Ramla

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This article is about the city in Israel. For the town in Tunisia, see Remla.
Ramla
Hebrew רמלה
Arabic الرملة
Founded in 716
Government City
Also Spelled Ramlāh (officially)

Ramleh (unofficially)
District Center
Population 63 462 (2004)
Jurisdiction 9 993 dunams

Ramla (Hebrew: רמלה‎, Ramlāh; Arabic: الرملة‎, ar-Ramlah, colloquial Ramleh), is a city in the Center District in Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2004 the city had a total population of 63,462.

Contents

[edit] Demographics

According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was 80% Jewish and other non-Arab, and 20% Arab (16% Muslim and 4% Christian). There were 500 immigrants living in the city. See Population groups in Israel.

According to CBS, in 2001 there were 32,000 males and 30,000 females. The population of the city was spread out with 36% 19 years of age or younger, 18% between 20 and 29, 19% between 30 and 44, 15% from 45 to 59, 3% from 60 to 64, and 9% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 1.0%.

[edit] Income

According to CBS, as of 2000, in the city there were 21,000 salaried workers and 1,700 are self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker in the city is ILS 4,300, a real change of 4.4% over the course of 2000. Salaried males have a mean monthly wage of ILS 5,200 (a real change of 3.3%) versus ILS 3,300 for females (a real change of 6.3%). The mean income for the self-employed is 4,900. There are 1,100 people who receive unemployment benefits and 5,600 people who receive an income guarantee.

[edit] Education

According to CBS, there are 31 schools and 12,000 students in the city. They are spread out as 22 elementary schools and 7,700 elementary school students, and 9 high schools and 3,800 high school students. 47% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001.

[edit] History

According to the 9th century Arab geographer Ya'qubi, al-Ramla (Ramla) was founded in 716 by the Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, and its name was derived from the Arabic Raml – meaning sand. The initial population of persons moved from Ludd (Lydda, Lod). Ramla flourished as the capital of Jund Filastin, which was one of the five districts of the ash-Sham (Syrian) province of the Arab-Muslim empire. Ramla was the principal city and capital of the country from its birth until the advent of the Crusaders in the 11th Century.[1] Ramla's mosque was called the "White Mosque" and was claimed to be the finest in Palestine outside Jerusalem. Its remains, together with some large underground cisterns, are all that can be seen today from the early period.[2]

An Arab geographer, el-Mukadassi ("the Jerusalemite"), describes Ramla at the peak of its prosperity: "It is a fine city, and well built; its water is good and plentiful; its fruits are abundant. It combines manifold advantages, situated as it is in the midst of beautiful villages and lordly towns, near to holy places and pleasant hamlets. Commerce here is prosperous, and the markets excellent...The bread is of the best and the whitest. The lands are well favoured above all others, and the fruits are the most luscious. This capital stands among fruitful fields, walled towns and serviceable hospices...". Its economic importance, shared with its near-neighbor Lydda, was based on its location at the intersection of Palestine's two major roads, one linking Egypt with Syria and the other linking Jerusalem with the coast.[3]

After the First Crusade Ramla became the seat of a seigneury in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (the Lordship of Ramla within the County of Jaffa and Ascalon and it was a city of some economic significance and served as an important station for the pilgrims on their way to the Holy City. See also Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem). Crusaders identified it with Biblical Ramathaim and referred to it as Arimathea.[4]

At times during the 11th to 16th centuries, Ramla was also referred to as Filastin, in keeping with a common practice of confusing the names of districts with their main cities.[5]

At the start of the Ottoman period, Ramla was described as a large town which lay mostly in ruins, with a small population. In the year 1548, it was recorded to have 528 Muslim and 82 Christian households.[6] Not much change in this size or composition occurred until late in the 19th century, when a period of expansion began.[7] During the British Mandate, the population grew steadily, up to about 12,000 Muslims and 3,300 Christians in 1945.[8] Until 1948 there were very few Jewish inhabitants.[9]

