The Affair of the Hassuna Oil Factory Initiative in Lod

For 18 months, the staff of the Israeli Institute of Archeology, in cooperation with the Council for the Preservation of Heritage Sites, has been working to obtain a 20-year concession to manage the Hassuna Oil Factory in Lod. The factory is an ancient and unique stone structure, in which most of the traditional industrial complexes used to produce olive oil, grind sesame seeds and to make soap have been preserved. The building has been abandoned since the late 1940s and is decaying. Although the Israeli Institute of Archaeology has raised a significant budget for the development of the building as a visitor center and the Council for the Preservation of Heritage Sites has pledged to raise additional monies for the quality execution of the project, the initiative has not materialized due to a range of legal and property issues. This affair can be an important lesson for those involved in preserving heritage. It turns out that this field encompasses many obstacles and the road to realizing important and valuable initiatives is long and tedious.