Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine port city which is part of

Tel Aviv-Yafo Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coastline. Excavations at Jaffa indicate that the city was settled as early as the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. The city is referenced in several ancient

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

and Assyrian documents. Biblically, Jaffa is noted as one of the boundaries of the

tribe of Dan The Tribe of Dan (, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim and Tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin on the ...

and as a port through which Lebanese cedars were imported for the construction of the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

. Under

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

rule, Jaffa was given to the

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

ns. The city features in the biblical story of

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

and the Greek legend of Andromeda. Later, the city served as the major port of

Hasmonean Judea The Hasmonean dynasty (; ''Ḥašmōnāʾīm''; ) was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period (part of classical antiquity), from BC to 37 BC. Between and BC the dynasty rule ...

. However, its importance declined during the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

period due to the construction of

Caesarea Caesarea, a city name derived from the Roman title " Caesar", was the name of numerous cities and locations in the Roman Empire: Places In the Levant * Caesarea Maritima, also known as "Caesarea Palaestinae", an ancient Roman city near the modern ...

. Jaffa was contested during the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, when it presided over the

County of Jaffa and Ascalon The double County of Jaffa and Ascalon was one of the four major seigneuries comprising the major Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin. History Jaffa was fortified by Godfrey of Bo ...

. It is associated with the 1192 Battle of Jaffa and subsequent Treaty of Jaffa, a truce between

Richard the Lionheart Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

and

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

, as well as a later 1229 peace treaty. In 1799, Napoleon also sacked the town in the

Siege of Jaffa The siege of Jaffa was a military engagement between the French Army under Napoleon Bonaparte and Ottoman forces under Ahmed al-Jazzar. On March 3, 1799, the French laid siege to the city of Jaffa, which was under Ottoman control. It was fough ...

, and in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the British took the city in the 1917 Battle of Jaffa, and under their watch, as part of

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, ethnic tensions culminated in the 1921

Jaffa riots The Jaffa riots (commonly known in ) were a series of violent riots in Mandatory Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a confrontation between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews and then reprisal attacks by ...

. As an Arab majority city in the Ottoman era, Jaffa became known starting from the 19th century for its expansive orchards and fruits, including its namesake

Jaffa orange The Jaffa orange (Arabic: برتقال يافا, ) is an Orange (fruit), orange variety with few seeds and a tough skin that make it highly exportable. It was developed by Palestinian Arab, Arab farmers in mid-19th century Ottoman Palestine, and ...

. It was also a Palestinian hub for journalism in Mandatory Palestine in the 20th century, where

Falastin ''Falastin'' (; ) was an Arabic-language Palestinian newspaper. Founded in 1911 in Jaffa, ''Falastin'' began as a weekly publication, evolving into one of the most influential dailies in Mutassarifate of Jerusalem, Ottoman and Mandatory Palesti ...

and Al-Difa' newspapers were established. After the

1948 Palestine War The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

, most of its Arab population fled or were expelled, and the city became part of then newly established state of Israel, and was unified into a single municipality with Tel Aviv in 1950. Today, Jaffa is one of Israel's

mixed cities In Israel, the mixed cities (, ) or mixed towns are the eight cities with a significant number of both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. The eight mixed Jewish-Arab cities, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics as those with more tha ...

, with approximately 37% of the city being Arab.

Etymology

The town was mentioned in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian sources and the Amarna letters as ''Yapu''.

Mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

says that it is named for Yafet (Japheth), one of the sons of

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

, the one who built it after the

Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. The Hellenist tradition links the name to ''Iopeia'', or

Cassiopeia Cassiopeia or Cassiopea may refer to: Greek mythology * Cassiopeia (mother of Andromeda), queen of Aethiopia and mother of Andromeda * Cassiopeia (wife of Phoenix), wife of Phoenix, king of Phoenicia * Cassiopeia, wife of Epaphus, king of Egy ...

, mother of Andromeda. An outcropping of rocks near the harbor is reputed to have been the place where Andromeda was rescued by Perseus.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

associated the name with Iopa, daughter of

Aeolus In Greek mythology, Aiolos, transcribed as Aeolus (; ; ) refers to three characters. These three are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which. Diodorus Siculus m ...

, god of the wind. The medieval

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

geographer

al-Muqaddasi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the '' nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syri ...

referred to it as ''Yaffa''.le Strange, 1890, pp
550
551

History

Ancient Jaffa was built on a high

kurkar Kurkar ( /) is the term used in Arabic and modern Hebrew for the rock type of which lithification, lithified sea sand dunes consist. The equivalent term used in Lebanon is ramleh. History Kurkar is the regional name for an aeolian quartz sands ...

sandstone ridge, with a broad view of the coastline, giving it a strategic importance in military history.Stacey Jennifer Miller, ''The Lion Temple of Jaffa: Archaeological Investigations of the Late Bronze Age Egyptian Occupation in Canaan.'
BA thesis
, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 The tell of Jaffa, created through the accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries, made the hill even higher.

Middle Bronze

The city as such was established at the latest around 1800 BCE.

