Netanya (also Natanya, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the Avihayil stream in the north. Netanya was named in honor of Nathan Straus, a prominent Jewish American merchant and philanthropist in the early 20th century who was the co-owner of Macy's department store.
Its of beaches have made the city a popular tourist resort.
In , it had a population of , making it the 7th-largest city in Israel by population. An additional 150,000 people live in the local and regional councils within of Netanya, which serves as a regional center for them. The city mayor is Miriam Feirberg.
Before the 20th century, parts of Netanya belonged to the Forest of Sharon, a hallmark of the region’s historical landscape. It was an open woodland dominated by Mount Tabor Oak (Quercus ithaburensis), which extended from Kfar Yona in the north to Ra’ananna in the south. The local Arab inhabitants traditionally used the area for pasture, firewood and intermittent cultivation. The intensification of settlement and agriculture in the coastal plain during the 19th century led to deforestation and subsequent environmental degradation known from Hebrew sources.
Netanya was established near the ancient site of Poleg by the Bnei Binyamin association in Zikhron Ya'akov. It was named in honor of Nathan (Hebrew: Natan) Straus (1848–1931), co-owner of Macy's department store, New York City Parks Commissioner, and president of the New York City Board of Health, who gifted two-thirds of his personal fortune to projects benefiting Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. "Netanya...was named for Straus in the hope he would donate money to them. When he told them he had no more money to give they were disappointed, but decided to keep the city's name anyway."
The funds for the project of building Netanya were raised by Itamar Ben-Avi and Oved Ben-Ami, who embarked on a fundraising trip to the United States to raise the money.