 1989.ISBN978-0-7141-1597-9. pages 27–32. Other fabrics produced includeShash (white muslin for veils),Burk/Bayt al-shem (plain cotton for underdresses),Karnaish (white cotton with stripes), "Bazayl" (flannelette),Durzi (blue cotton) andDendeki (red cotton).
^abKafkafi, Eyal (1998). "Segregation or integration of the Israeli Arabs – two concepts in Mapai".International Journal of Middle East Studies.30 (3):347–367.doi:10.1017/S0020743800066216.S2CID161862941.
^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 inDaily News, Karachi, Pakistan on 3 January 2009[1]Archived 14 December 2017 at theWayback Machine.
Garfinkel, Y.; Dag, D.; Hesse, B.; Wapnish, P.; Rookis, D.; Hartman, G.; Bar-Yosef, D.E.; Lernau, O. (2005). "Neolithic Ashkelon: Meat Processing and Early Pastoralism on the Mediterranean Coast".Eurasian Prehistory.3:43–72.
Garfinkel, Y.; Dag, D. (2008).Neolithic Ashkelon. Qedem 47. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.OCLC494272503.
Golan, Arnon (2003). "Jewish Settlement of Former Arab Towns and their Incorporation into the Israeli Urban System (1948–1950)".Israel Affairs.9 (1–2):149–164.doi:10.1080/714003467.S2CID144137499.
Lecker, Michael (1989). "The Estates of 'Amr b. al-'Āṣ in Palestine: Notes on a New Negev Arabic Inscription".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.52 (1):24–37.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00023041.JSTOR617911.S2CID163092638.
Welcome To The City of al-Majdal Asqalan Information and images about the historical Palestinian city ofMijdal and what remains of it today, as Ashkelon'sMigdal neighbourhood
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