Late Bronze

Aaron A. Burke and Martin Peilstöcker
''The Egyptian Fortress in Jaffa''
, Popular Archaeology, 3 March 2013

Late Bronze

Jaffa is mentioned in an

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian letter from 1440 BCE. The so-called story of the Taking of Joppa glorifies its conquest by

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, (1479–1425 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He is regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders, and milita ...

, whose general,

Djehuty Thoth (from , borrowed from , , the reflex of " eis like the ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and h ...

, hid Egyptian soldiers in sacks carried by pack animals and sent them camouflaged as tribute into the

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite city, where the soldiers emerged and conquered it. The story predates the story of the

Trojan horse In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...

, as told by

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, by at least two centuries. The city is also mentioned in the Amarna letters under its Egyptian name ''Ya-Pho'' (''Ya-Pu, EA 296, l.33''). The city was under Egyptian rule until around 1200 BCE.

Iron Age

Iron II

In the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

city, bordering the

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

territories – more specifically those of

Tribe of Dan The Tribe of Dan (, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim and Tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin on the ...

(hence the modern term "

Gush Dan Gush Dan (, ) or Tel Aviv metropolitan area is a conurbation in Israel, located along the country's Mediterranean coastline. There is no single formal definition of Gush Dan, though the term is in frequent use by both governmental bodies and the ...

" for the center of the coastal plain). The Israelites did not manage to take Jaffa from the Philistines. Jaffa is mentioned four times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' as the northernmost

Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

city by the coast, bordering the territory of the Tribe of Dan (); as port-of-entry for the

cedars of Lebanon ''Cedrus libani'', commonly known as cedar of Lebanon, Lebanon cedar, or Lebanese cedar (), is a species of large evergreen conifer in the genus ''Cedrus'', which belongs to the pine family and is native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediter ...

for

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

(); as the place whence the prophet

embarked for

Tarshish Tarshish (; ; ) occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings, most frequently as a place (probably a large city or region) far across the sea from Phoenicia (now Lebanon) and the Land of Israel. Tarshish was said to have exported v ...

(); and again as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

of Jerusalem ().

=Assyrian period

= In the late 8th century BCE,

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

, king of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

, recorded conquering Jaffa from its sovereign, the

king of

Ashkelon Ashkelon ( ; , ; ) or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The modern city i ...

. After a period of Babylonian occupation, under Persian rule, Jaffa was governed by

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

from Tyre.

Classical antiquity

Jaffa is not mentioned in

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

's coastal campaign, but during the

Wars of the Diadochi The Wars of the Diadochi (, Romanization of Greek, romanized: ', ''War of the Crown Princes'') or Wars of Alexander's Successors were a series of conflicts fought between the generals of Alexander the Great, known as the Diadochi, over who would ...

Antigonus Monophthalmus Antigonus I Monophthalmus ( , "Antigonus the One-Eyed"; 382 – 301 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general and successor of Alexander the Great. A prominent military leader in Alexander's army, he went on to control large parts of Alexander's form ...

captured Jaffa in 315 BCE.

Ptolemy I Soter Ptolemy I Soter (; , ''Ptolemaîos Sōtḗr'', "Ptolemy the Savior"; 367 BC – January 282 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general, historian, and successor of Alexander the Great who went on to found the Ptolemaic Kingdom centered on Egypt. Pto ...

later destroyed it in 312 BCE. Despite this, Jaffa was resettled and became a

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

mint site in the third century BCE. Archaeological evidence from this period includes a watchtower and numerous stamped amphora handles. Additionally, the city is mentioned in several Zeno papyri. The area was transferred to

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, a ...

control after the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE. Around 163–162 BCE, during the

Maccabean revolt The Maccabean Revolt () was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of ...

, the inhabitants of Jaffa invited the local Jews onto boats, subsequently sinking them and drowning hundreds. In retaliation,

Judas Maccabeus Judas Maccabaeus or Maccabeus ( ), also known as Judah Maccabee (), was a Jewish priest (''kohen'') and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah ("Ded ...

attacked Jaffa, setting the harbor on fire, destroying ships, and killing many inhabitants, though he did not attempt to hold the city. By 147–146 BCE, his brother

Jonathan Apphus Jonathan Apphus (Hebrew: ''Yōnāṯān ʾApfūs''; Ancient Greek: Ἰωνάθαν Ἀπφοῦς, ''Iōnáthan Apphoûs'') was one of the sons of Mattathias and the leader of the Hasmonean dynasty of Judea from 161 to 143 BCE. Name H J Wolf ...

expelled the garrison of Seleucid king Demetrius II from Jaffa but did not conquer the city. In 143 BCE,

Simon Thassi Simon Thassi ( ''Šīməʿōn haTassī''; died 135) was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family. Names The name "Thassi" has a connotation of "the Wise", a title which can also mean "the Director", "the Guide" ...

established a garrison in Jaffa, expelled the non-Jewish inhabitants to prevent them from collaborating with the Seleucid commander Tryphon, and fortified the city. During the operations of

Antiochus VII Sidetes Antiochus VII Euergetes (; 164/160 BC129 BC), nicknamed Sidetes () (from Side, a city in Asia Minor), also known as Antiochus the Pious, was ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire from July/August 138 to 129 BC. He was the last Seleucid king ...

in Judaea, he demanded the surrender of Jaffa among other cities. Simon negotiated a settlement by agreeing to pay a smaller tribute. Simon's capture of Jaffa is praised in

1 Maccabees 1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest hi ...

because of the city's strategic importance as a port. In the Hasmonean period, the city was fortified and served as the main port of Judaea. Under Hasmonean king

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( , English: "Alexander Jannaios", usually Latinised to "Alexander Jannaeus"; ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. ...

