Editing Rehovot (section)

== History ==
[[File:Jacob Street.jpg|thumb|Yaakov Street, Rehovot in 1893]]Rehovot was established in 1890 by pioneers of the [[First Aliyah]] on the coastal plain near a site called ''Khirbat Deiran'', an "abandoned or sparsely populated" estate,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022-11-01 |title=Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE |url=https://www.academia.edu/90931976 |journal=Lod, Lydda, Diospolis |volume=1 |pages=26}}</ref> which now lies in the center of the built-up area of the city.<ref name="Fischer">{{cite journal |author=M. Fischer |author2=I. Taxel |author3=D. Amit |year=2008 |title=Rural settlement in the vicinity of Yavneh in the Byzantine period: A religio-archaeological perspective |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=350 |pages=7–35 |doi=10.1086/BASOR25609264 |s2cid=163487105 |number=350}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Marom|first=Roy|date=2021-06-09|title=The Abu Hameds of Mulabbis: an oral history of a Palestinian village depopulated in the Late Ottoman period|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2021.1934817|journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies|volume=50 |pages=87–106|doi=10.1080/13530194.2021.1934817|s2cid=236222143|issn=1353-0194|url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to Marom, Deiran offered "a convenient launching pad for early land purchase initiatives which shaped the pattern of Jewish settlement until the beginning of the British Mandate".<ref name=":0" />

Rehovot was founded as a [[moshava]] in 1890 by [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish Jewish]] immigrants who had come with the [[First Aliyah]], seeking to establish a township which would not be under the influence of the Baron [[Edmond James de Rothschild]], on land which was purchased from a [[Christian Arab]] by the Menuha Venahala society, an organization in Warsaw that raised funds for Jewish settlement in [[Eretz Israel]].<ref name=Paraszczuk/><ref name=EJ>{{cite EJ | author = O. Efraim |author2=S. Gilboa | title = Reḥovot|volume = 17}}</ref>

In March 1892, a dispute over pasture rights erupted between the residents of Rehovot and the neighboring village of [[Zarnuqa]], which took two years to resolve. Another dispute broke out with the Suteriya [[Bedouin]] tribe, which had been cultivating some of the land as tenant farmers. According to [[Moshe Smilansky]], one of the early settlers of Rehovot, the Bedouins had received compensation for the land, but refused to vacate it. In 1893, they attacked the [[moshava]]. Through the intervention of a respected Arab sheikh, a compromise was reached, with the Bedouins receiving an additional sum of money, which they used to dig a well.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Teb4dKHQcoC&q=establishment+of+rehovot&pg=PA92 |title=The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs, 1878-1948 |author=Aryeh L. Avneri |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date=1982 |isbn=978-1-4128-3621-0 |access-date=29 March 2014 |archive-date=29 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529125859/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Teb4dKHQcoC&q=establishment+of+rehovot&pg=PA92 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1890, the region was an uncultivated wasteland with no trees, houses or water.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Teb4dKHQcoC&q=zarnuqa+1948&pg=PA58 |title=The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs, 1878-1948 |author=Aryeh L. Avneri |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date=1982 |isbn=978-1-4128-3621-0 |access-date=29 March 2014 |archive-date=29 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529125900/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Teb4dKHQcoC&q=zarnuqa+1948&pg=PA58 |url-status=live }}</ref> The moshava's houses were initially built along two parallel streets: Yaakov Street and Benjamin Street, before later expanding, and [[vineyard]]s, [[almond]] [[orchard]]s and [[citrus]] [[Grove (nature)|grove]]s were planted, but the inhabitants grappled with agricultural failures, plant diseases, and marketing problems.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 1956 Settlements in Israel האבות המייסדים.jpg|thumb|Menucha and Nahala, the [[Warsaw]] committee that founded the city, Eliezer Kaplan on left in 1892]]
The first citrus grove was planted by Zalman Minkov in 1904. Minkov's grove, surrounded by a wall, included a guard house, stables, a packing plant, and an irrigation system in which groundwater was pumped from a large well in the inner courtyard. The well was 23 meters deep, the height of an eight-story building, and over six meters in diameter. The water was channeled via an aqueduct to an irrigation pool, and from there to a network of ditches dug around the bases of the trees.<ref name=Vered/>

The Great [[Synagogue]] of Rehovot was established in 1903, during the [[First Aliyah]] period.<ref>Religious Renewal, [[Haaretz]], 22 November 2019</ref>

