Ancient Ascalon (Asqalanu) 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
pre-Crusades Muslim rule, 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 sultan Baybars ordered the fortifications and harbour of Ascalon to be destroyed. Its inhabitants moved to ''Majdal 'Asqalān'', which was established by Baybars as a substitute inland, and endowed with a magnificent
congregational mosque, a marketplace and religious shrines. , 8th century CE
Al Majdal, Asqalan Established by Baybars following the destruction of
Ascalon in the 13th century, the Arab town of Majdal 'Asqalan is mentioned by historians and tourists at the end of the 15th century. In 1596, Ottoman records showed Majdal to be a large village of 559 Muslim households, making it the 7th-most-populous locality in Palestine after
Safad,
Jerusalem,
Gaza,
Nablus,
Hebron and
Kafr Kanna. Al-Majdal derived part of its prosperity from its location along on the Cairo-Damascus road. 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. ,
Al-Jura,
Al-Khisas and
Ni'ilya. The ruins of
Ascalon are also shown on the left hand side. Images from the 1871–77
PEF Survey of Palestine. In the
1922 census of Palestine,
Majdal had a population of 5,064; 33 Christians and 5,031
Muslims, 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). In the
1945 statistics Majdal had a population of 9,910; ninety Christians and 9,820 Muslims, with a total (urban and rural) of 43,680
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. 2,050 dunams were public land; all the rest was owned by Arabs. of the dunams, 2,337 were used for citrus and bananas, 2,886 were plantations and irrigable land, 35,442 for cereals, while 1,346 were built-up land. Majdal was known for the
majdalawi weaving industry. 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
francs. 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 as ''ji'nneh u nar
("heaven and hell"), nasheq rohoh
("breath of the soul") and abu mitayn'' ("father of two hundred"). 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
goats over a year old, 65
camels, 17
horses, 39
mules, 447
donkeys, 2966
fowls, and 808
pigeons. El Majdal-Survey-of-Palestine-3-4-5-6-combined.jpg|1931-2 map of central El Majdal. Nearly all Palestinians who lived here and survived the 1947-8
Nakba were at first confined to a ghetto, then later expelled Majdal11.png|Weavers in Majdal, 1934–39 . The built up area labeled אשקלון (Ashkelon) is the area previously known as Majdal. To the left is Afridar. The ruins of
Hamama,
Al-Jura,
Ni'ilya and
Al-Khisas are also shown.
1948 war and depopulation of Palestinians Majdal was occupied by the Egyptian army in the early stages of the
1948 Palestine war, along with the rest of the Gaza region, which 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.
Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, while
Mapam and the Israeli labor union
Histadrut objected. 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
Lydda 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.
Repopulation of Ashkelon by Israelis 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 after, it became Migdal Ashkelon. The city expanded as the population grew. In 1951, the neighborhood of Afridar was established for Jewish immigrants from
South Africa, and in 1953 it was incorporated into the city. The current name Ashkelon was adopted and the town was granted
local 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. 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 occupied by new Jewish immigrants from
South Africa and South America, as well as some native-born Israelis. The first public housing project for residents of the transit camps, the Southern Hills Project (Hageva'ot Hadromiyot), also known as Zion Hill (Givat Zion), was built in 1952. These included unsuccessful launches in June, August, September, and October, and one strike on September 18 that destroyed a bus and a residence but caused no reported casualties. 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. The area around Isdud and Majdal in the UN Palestine Partition Versions 1947 (cropped).jpg|The area around Majdal had been allocated to the Arab state in the
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Ashqelon.jpg | High-rise residential development along the beach (2007) Harlington Hotel, Ashkelon, 2004.jpg | Harlington Hotel and 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Awad == Landmarks ==