(103–76 BCE), Jaffa was one of several coastal cities controlled by the Jews, including Straton's Tower, Apollonia, Iamnia, and Gaza. Archaeological evidence from this period is limited but includes remnants of walls, tombs from the early first century BCE, and hoards of coins. Incidents of piracy before the Roman conquest are mentioned by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, who accused Aristobulus of instigating raids and acts of piracy. These claims are echoed by Diodorus and Strabo, though their reliability is debated, given the term ''leistai'' (pirates) was often used pejoratively in this period. Jaffa was annexed to

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

but later restored to Judaea by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

, reaffirming Jewish access to the sea through their traditional port. In 39 BCE, Herod captured Jaffa from

Antigonus Antigonus or Antigonos (), a Greek name meaning "comparable to his father" or "worthy of his father", may refer to: Rulers * Three Macedonian kings of the Antigonid dynasty that succeeded Alexander the Great: ** Antigonus I Monophthalmus (382� ...

, though control fluctuated until

Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...

returned it to Herod after the defeat of Antony and

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

. After Herod's death, Jaffa, along with Strato's Tower (Caesarea), Sebaste, and Jerusalem, was assigned to Archelaus' ethnarchy in Judaea. The construction of Herod's superior harbor at Caesarea diminished Jaffa's regional importance. Josephus's accounts indicate that Jaffa had city status, administering surrounding districts, reflecting continued regional significance. However, he adds that the harbor at Jaffa was inferior to that of

. The population of the city during this period was predominantly Jewish.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, writing in the early 1st century CE, describes Jaffa as a location from which it is possible to see

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, the capital of the Jews, and writes that the Jews used it as their naval arsenal when they descended to the sea. Excavations suggest urban expansion during the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

under Ptolemaic rule, followed by contraction under Seleucid and early Roman rule, and renewed expansion later in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Archaeological remains from the Roman period are mainly found near the harbor, including rich finds like

terra sigillata Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface Slip (ceramics), slips made ...

, a bread or cheese stamp, and coins. In the early stages of the

First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, the First Jewish Revolt, the War of Destruction, or the Jewish War, was the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire. Fought in the prov ...

in 66 CE,

Cestius Gallus Gaius Cestius Gallus (d. 67 AD) was a Roman senator and general who was active during the Principate. He was suffect consul for the second '' nundinium'' of the year 42 as the colleague of Gaius Caecina Largus. Gallus was the son of Gaius Cestius ...

sent forces to Jaffa, where the city was destroyed and its inhabitants indiscriminately killed. Josephus writes that 8,400 inhabitants were massacred. Subsequently, the city was resettled by Jews expelled from neighboring regions, who used it to disrupt maritime commerce between

and

. As the Romans, led by

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

, approached Jaffa, those Jews fled to sea but were devastated by a storm, killing 4,200 people. Those who reached shore were killed by the Romans, who subsequently destroyed Jaffa again and stationed troops to prevent its reuse as a pirate base. In the 3rd century CE, Jaffa was known by the name ''Flavia Ioppe'', potentially indicating an honorary designation under Flavian rule.

Late antiquity

Despite the devastation and loss of life during the revolt, Jaffa maintained a Jewish population. Inscriptions from the early 2nd century indicate Jewish involvement in local governance. Further evidence includes Jewish epitaphs dating from the 3rd to 6th centuries, some from members of the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

, along with references in

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic sources to scholars associated with Jaffa. Archaeological findings from the 2nd and 3rd centuries reveal structures destroyed by fire, possibly linked to regional unrest. During the first centuries of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, Jaffa was a fairly unimportant Roman and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

locality, which only in the 5th century became a

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. The new religion arrived in Jaffa relatively late, not appearing in historical records until the

Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

in 431 CE. A very small number of its Greek or Latin bishops are known. Early Christian texts describe Jaffa as a modest settlement, with varying accounts of its prosperity and state of preservation. ;Religious narratives The

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

account of

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

bringing back to life the widow

Dorcas Dorcas (), or Tabitha (), was an early disciple (Christianity), disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (, see discussion Acts 9#The healing of Tabitha (9:36–43), here). She lived in the port city of Jaffa, Joppa, today absorb ...

(recorded in

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

, , takes place in Jaffa, then called in Greek ( Latinized as ''Joppa''). relates that, while Peter was in Jaffa, he had a vision of a large sheet filled with "clean" and "unclean" animals being lowered from heaven, together with a message from the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

telling him to accompany several messengers to Cornelius in

Caesarea Maritima Caesarea () also Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Palaestinae or Caesarea Stratonis, was an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Judaea (Roman province), ...

