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Lod (Israel)

Iriyat Lod, Municipality of Lod

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image by Dov Gutterman
Coat-of-arms adopted 13th November 1958

Description

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Municipal Flags (Israel)
Israel

Description

The municipality of Lod (pop. 100,000) is situated in the middle of the shore plain on the crossroads of the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem and the North-South roads. It is first mentioned in Egyptian sources dating back to 1500 BC. For generations it was a cultural and spiritual centre to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Its stragetic posision brought many changes in the city rulers. The Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and Ottomans came to Lod and either built it or ruined it. During the Mandate era it was one of the main centres of the British Army, and hosted the main railway station of the central region and also the main airfield, later to become Lod Airport and today Ben-Gurion International Airport, the main Israeli airport.
Lod has an official emblem which includes an ancient gate, a (fig?) tree, two olive branches and the biblical verse "and sons came back to their border". As usually there is no official flag, but there is, probably, an unofficial one.
Sources: brochure of the Municipality of Lod (1987), desk flag.
Dov Gutterman, 15 August 2001

The municipal emblem was published in the official gazette (Rashumot), YP 633, 13 November 1958.
Dov Gutterman, 4 September 2001

Municipality of Lod - In my visit of today, I found that the flag is green emblem on orange with no inscription.
Dov Gutterman, 6 April 2004

Lod age is estimated in 3,000 years and is one of few sites in Israel in which the sequence of inhabitation was never cut.
It had many names during the years: Lod (Jewish), Diospolis (City of God - Romens), Gyorgyopolis (Byzantine), St. George de Lydda (Crusaders), A-Lyd (Arabic and Ottoman), Lydda (British) and again Lod (Israel).
St. George, whose cross appear on the English and the British flag was burn and buried in Lod and at St. George Church one can see his grave with a relief of him killing the dragon.
However, many nature and human made disasters brought Lod to a stage that there is almost not any mark to the ancient city. Only in the 20th century, it suffered from two earthquakes (1911, 1927), two wars (1917,1948) and very unfortunate planning decision (1955) which left almost no trace to the old city.
The clay-made houses of A-Lyd village were replaced to a modern buildings as the British Mandate decided to make it a district capital (as Lydda) as well as a transportation center. This was done by upgrading the small railway station into a junction of all railway routes as well as by building the international airport nearby.
Lod was taken by the IDF on 11 July 1948 and it became a municipality in 1948, today with population of 66,700 (80% Jews, 19% Moslems and 1% Christians.
Source: <www.lod.muni.il> <www.mapa.co.il>.
Taking a good look at the emblem, I came to think that it is not just a gate and a tree (there no ancient gate in Lod) but it is a rendition of Be'er HaShalom (Well of Peace - former name Bir Zibaq) and the nearby old Sycamore (a.k.a. Henrietta Sold Sycamore), a famous landmark of the city.
The emblem appeared on stamp issued on 2 February 1966.
Dov Gutterman, 23 April 2005