1/ The term “mixed cities,” which has been making headlines recently, hides a varied history: in the coming days we will shed light on what happened in these cities – based on archival documents. Here we go. >>
2/ After Ramle and Lod were seized in July 1948, only about 1,000 Palestinian residents remained in them, the vast majority of them belonging to the poorest and most marginalized segments of society. >>
3/ After the war, Israel rapidly settled tens of thousands of newly arrived Jewish immigrants in the homes and neighborhoods left behind. Attempts by Palestinian residents to return to their homes in the cities were aggressively blocked by the Military Government. >>
4/ The decision to settle Jewish immigrants in Lod was made while the fighting was still underway. Transcripts from a meeting of the Military Government Adjacent Committee present a brief overview of the first steps towards settling new residents in these cities >>
5/ where Palestinians had been expelled during the war. The first commander of the Military Government, Major General Avenr Elimelech pronounced: “Close to 6,000 people can be settled in Lod.” >> 
6/ The few remaining Palestinian residents were joined over time by internally displaced Palestinians from the surrounding villages who had been stripped of land and property and moved to the city in search of sources of income, or who were moved to the cities by the state. >>
7/ As a Ministry of Agriculture document shows, after residents of the village of Zakkaryia, near Bet Shemesh, were expelled, some were moved to Ramle. Later, some Palestinians from the city of Majdal, cleared out of its Palestinian residents, were moved to the city as well. >>
8/ The same document also notes that refugees (referring to displaced Palestinians) from nearby villages also lived in Acre. They too had been “sorted,” as the document states, and some were moved to Syria. >>
9/ For further reading about the story of the mixed cities in Israel, visit Akevot’s website: akvt.in/mixed_en
#MixedCities
#MixedCities
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