District Tel Aviv Website www.azor.muni.il | Founded 1948 | |
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Azor (Hebrew: אָזוֹר, Arabic: أزور) (also Azur) is a small town (local council) in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, on the old Jaffa-Jerusalem road southeast of Tel Aviv. Established in 1948 on the site of the Arab village of Yazur, Azor was granted local council status in 1951. In 2015 it had a population of 12,227, and has a jurisdiction of 2,415 dunams (2.415 km2; 0.932 sq mi)
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Etymology
Azor was named for the ancient city of Azur (lit. mighty, heroic), preserved in the name of the Arab village of Yazur. The council of the new village named it Mishmar HaShiv'a ('Guardian of the Seven') in honour of seven Jewish soldiers killed near there in 1948, but the government committee in charge of assigning names forced them to change it to Azor on the grounds that preserving Biblical names was more important. However, another new village nearby was later named Mishmar HaShiv'a.
History
See on the page of the preceding Arab village, Yazur.