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Manshiya ( he, מנשייה, ar, المنشية, ''al-Manshiyya'') was a residential neighbourhood of
Jaffa
Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
Manshiyya was located on the border between Jaffa and
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, on the seafront north of the harbor.
[Dumper & Stanley, eds. (2007).] The neighbourhood was demolished in order to build a
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
, but only some of the planned office buildings were constructed. Three buildings remain from the original neighbourhood, the
Hassan Bek Mosque
The Hassan Bek Mosque ( ar, مسجد حسن بك; he, מסגד חסן בק; tr, Hasan Bek Camii), also known as the Hasan Bey Mosque, is one of the most well-known mosques of Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel.
The mosque was built in 1916 at the nor ...
, the partially preserved building now known as "Beit Gidi" or "
Etzel House
The Etzel House ( he, בית אצ"ל), commonly known as Beit Gidi ( he, בית גידי, Gidi House), is a museum located in Tel Aviv, Israel dedicated to the Zionist paramilitary organization Irgun, also known by its acronym Etzel. Beit Gidi is ...
", which houses part of the
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
Museum of Tel Aviv, and a derelict house on 77 Mered Street.
History
Late Ottoman period
Manshiya was established in the late 1870s, during Jaffa's process of city expansion which saw its historical city walls demolished in 1879.
[Zochrot website article] According to Or Aleksandrowicz (2017), Jewish residents referred to Manshiya by a Hebrew name, "
Neve Shalom
Neve Shalom ( he, נְוֵה שָׁלוֹם, ''lit.'' Oasis of Peace), also known as Wāħat as-Salām ( ar, واحة السلام) is a cooperative village in Israel, jointly founded by Israeli Jews and Arabs in an attempt to show that the two p ...
", but he doesn't specify when. The
Zochrot
Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...
website discusses the Jewish neighbourhoods around Manshiya, including Neve Shalom (est. 1890) but also
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek ( he, נְוֵה צֶדֶק, נווה צדק, ''lit.'' Abode of Justice) is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Judaism, Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the old city of the ancient port of ...
(1885) and several more, with Tel Aviv closing the series in 1909, as separate entities, which all grew and expanded around and out of Manshiya, while also mentioning the Jewish residents of Manshiya proper.
[ The Jews of Manshiya either built their own houses, starting with Haim Shemerling and Haham Moshe, who also built a synagogue and a ritual bath (]mikveh
Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
) for their families already before 1885; or they rented their homes from Arab landlords.[
]
British Mandate
In 1921, the British Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...
reported that Manshiya was "ethnically mixed", which concretely meant that it was inhabited by mainly Muslim Arabs, and by Jews.[Aleksandrowicz et al. (2017), p. 140.4.] A 1944 police report approximates Manshiya's surface area to 24,000 dunams, and the population to some 12,000 Arabs and 1,000 Jews.[ Zochrot also mentions that Manshiya at some point had four ]mukhtar
A mukhtar ( ar, مختار, mukhtār, chosen one; el, μουχτάρης) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the muk ...
s, three Arabs and one Jew, the latter being in charge of the Jewish community.[
]
1948 war
Manshiya was the site of a brief but important battle during the final days of the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine
A successful paramilitary campaign was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine from 1944 to 1948. The tensions between the Zionist underground and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 a ...
. During Operation Hametz
Operation Hametz ( he, מבצע חמץ, ''Mivtza Hametz'') was a Jewish operation towards the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the 1948 Palestine war. It was launched at the end of April 1948 with the objective of capturing vi ...
, the Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
(a Jewish paramilitary group) captured several towns around Jaffa, including Manshiyya. This alarmed the British, who were in the middle of their military withdrawal from Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
; as they mostly withdrew through Arab-held territories, it was feared that Arabs - should the British let the Irgun offensive go - would retaliate by attacking British troops. Thus, the British deployed 4,500 troops to Jaffa in order to prevent a Jewish takeover. The Jewish paramilitaries temporarily called off the offensive towards Jaffa, but refused to withdraw from the towns they had captured.
As a show of force, Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
destroyers flexed muscles off the coast, and Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
warplanes overflew southern Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The British also took direct military action, and shelled Irgun positions in Manshiyya with artillery and tanks. When the Irgun showed no sign of backing down, British armor invaded the town. However, the Irgun put up unexpectedly stiff resistance; a bazooka team destroyed one tank, the Irgun blew up buildings that collapsed into the street as the tanks pushed forward, and Irgun men simply climbed onto tanks and tossed dynamite sticks into them. The British withdrew, leaving Irgun in control of Menashiya. This was the only direct battle between the British and the Irgun.[Bell (1976)]
Israel
What remained of Manshiya's houses after the 1948 war was left to decay and was eventually demolished between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, as part of a project to establish there a new central business district (CBD), which only materialised to a much smaller degree than envisaged due to lack of proper funding.[Aleksandrowicz et al. (2017), p. 140.6.] The c. 40 hectares of land resulting from the demolitions are occupied by a small number of office buildings, by parking lots and public gardens, bordering on a few main roads.[ The seaside part of Manshiya, to the west of Hasan Bek Street (nowadays Kaufmann Street), had been redeveloped into ]Charles Clore Park
Charles Clore Park ( he, פארק צ'ארלס קלור, ''Park Charles Clore'') is a beachfront park in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. Covering of public land along the Mediterranean Sea, it's named after Charles Clore, a British financier, prop ...
.
Notable residents
* Haim Hazan (1937-1994), Israeli basketball player
References
Bibliography
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*
*
See also
*Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv This list of the neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, is arranged geographically from north to south, then from west to east.
Northwest
Residential
* Azorei Hen (אזורי חן), ''Areas of Grace''
* Kokhav HaTzafon (כוכב הצפון), '' Northern Sta ...
{{Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv
Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv