Nadene Goldfoot
Lod is the home of Israel's main airport. It used to be called Lydda, and before that had the name of Bethen in the Bible. (Chron 8:12). The tribe of Benjamin built this city and it was important during the 2nd Temple Period. Jonathan, the Hasmonean, added it to Judea in 145 BCE. The town was resettled by Jewish immigrants, most of them from Arab countries, alongside 1,056 Arabs who remained. Today, the city has an Arab population of 30%.
Then the Jewish population became decimated by the Romans after their participation in the war of 66-70 CE over Jerusalem when the Temple was burnt down along with the city. People were being starved to death,, fleeing and some being captured and taken to Rome.
Lod later became the seat of an academy where Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Akiva and other distinguished authorities taught. It was also an industrial center, producing textiles, ceramics, etc.
By the 3rd century , it was called Diospolis. After a rising in 352 CE,, the Jews were nearly exterminated by Constantius Gallus and so, Christians constituted the majority of the population. The town is considered the home of St. George, in whose honor it was renamed Georgiopolis, a Byzantine church being erected there in his name.
After the Arab conquest, Lod became the capital of Palestine until 700 CE, when the capital was transferred to newly built Ramleh nearby. In recent years, Lod has become a communications center, particularly because of its airport.
Most of its Arab inhabitants left when the town was captured by the Israel army in 1948. Since then, large numbers of immigrants have settled in Israel were from the former Soviet Union.
The Jewish immigrants who settled Lod came in waves, first from Morocco and Tunisia, later from Ethiopia, and then as a result, the city's logo (coat of arms) is inscribed with Biblical words from Jeremiah 31:17: "The children will return to their country."
In 1990 the population was 41,300 including 8,400 non-Jews. The population of Lod in 2019 was 75,726-77,223. Lod is a city 15 km (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Central District of Israel.
It's a city of mixed population, and they have been reacting like many others at a time of tension.
A shooting early on Tuesday in May in Lod came at a time of heightened tensions following weeks of unrest at a contested holy site in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The fighting has spilled over into Israel’s Arab sector, with protests taking place in dozens of communities across the country. Israeli police have fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners started throwing stones at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly killed by a Jewish resident in central Israel. This was in the news on May 11, 2021. Since then, we've had the thousands of rockets shot into Israel for 11 days.
When Mr. Netanyahu visited the town of Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab city, on Thursday, he said that the violence there was motivated by nationalistic rioters and that soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces could be brought in. The military called up 7,000 reservists and canceled leaves for all combat units.
“There is no greater threat now than these riots, and it is essential to bring back law and order with these means,” he said. Riot control measures such as water cannons and administrative arrests may also be used, he said. The police have put strict measures in place in Lod, limiting entry into the city from 5 p.m. and instituting an 8 p.m. curfew.
A day earlier, he had called the violence “unacceptable” and said, “Nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs, and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews.”
Israel carried out more airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, where the death toll rose on Thursday to 83 people since the fighting began early this week, according to the Gaza health ministry. Palestinian militants fired volleys of rockets from Gaza — some 1,800 in three days — that reached far into Israel, where seven have died since Monday.
Today problems are continuing. The young men are ignoring the rule of law, and are angry. They question their position. Self identity is a major part of their problem. it seems like there's a lot of copy-cat behavior going on from Gaza. Violence is also a virus of a different origin.
Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uLVOjpMZog from ILTV 7/15/21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Israel%E2%80%93Palestine_crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Gurion_Airport#:~:text=By%20the%20mid%2D1960s%2C%2014,Gurion%2C%20who%20died%20that%20year.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-05-11/the-latest-israeli-media-says-rocket-struck-empty-school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Israel%E2%80%93Palestine_crisis
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