Kiryat Ekron
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| Kiryat Ekron | |
| Hebrew | קריית עקרון |
| Founded in | 1948 |
| Government | Local council |
| Also Spelled | Qiryath Eqron (officially) |
| District | Center |
| Population | 9 800 (2004) |
| Jurisdiction | 2 200 dunams (2.2 km²) |
Kiryat Ekron or Qiryath Eqron is an Israeli town located on the coastal plain in the Central Region of Israel. Founded in 1948, Kiryat Ekron is named after Ekron, a Philistine city that once existed nearby, possibly where now stands the modern town Gedera. In ancient Ekron the Philistines, a pagan cult of Greek extraction, worshiped the god "Baal Zvuv". this name (later transformed in English as "Beelzebub") became another appellation for the Devil according to Christian tradition.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics the population of Kiryat Ekron was 9800 in 2004. The average monthly wage in the year 2000 according to the bureau of statistics was 4296 New Israeli Shekels with the national average being 6835 NIS. The population was 99% Jewish and had a 1:1 male to female ratio.
Kiryat Ekron is situated immediately south of the city of Rehovot on Highway 411 next to the Bilu Junction. The largest commercial centre in Israel - "Bilu Centre" is located in Kiryat Ekron. The centre was built up in the late 1990s on land that was formerly agricultural, particularly citrus groves. Attempts to unite Kiryat Ekron with the much larger municipality of Rehovot in 2003 failed after popular protest from the Ekronites, as did similar attempts to unite Kiryat Ekron's municipality with that of the smaller hamlet of Mazkeret Batya due to opposition from the hamlet's residents the same year. Mazkeret Batya is the site of the original town of Ekron. Its name was changed to Mazkeret Batya, literally "in memory of Batya" in memory of philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild's mother "Betty", around 1889.
A small suburban town, Kiryat Ekron is a 5 minute drive from the Trans Israel Highway and Highway 1 and located approximately 23 kilometres South East from Tel Aviv and 40 km West of Jerusalem.
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| Cities | Hod HaSharon | Kfar Saba | Lod | Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut | Ness Ziona | Netanya | Petah Tikva | Qalansawe | Ra'anana | Ramla | Rehovot | Rishon LeZion | Rosh HaAyin | Tayibe | Tira | Yavne | Yehud-Monosson |  |
| Local councils | Be'er Ya'akov | Beit Dagan | Bnei Aish | El'ad | Elyakhin | Even Yehuda | Gan Yavne | Gedera | Giv'at Shmuel | Jaljulia | Kafr Qasim | Kfar Bara | Kfar Yona | Kiryat Ekron | Kokhav Ya'ir | Mazkeret Batya | Pardesiya | Ramot HaShavim | Savyon | Shoham | Tel Mond | Tzoran-Kadima | Zemer | |
| Regional councils | Brenner | Gan Rave | Gederot | Gezer | Drom HaSharon | Hefer Valley | Hevel Modi'in | Hevel Yavne | Hof HaSharon | Lev HaSharon | Lod Valley | Nachal Soreq | |
| Boroughs | Neve Monosson | |