. Peter retells the story of his vision in , explaining how he had come to preach

to the

gentile ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is used as a synony ...

s. In ''

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

Tanna'im'' in its chapter , reference is made to

Jose ben Halafta Jose ben Helpetha, commonly known as Jose ben Halafta () was a tanna of the fourth generation (2nd century CE). He is the fifth-most-frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah. Yose Ben Halafta is the one of two rabbis called Rabbi Yose in the Tal ...

(2nd century) traveling through Jaffa. Jaffa seems to have attracted serious Jewish scholars in the 4th and 5th century. The

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

(compiled 4th and 5th century) in ''Moed Ketan'' references Rabi Akha bar Khanina of Jaffa; and in ''Pesachim'' chapter 1 refers to Rabi Pinchas ben Yair of Jaffa. The

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

(compiled 5th century) in ''Megillah'' 16b mentions Rav Adda Demin of Jaffa. ''

Leviticus Rabbah Leviticus Rabbah, Vayikrah Rabbah, or Wayiqra Rabbah is a homiletic midrash to the Biblical book of Leviticus (''Vayikrah'' in Hebrew). It is referred to by Nathan ben Jehiel (c. 1035–1106) in his ''Arukh'' as well as by Rashi (1040–110 ...

'' (compiled between 5th and 7th century) mentions Rav Nachman of Jaffa. The ''

Pesikta Rabbati ''Pesikta Rabbati'' (Aramaic: פסיקתא רבתי ''P'siqta Rabbati'', "The Larger P'siqta") is a collection of aggadic midrash (homilies) on the Pentateuchal and prophetic readings, the special Sabbaths, and so on. It was composed around 8 ...

'' (written in the 9th century) in chapter 17 mentions R. Tanchum of Jaffa. Several streets and alleys of the Jaffa Flea Market area are named after these scholars.

Middle Ages

Early Islamic period

In 636 Jaffa was conquered by Arabs. Under Islamic rule, it served as a port of

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

, then the provincial capital.

Al-Muqaddasi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the '' nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syri ...

(/946 – 991) described ''Yafah'' as "lying on the sea, is but a small town, although the emporium of Palestine and the port of Ar-Ramlah. It is protected by a strong wall with iron gates, and the sea-gates also are of iron. The

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

is pleasant to the eye, and overlooks the sea. The harbour is excellent".

Crusader/Ayyubid period

Jaffa was captured in June 1099 during the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

, and was the centre of the

, one of the

vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller Manorialism, seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin (jurist), John of Ibelin, the four highest crown va ...

. One of its counts, John of Ibelin, wrote the principal book of the

Assizes The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

of the

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...

conquered Jaffa in 1187. The city surrendered to

King Richard the Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...

on 10 September 1191, three days after the

Battle of Arsuf The Battle of Arsuf took place on 7 September 1191, as part of the Third Crusade. It saw a multi-national force of Crusaders, led by Richard I of England, defeat a significantly larger army of the Ayyubid Sultanate, led by Saladin. Followi ...

. Despite efforts by Saladin to reoccupy the city in the July 1192 Battle of Jaffa, the city remained in the hands of the Crusaders. On 2 September 1192, the Treaty of Jaffa was formally signed, guaranteeing a three-year truce between the two armies. In 1229, Frederick II signed a ten-year truce in a new Treaty of Jaffa. He fortified the castle of Jaffa and had two inscriptions carved into city wall, one Latin and the other Arabic. The inscription, deciphered in 2011, describes him as the "Holy Roman Emperor" and bears the date "1229 of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah."

Mamluk period

In March 1268,

Baibars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...

, the sultan of the

Egyptian Mamluks The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled medieval Egypt, Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military c ...

, conquered Jaffa simultaneously with conquering

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. Baibars's goal was to conquer Christian crusader strongholds. An inscription from the White Mosque of Ramla, today visible in the Great Mosque of Gaza, commemorates the event:

In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate,...gave power to his servant...who has trust in him...who fights for Him and defends the faith of His Prophet...Sultan of Islam and the Muslims, Baybars...who came out with his victorious army on the 10th of the month of
Rajab Rajab () is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb ''rajaba'' is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative. This month is regarded as one ...
from the land of Egypt, resolved to carry out ''
jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...
'' and combat the intransigent
infidels An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person who is accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or irreligion, irreligious people. Infidel is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical term in Ch ...
. He camped in the port city of Jaffa in the morning and conquered it, by God's will, in the third hour of that day. Then he ordered the erection of the dome over the blessed minaret, as well as the gate of this mosque...in the year 666 of the
Hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (also ''Hejira'' or ''Hegira''), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers in 615 CE * L ...
268 CE May God have mercy upon him and upon all Muslims.

Abu'l-Fida Ismāʿīl bin ʿAlī bin Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin ʿUmar bin Shāhanshāh bin Ayyūb bin Shādī bin Marwān (), better known as Abū al-Fidāʾ or Abulfeda (; November 127327 October 1331), was a Mamluk Sultanate, Mamluk-era Kurds, Kurdish ...

