Ness Ziona is a city in central Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 46,900. It is located on the Israeli coastal plain approximately 10 km from the Mediterranean, south of Tel Aviv. The city is bordered to the north by Rishon LeZion, to the east by Be’er Ya’akov, and to the south by Rehovot. Beit Hanan, Beit Oved, Ayanot youth village and Kibbutz Netzer Sereni also border the city. The city has been designed to have a rural character due to urban planning that bans the construction of buildings higher than eight stories. The city has two industrial zones and a high-tech park, Kiryat Weizmann.
Ness Ziona known as Wadi Chanin after the local Arab village. Later it was called Nahalat Reuben, after Reuben Lehrer, who owned the land and started the Jewish settlement there in 1883. In 1878, the German Templer Gustav Reisler purchased lands in Wadi Hunayn, planted an orchard. After his family died from malaria, Reisler returned to Europe. In 1882 he met Reuben Lehrer and sold his land to Lehrer. Lehrer emigrated to Palestine in 1883. Michael Halperin bought more land. A group gathered on the Hill of Love and unfurled a blue and white flag emblazoned with the words Ness Ziona ‘Banner to Zion’ written in gold. The name is based on a verse in the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 4:6.
The two Jewish colonies – the old Wadi Chanin/Nahalat Reuben and the newer Ness Ziona – grew into one larger village, together with the Arab Wadi Hunayn across the Jaffa-Jerusalem road.
According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Ness Ziona had a population of 319. Which by 1931 had grown to 1013 inhabitants. In 1924 the British contracted the Israel Electric Company for electricity. 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-tension line that exceeded the limits of the original concession ran along some major towns and agricultural settlements, offering extended connections to the Jewish settlements of Rishon Le-Zion, Nes-Ziona and Rehovot.
Ness Ziona was attacked by Arab forces in the 1936–39 Arab Revolt, and again during the 1948. The outlying villages of Kfar Aharon and Tirat Shalom frequently exchanged fire with the Arab villages al-Qubayba and Zarnuqa. Following the the 1948 war Ness Ziona’s population tripled to 4,446. In 1952 a new industrial zone was approved for the town on an area of 70 dunams. In 1955, a second industrial zone was approved.