In 1908, the Workman's Union (''[[Hapoel Hatzair|Hapoel Hazair]]'') organized a group of 300 [[Yemenite Jews|Yemenite]] immigrants then living in the region of Jerusalem and Jaffa, bringing them to work as farmers in the colonies of Rishon-le-Zion and Rehovot.<ref>Joshua Feldman, ''The Yemenite Jews'', London 1913, p. 23</ref> Only a few dozen [[Yemenite Jews|Yemenite]] families had settled in Rehovot by 1908.<ref name=Shlinony>{{cite book | author = Zvi Shilony | title = Ideology and Settlement; the Jewish National Fund, 1897–1914 | publisher = Magnes Press | place = Jerusalem | year = 1998 | pages = 303–307}}</ref> They built houses for themselves in a plot given to them at the south end of the town, which became known as Sha'araim.<ref name=Shlinony/> In 1910, Shmuel Warshawsky, with the secret support of the [[Jewish National Fund|JNF]], was sent to Yemen to recruit more agricultural laborers.<ref name=Shlinony/> Hundreds arrived starting in 1911 and were housed first in a compound one kilometre south of Rehovot and then in a large extension of the Sha'araim quarter.<ref name=Shlinony/>

The second Zarnuqa incident, that took place in July 1913<ref>{{Cite web |title=תקרית זרונגה (השנייה) והמשפט |url=https://www.rehovotarchive.org.il/cgi-webaxy/item?595 |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=עיריית רחובות-ארכיון |language=he}}</ref> between the colonists and guards of Rehovot, and the Arab rural population, is considered by historians as a milestone in Zionist–Arab relations in late Ottoman Palestine. The incident, which started over simple accusation of theft of grapes from a Jewish-owned vineyard, became much more than a local incident, left one Arab and two Jews dead and resulted in tremendous hostility between the two sides. There are various narratives available to researchers today, including Jewish, Arabic sources and external sources. It is difficult to determine whose narrative is closer to historical reality, or to find out who started the fight and who is to be blamed. This incident illustrates the difficult task facing historians in analyzing the late Ottoman Palestine, the period of the early Zionist–Arab encounter and conflict.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ben-Bassat |first1=Yuval |last2=Alroey |first2=Gur |date=2016-09-02 |title=The Zionist–Arab incident of Zarnuqa 1913: a chronicle and several methodological remarks |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2016.1177790 |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |language=en |volume=52 |issue=5 |pages=787–803 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2016.1177790 |issn=0026-3206|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is alleged that this was the moment when a previously peaceful co-existence among Jews and Arabs, united under the Ottoman Empire, instantly became an "us vs. them" divisiveness that has prevailed ever since.<ref name="1913seedsofconflict">{{cite AV media|date=2014|last=Loeterman|first=Ben|editor-last=Clark|editor-first=Rachel|title=1913: Seeds of Conflict|location=[[Arlington, Virginia]] |publisher=[[PBS]]|url=http://1913seedsofconflict.com}}</ref>
[[File:MAIN STREET IN REHOVOT. הרחוב הראשי ברחובות.D842-117.jpg|thumb|Main street of Rehovot in 1933]]

In February 1914, [[Edmond Rothschild|Rothschild]] visited Rehovot during the fourth of his five visits to the Land of Israel.<ref>{{cite news |author=Ofer Aderet |date=9 February 2014 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.573053 |title=Rothschild urged Zionists: Work hard, get along with Arab neighbors |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |access-date=29 March 2014 |archive-date=1 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140401085255/http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.573053 |url-status=live }}</ref> That year, Rehovot had a population of around 955.

===British Mandate===
In 1920, the [[Rehovot Railway Station]] was opened, which greatly boosted the local citrus fruit industry. A few packing houses were built near the station to enable the fruit to be sent by railway to the rest of the country and to the port of [[Jaffa]] for export to Europe. According to a [[1922 census of Palestine|census]] conducted in 1922 by the [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate authorities]], Rehovot had a population of 1,242 inhabitants, consisting of 1,241 Jews and 1 Muslim,<ref name="Census1922">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922|title=Palestine Census ( 1922)|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> increasing in 1931 [[census]] to 3,193 inhabitants, in 833 houses.<ref name="Census1931">Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 23]</ref>
In 1924, the [[British Army]] contracted the [[Israel Electric Corporation|Palestine Electric Company]] for wired electric power. The contract allowed the Electric Company to extend the grid beyond the original geographical limits that had been projected by the concession it was given. The high-voltage line that exceeded the limits of the original concession ran along some major towns and agricultural settlements, offering extended connections to the Jewish towns of [[Rishon Le-Zion]], [[Ness Ziona]] and Rehovot (in spite of their proximity to the high-voltage line, the Arab towns of [[Ramla]] and [[Lod]] remained unconnected).<ref>{{cite book |last=Shamir |first=Ronen |date=2013 |title=Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine |publisher=Stanford University Press}}</ref>