(1273–1331), writing in 1321, described "Yafa, in Filastin" as "a small but very pleasant town lying on the sea-shore. It has a celebrated harbour. The town of Yafa is well fortified. Its markets are much frequented, and many merchants ply their trades here. There is a large harbour frequented by all the ships coming to Filastin, and from it they set sail to all lands. Between it and Ar Ramlah the distance is 6 miles, and it lies west of Ar Ramlah." In 1432, Bertrandon de la Broquière observed that Jaffa was in ruins, with only a few tents standing. He wrote: "At Jaffa, the pardons commence for pilgrims to the Holy Land ... at present, it is entirely destroyed, having only a few tents covered with reeds, where pilgrims seek shelter from the heat of the sun. The sea enters the town, forming a poor and shallow harbor: it is dangerous to remain there long for fear of being driven onshore by a gust of wind. When any pilgrims disembark there, interpreters and other officers of the sultan instantly hasten to ascertain their numbers, to serve them as guides, and to receive, in the name of their master, the customary tribute."

Ottoman period

16th-18th centuries

In 1515, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottoman

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 151 In the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 1596, it appeared located in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of ''

'' in the '' liwa'' of Gaza. It had a population of 15 households, all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3 % on various products; a total of 7,520

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. The traveller Jean Cotwyk (Cotovicus) described Jaffa as a heap of ruins when he visited in 1598. Botanist and traveller

Leonhard Rauwolf Leonhard Rauwolf (also spelled Leonhart Rauwolff) (21 June 1535 – 15 September 1596) was a German physician, botanist, and traveller. His main notability arises from a trip he made through the Levant and Mesopotamia in 1573–75. The motive of t ...

landed near the site of the town on 13 September 1575 and wrote "we landed on the high, rocky shore where the town of Joppe did stand formerly, at this time the town was so demolished that there was not one house to be found." (p. 212, Rauwolf, 1582) The 17th century saw the beginning of the re-establishment of churches and hostels for Christian pilgrims en route to Jerusalem and the Galilee. During the 18th century, the coastline around Jaffa was often besieged by pirates and this led to the inhabitants relocating to

and

Lod Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The ci ...

, where they relied on messages from a solitary guard house to inform them when ships were approaching the harbour. The landing of goods and passengers was notoriously difficult and dangerous. Until well into the 20th century, ships had to rely on teams of oarsmen to bring their cargo ashore.

Napoleon (1799)

On 7 March 1799,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

captured the town in what became known as the

, breached its walls, ransacked it, and killed scores of local inhabitants as a reaction to his envoys being brutally killed when delivering an ultimatum of surrender. Napoleon ordered the massacre of thousands of Muslim soldiers who were imprisoned having surrendered to the French., quoted in Napoleon's deputy commissioner of war Jacques-François Miot described it thus: Many more died in an epidemic of

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...

that broke out soon afterwards.

19th century

Residential life in the city was reestablished in the early 19th century. The governor who was appointed after the devastation brought about by Napoleon, Muhammad Abu-Nabbut, commenced wide-ranging building and restoration work in Jaffa, including the Mahmoudiya Mosque and the public fountain known as Sabil Abu Nabbut. During the 1834

Peasants' revolt in Palestine The Peasants' Revolt was a rebellion against Egyptian conscription and taxation policies in Palestine between May and August 1834. While rebel ranks consisted mostly of the local peasantry, urban notables and Bedouin tribes also formed an inte ...

, Jaffa was besieged for forty days by "mountaineers" in revolt against

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Ibrahim Pasha ( ''Ibrāhīm Bāshā''; 1789 – 10 November 1848) was an Egyptian general and politician; he was the commander of both the Egyptian and Ottoman armies and the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman Wāli and unrecognized Khedi ...

. In 1820, Isaiah Ajiman of Istanbul built a synagogue and hostel for the accommodation of Jews on their way to their

four holy cities In Judaism, the "Four Holy Cities" are Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed. Revered for their significance to Jewish history, they began to again serve as major centres of Jewish life after the Ottoman conquest of the Levant. According to '' ...

- Jerusalem,

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

and

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

. This area became known as Dar al-Yehud (Arabic for "the house of the Jews"); and was the basis of the Jewish community in Jaffa. The appointment of Mahmud Aja as Ottoman governor marked the beginning of a period of stability and growth for the city, interrupted by the 1832 conquest of the city by

Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Albanians, Albanian viceroy and governor who became the ''de facto'' ruler of History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty, Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely consi ...

. By 1839, at least 153

Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

were living in Jaffa. The community was served for fifty years by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi miRagusa. In the early 1850s, HaLevi leased an orchard to Clorinda S. Minor, founder of a Christian messianic community that established Mount Hope, a farming initiative to encourage local Jews to learn manual trades, which the Messianics did in order to pave wave for the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

of Jesus. In 1855, the British Jewish philanthropist

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, Philanthropy, philanthropist and Sheriffs of the City of London, Sheriff of London. Born to an History ...

bought the orchard from HaLevi, although Minor continued to manage it. American missionary Ellen Clare Miller, visiting Jaffa in 1867, reported that the town had a population of "about 5000, 1000 of these being Christians, 800 Jews and the rest Moslems". The city

walls Walls may refer to: *The plural of wall, a structure * Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places * Walls, Louisiana, United States * Walls, Mississippi, United States *Walls, Ontario Perry is a township (Canada), ...

were torn down during the 1870s, allowing the city to expand.