On March 2, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Ramle during his unsuccessful attempt to conquer Palestine.[10]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Ramla's geographical location (especially its position on the main supply route to the Jerusalem region) made it an inevitable point of conflict. Irregular Arab militias such as that of Hasan Salama operating from in and around the town attacked Jewish communities and traffic, and Jewish forces retaliated.[11] An Irgun bomb in the Ramle market on February 18 killed 7. By May there was a substantial exodus of people.[12] The first serious Jewish attacks on Ramle in May were unsuccessful, but a more determined attack during Operation Danny led to Ramla's capture on July 11-12, 1948. The town's notables surrendered on July 12.[13] Most of the residents of the town who had not fled already were forcibly expelled on Ben-Gurion's orders.[14] The only inhabitants who remained after the town's capture were about 400 Arabs, who were mostly either Christian or had had prior dealings with Jews.[15]

The Israeli government immediately saw the nearly depopulated town as a source of housing for the many Jewish immigrants who were beginning to arrive, and started to use the abandoned houses for this purpose in November 1948. By February 1949 the Jewish population had passed 6,000. Nevertheless, Ramla and Lydda (now called Ramla and Lod) remained relatively economically depressed for the next two decades. The population in 1972 was 34,000.[16]

Ramla is the center of Karaite Judaism in Israel.

[edit] Buildings

The Hospice of St. Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea in the main street, Herzl Avenue, is easily recognized by its clock-faced, square tower. It belonged to the Franciscan monks. It was used by Napoleon as staff headquarters when he attempted in vain to conquer Palestine from the Ottomans.

[edit] Cave discovery

Main article: Ayalon Cave

In May 2006, a cave was discovered in Ramla that contained several previously unknown species of invertebrates. The discovery was made at a cement quarry owned by Nesher Industries. The uniqueness of the cave is attributed to its isolation. The cave, which spans across 2.5 kilometers (roughly 1.5 miles) and is 100-meters (roughly 300 feet) deep, is the second largest lime cave in Israel. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guy Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems
  2. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, article "al-Ramla"; Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, The first century of Ramla, Arabica, vol 43, 1996, pp250-263.
  3. ^ Guy Le Strange, "Palestine under the Moslems"; Encyclopedia of Islam, article "al-Ramla".
  4. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, article "al-Ramla".
  5. ^ Rabbi Ashtory HaParchi (lived in Palestine ca. 1310-1355), in his travel book Kaftor VaPerach twice mentions this practice; also a 1326 report in The Travels of Ibn Battuta, ed. H.A.R. Gibb (Cambridge University Press, 1954), 1:71-82. For the earlier period: Amikam Elad, Two identical inscriptions from Jund Filastin from the reign of the 'Abbasid Caliph, Al-Muqtadir, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 35 (1992) pp301-360.
  6. ^ Amnon Cohen and Bernard Lewis, Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century (Princeton, N.J., 1978)
  7. ^ Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, "The Population of the Large Towns in Palestine During the First Eighty Years of the Nineteenth Century, According to Western Sources", in Studies on Palestine during the Ottoman Period, ed. Moshe Ma'oz (Jerusalem, 1975), 49-69.
  8. ^ British Mandatory statistics: census of 1931, village statistics of 1945.
  9. ^ From the sources listed above: no Jews in 1525, 1538, 1548, 1592; 2 in 1852, 35 in 1922, 8 in 1931, none 1944 or 1945.
  10. ^ http://www.napoleon-series.org/ins/scholarship98/c_jaffa.html
  11. ^ B. Morris, The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p88.
  12. ^ Morris (2004), p424.
  13. ^ Morris (2004), p427.
  14. ^ B. Morris, "Operation Dani and the Palestinian Exodus from Lydda and Ramle in 1948", The Middle East Journal, 40 (1986) 82-109; Morris (2004), pp429-430, who quotes the orders; Rabin memoirs (censored section, New York Times October 23, 1979).
  15. ^ Morris (2004), pp
  16. ^ A. Golan, Lydda and Ramle: "From Palestinian-Arab to Israeli Towns", 1948-1967, Middle Eastern Studies 39,4 (2003) 121-139.

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 31°56′N 34°52′E

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