In 1931, the first workers [[moshav]], ''Kfar Marmorek'', was built on lands which were acquired from the village of [[Zarnuqa]] by the [[Jewish National Fund]] in 1926, and ten [[Yemenite Jews|Yemenite Jewish]] families which were evicted from [[Kinneret, Israel|Kinneret]] were resettled there. Later, they were joined by thirty-five other families from Sha'araim. Today, they are both suburbs of Rehovot.<ref>''Yalqut Teiman'', Yosef Tobi and Shalom Seri (editors), Tel-Aviv 2000, p. 130, s.v. כפר מרמורק (Hebrew) {{ISBN|978-965-7121-03-0}}</ref>

The agricultural research station that opened in Rehovot in 1932 later became the Department of Agriculture of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]. In 1933, a juice factory was built. In 1934, [[Chaim Weizmann]] established the Sieff Institute, which later became the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]]. In 1937, Weizmann built his home on the land purchased adjacent to the Sieff Institute. The house later served as the presidential residence after Weizmann became president in 1948. Weizmann and his wife are buried on the grounds of the institute.

In 1945, Rehovot had a population of 10,020, and in 1948, it had grown to 12,500. The suburb of Rehovot, ''Kefar Marmorek'', had a population of 500 Jews in 1948.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Gazetteer of the Place Names which appear in the small-scale Maps of Palestine and Trans-Jordan|first1=R.F. |last1=Jardine|first2=B.A. |last2=McArthur Davies |publisher=Government of Palestine|place=Jerusalem|year=1948|page=49 |oclc=610327173}}</ref>

===State of Israel===
[[File:RehovotCamps_Ariovitch.jpg|thumb|250px|The Department of Agriculture of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] in Rehovot in 2008]]

On 29 February 1948, the [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] [[Cairo–Haifa train bombings 1948|blew up the Cairo to Haifa train]] shortly after it left Rehovot, killing 29 British soldiers and injuring 35. Lehi said the bombing was in retaliation for the [[Ben Yehuda Street Bombing#1948 bombing|Ben Yehuda Street bombing]] a week earlier. ''[[The Scotsman]]'' reported that both Weizmann's home and the Agricultural Institute were damaged in the explosion, although the sites were {{convert|1|–|2|mi|km|disp=sqbr}} away. On 28 March 1948, Arabs attacked a Jewish convoy near Rehovot.<ref>Martin (2005). Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-35901-6}}.</ref> In 1950, Rehovot, which had a population of about 18,000, was declared a city.
[[File:Rehovot Police Station4.jpg|thumb|Rehovot Police Station]]
In the immediate years following the establishment of [[Israel]], the ''Zarnuqa'' [[Ma'abarot|ma'abara]] (now named ''Kiryat Moshe'') was established on the Southern side of Rehovot to house Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries|Arab lands]].<ref>Belcove-Shalin, 1995, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=enXvYWgkW-kC&pg=PA75 75]</ref> On the Southwest, the neighborhood of ''Kfar Gevirol'' (now named ''Ibn Gevirol'', named after [[Solomon ibn Gabirol]], 11th Century Sephardi Jewish Philosopher) was founded on lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of [[Al-Qubayba, Ramle|Al-Qubayba]].<ref>Zochrot, Al-Qubayba, Ramle [http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49456 Link]</ref> Over the years, ''Kiryat Moshe'' expanded over the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of [[Zarnuqa]]. The mosque of the village, while abandoned, still stands.<ref>Zochrot, Zarnuqa [http://zochrot.org/en/village/49155 Link]</ref> On the Southeast the neighborhood of Ramat Aharon were established. The city has since then expanded in all directions, geographically surrounding but not including the Kibbutz of [[Kvutzat Shiller]] and the Moshav of [[Gibton]].