1900–1914

By the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Jaffa had swelled considerably. A group of Jews left Jaffa for the sand dunes to the north, where in 1909 they held a lottery to divide the lots acquired earlier. The settlement was known at first as Ahuzat Bayit, but an assembly of its residents changed its name to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

in 1910. Other Jewish suburbs to Jaffa had already been founded since 1887, with others following until

the Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

. In 1904, rabbi

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as HaRav Kook, and also known by the Hebrew-language acronym Hara'ayah (), was an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbina ...

(1864–1935) moved to Ottoman Palestine and took up the position of

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

of Jaffa.

Late Ottoman-period economy

In the 19th century, Jaffa was best known for its soap industry. Modern industry emerged in the late 1880s.''Jaffa: A City in Evolution'' Ruth Kark, Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem, 1990, pp. 256–257. The most successful enterprises were metalworking factories, among them the machine shop run by the

Templers Templers may refer to: * Templers, South Australia is a town in South Australia * Templers (religious believers) The German Templer Society, also known as Templers, is a Radical Pietist group that emerged in Germany during the mid-nineteenth ...

that employed over 100 workers in 1910. Other factories produced orange-crates, barrels, corks, noodles, ice, seltzer, candy, soap, olive oil, leather, alkali, wine, cosmetics and ink. Most of the newspapers and books printed in Ottoman Palestine were published in Jaffa. In 1859, a Jewish visitor, L.A. Frankl, found sixty-five Jewish families living in Jaffa, 'about 400 soul in all.' Of these four were shoemakers, three tailors, one silversmith and one watchmaker. There were also merchants and shopkeepers and 'many live by manual labour, porters, sailors, messengers, etc.'

Late Ottoman agriculture; Jaffa oranges

Until the mid-19th century, Jaffa's orange groves were mainly owned by Arabs, who employed traditional methods of farming. The pioneers of modern agriculture in Jaffa were American settlers, who brought in farm machinery in the 1850s and 1860s, followed by the Templers and the Jews. From the 1880s, real estate became an important branch of the economy. A 'biarah' (a watered garden) cost 100,000 piastres and annually produced 15,000, of which the farming costs were 5,000: 'A very fair percentage return on the investment.' Water for the gardens was easily accessible with wells between ten and forty feet deep. Jaffa's citrus industry began to flourish in the last quarter of the 19th century. E.C. Miller records that 'about ten million' oranges were being exported annually, and that the town was surrounded by 'three or four hundred orange gardens, each containing upwards of one thousand trees'. Shamuti or Shamouti oranges, aka "

Jaffa oranges Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

", were the major crop, but

citron The citron (''Citrus medica''), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick Peel (fruit), rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the Citrus taxonomy#Citrons, original citrus fruits from which al ...

s, lemons and

mandarin orange A mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), often simply called mandarin, is a small, rounded citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. The mandarin is small and oblate, unlike the ...

s were also grown. Jaffa had a reputation for producing the best

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have o ...

s. Developed the mid-19th century, the Jaffa orange was first produced for export in the city after being developed by Arab farmers. The orange was the primary citrus export for the city. Today, along with the

navel The navel (clinically known as the umbilicus; : umbilici or umbilicuses; also known as the belly button or tummy button) is a protruding, flat, or hollowed area on the abdomen at the attachment site of the umbilical cord. Structure The u ...

and

bitter orange The bitter orange, sour orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the hybrid citrus tree species ''Citrus'' × ''aurantium'', and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of th ...

, it is one of three main varieties of the fruit grown in the

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and

Southern Europe Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

.Ladaniya, 2008
pp. 48–49
. The Jaffa orange emerged as a mutation on a tree of the 'Baladi' variety of

sweet orange The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', between the pomelo (''Citrus ...

(''C. sinensis'') near the city of Jaffa.Basan, 2007
p. 83
. After the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

(1853–56), the most important innovation in local agriculture was the rapid expansion of citrus cultivation.Krämer, 2008
p. 91"> p. 91
Foremost among the varieties cultivated was the Jaffa (Shamouti) orange, and mention of it being exported to Europe first appears in British consular reports in the 1850s.Issawi, 2006
p. 127
. One factor cited in the growth of the export market was the development of

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s in the first half of the 19th century, which enabled the export of oranges to the European markets in days rather than weeks.Gerber, 1982. Another reason cited for the growth of the industry was the relative lack of European control over the cultivation of oranges compared to cotton, formerly a primary commodity crop of Palestine, but outpaced by the Jaffa orange.LeVine, 2005, p. 272. The prosperity of the orange industry brought increased European interest and involvement in the development of ''Jaffa''. In 1902, a study of the growth of the orange industry by

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

officials outlined the different Palestinian owners and their primary export markets as England, Turkey, Egypt and

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. While the traditional Arabic cultivation methods were considered "primitive," an in-depth study of the financial expenditure involved reveals that they were ultimately more cost-efficient than the Zionist-European enterprises that followed them some two decades later.LeVine, 2005
p. 34
.

First World War

In 1917, the Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation resulted in the Ottomans expelling the entire civilian population. While Muslim evacuees were allowed to return before long, the Jewish evacuees remained in camps (and some in Egypt) until after the British conquest. Jaffa Municipal Buildings

During the course of their campaign through Ottoman Palestine and the Sinai (1915–1918) against the Ottomans, the British took Jaffa in November 1917, although it remained under observation and fire from the Ottomans. The battle of Jaffa in late December 1917 pushed back the Ottoman forces securing Jaffa and the line of communication between it and Jerusalem, which had already been taken on 11 December.

British Mandate

File:Jaffa 1929.jpg, Jaffa 1929 1:20,000 File:Jaffa 1943.jpg, Jaffa 1943 1:20,000 File:Bat Yam 1945.jpg, Jaffa 1945 1:250,000

1920s: conflict and development

According to the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jaffa had a population of 47,799, consisting of 20,699 Muslims, 20,152 Jews and 6,850 Christians,Barron, 1923,
6
/ref> increasing to 51,866 in the 1931 census, residing in 11,304 houses.Mills, 1932, p
13
/ref> During the British Mandate, tension between the Jewish and Arab population increased. A wave of Arab attacks during 1920 and 1921 caused many Jewish residents to flee and resettle in

, initially a marginal Jewish neighborhood north of Jaffa. The

in 1921, (known in Hebrew as ''Meoraot Tarpa'') began with a

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

parade that turned violent. Arab rioters attacked Jewish residents and buildings killing 47 Jews and wounding 146. The Hebrew author

Yosef Haim Brenner Joseph Chaim Brenner (; 11 September 1881 – 2 May 1921) was a Hebrew-language author from the Russian Empire, and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature, a thinker, publicist, and public leader. In addition to his literary innovations ...

was killed in the riots. At the end of 1922, Tel Aviv had 15,000 residents: by 1927, the population had risen to 38,000. Still, during most of the 1920s Jaffa and Tel Aviv maintained peaceful co-existence. Most Jewish businesses were located in Jaffa, some Jewish neighbourhoods paid taxes to the municipality of Jaffa, many young Jews who could not afford the housing costs of Tel Aviv resided there, and the big neighbourhood of Menashiya was by and large fully mixed. The first electric company in the British Mandate of Palestine, although owned by Jewish shareholders, had been named the Jaffa Electric Company. In 1923, both Jaffa and Tel Aviv had begun a rapid process of wired electrification through a joint grid.

1930s: Arab revolt (1936–39)

The

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...

severely impacted Jaffa. On 19 April 1936, riots broke out in Jaffa after rumors spread among the local Arab community that Jews had started to kill Arabs; Arab rioters attacked Jewish targets for three days before British security forces quelled the rioting. 9 Jews and 2 Arabs were killed and dozens more were wounded. In response to the riots, Arab leadership in Palestine declared a

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

, which began in the Jaffa Port and quickly spread to the rest of the region.''The Land That Become Israel: Studies in Historical Geography,'' ed. Ruth Kark, Yale University Press & Magnes Press, 1989, "Aerial Perspectives of Past Landscapes," Dov Gavish, pp. 316–317 After the start of the general strike,

British troops The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Gurkhas, 25,742 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,697 "other personnel", for a total of 108,4 ...

stationed in Palestine were bolstered by reinforcements from

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

to subdue rioting which had broken out in several major Palestinian cities. Arab rioters in Jaffa used the Old City, which contained a maze of homes, winding alleyways and an underground sewer system, to escape arrest by British security forces. Beginning in May 1936, in response to further Arab unrest in Jaffa, the British authorities suspended municipal services in the city, establishing barricades around the Old City and covering access roads with glass shards and nails. On June of that year,

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

bombers dropped boxes of leaflets in Arabic on Jaffa, requesting the city's inhabitants to evacuate that same day. In June 15, the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

used

gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and Potassi ...

charges to

demolish Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apa ...

between 220 and 240 Arab-owned homes in the Old City, leaving an open strip which cut through the center of Jaffa from end to end and displacing approximately 6,000 Arabs.Matthew Hughes
'The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936 – 39'
,

English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly by Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, a ...

Vol. CXXIV No. 507 pp.323–354 pp.322.323. On the evening of 17 June, 1,500 British troops entered Jaffa and a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

warship moved near the Jaffa Port to seal off escape routes by sea. On 29 June, British forces carried out another round of house demolitions, carving a swath from north to south. The British authorities claimed that house demolitions in Jaffa were part of a "facelift" given to the Old City. Local Arab newspapers resorted to using sarcasm to describe the demolitions, writing that the British had "beautified" Jaffa using boxes of gelignite. Sir Michael McDonnell, then serving as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Palestine, found in favor of Arab petitions from Jaffa and, upholding existing laws regarding house demolitions, ruled against the demolitions carried out by British forces in the Old City. In response, the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

dismissed him from his post. The report produced by the

Peel Commission The Peel Commission, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by Lord Peel, appointed in 1936 to investigate the causes of conflict in Mandatory Palestine, which was administered by t ...

in 1937 recommended that Jaffa, together with

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

Lydda Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The ci ...

and

Ramle Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph Su ...

, remain under permanent British control, forming a "corridor" from the sea port to the Holy Places, accessible to Arabs and Jews alike; whereas the rest of Mandatory Palestine was to be split between an Arab state and a Jewish state.

1940-47: WWII; frictions

Village Statistics of 1945 listed Jaffa with a population of 94,310, of whom 50,880 were Muslims, 28,000 were Jews, 15,400 were Christians and 30 were classified as "other".Department of Statistics, 1945, p
27
The Christians were mostly

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

and about one-sixth of them were members of the

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

. One of the most prominent members of the Arab Christian community was the Greek Orthodox Issa El-Issa, publisher of the newspaper ''Falastin''. In 1945, the Jewish community of Jaffa complained to the city mayor Yousef Haikal that their neighbourhoods don't receive appropriate municipal services (street lighting and paving, garbage removal, sewerage etc.) even though they contribute 40% of the municipality's budget. Some of the services (education, healthcare, and social services) had already been provided by Tel Aviv Municipality at its own expense, which formed the base for the Jewish community's demand that the Mandatory government annex their neighbourhoods to Tel Aviv. In the year of 1946, Tel Aviv Municipality spent £P 300K on services for the Jewish neighbourhoods of Jaffa, an increase from £P 80K in the year of 1942.

1948 war

In 1947, the UN Special Commission on Palestine recommended that Jaffa be included in the planned Jewish state. Due to the large Arab majority, however, it was instead designated as an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

of the Arab state in the 1947

United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations to partition Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. Drafted by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on 3 September 1947, the Pl ...

. The enclave would have excluded the northern Jewish-populated parts of the city, but included the agricultural lands to the south and east of the city, extending to the then-boundaries of

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...

Holon Holon (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. In , it had a population of , making it the List of cities in Israel, tenth most populous city in Isra ...

and

Bat Yam Bat Yam ( ) is a city on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the Central Coastal Plain just south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area and the Tel Aviv District. In , it had a population of . History British Mandate Bat Y ...

. The resolution was rejected by Palestinian Arab leadership and by the Arab League. Following the inter-communal violence which broke out following the passing of the UN partition resolution, the mayors of Jaffa and Tel Aviv tried to calm their communities. One of the main concerns for the people of Jaffa was the protection of the citrus fruit export trade which had still not reached its pre-Second World War highs. Eventually the bilateral orange-picking and exporting of both sides continued although without a formal agreement. At the beginning of 1948 Jaffa's defenders consisted of one company of around 400 men organised by the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

, almost none of them Palestinian Arabs (the "Arab Brigade"), and the local Arab irregulars of the National Guard. As in Haifa, the irregulars intimidated the local population. On 4 January 1948, the Lehi detonated a truck bomb outside the ''Saraya,'' also known as the "Grand Serai," formerly the Ottoman administrative building and now housing the Arab National Committee. The building and some nearby buildings were destroyed and twenty-six Palestinian civilians were killed. Most of the dead and many wounded were not connected to the National Committee but were passersby and staff at a food distribution programme for poor children that was also in the same building. Most of the children were not present as it was Sunday. In February Jaffa's Mayor, Yousef Haikal, contacted

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

through a British intermediary trying to secure a peace agreement with Tel Aviv, but the commander of the Arab militia in Jaffa opposed it. The frontline saw a period of mostly static warfare, with sporadic sniper fire, machine gun bursts, and limited skirmishes. While the introduction of medium mortars in early March 1948 escalated the intensity of the fighting, tactics remained largely unchanged. On 25 April 1948, the

Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...

launched an offensive on Jaffa. This began with a mortar bombardment which went on for three days during which twenty tons of high explosive were fired into the town. On 27 April the British Government, fearing a repetition of the mass exodus from

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

the week before, ordered the British Army to confront the Irgun and their offensive ended. Simultaneously the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

had launched

Operation Hametz Operation Hametz (, ''Mivtza Hametz''; 25–30 April 1948) was an operation to conquer towns around Jaffa conducted by Zionist forces as part of Plan Dalet shortly before the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine, in the civil war ...

, which overran the villages east of Jaffa and cut the town off from the interior. On 29 April, the Irgun commander for the Tel-Aviv & Jaffa district, Eliyahu Tamler, was killed by a British shell. Palestinians fleeing Jaffa 1948

The fall of Haifa a few days earlier, and fear of another massacre similar to Irgun's

Deir Yassin massacre The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and childr ...

, caused panic across the Arabs of Jaffa, leading most of them to flee. The population of Jaffa on the eve of the attack was between 50,000 and 60,000, with some 20,000 people having already left the town. By 30 April, there were 15,000–25,000 remaining. In the following days a further 10,000–20,000 people fled by sea. When the Haganah took control of the town on 14 May around 4,000 people were left. The town and harbour's warehouses were extensively looted. The displacement of Jaffa's Arab population was part of the larger

1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population – fled from their homes or were expelled. Expulsions and attacks against Palestinians were carried out by the ...

. The city surrendered to the Haganah on 14 May 1948 and shortly after the British police and army left the city. The 3,800 Arabs who remained in Jaffa after the exodus were concentrated in the Ajami district and subject to strict martial law. The military administration in Jaffa lasted until 1 June 1949, at which point, Tel Aviv Municipality took over the administration; Jaffa Municipality, ''de-jure'' still in existence at the time, had not exercised any authority since 1948 until its dissolution in 1950.

State of Israel

Gradual annexation into Tel Aviv

The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became a matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government during 1948.Arnon Golan (1995), The demarcation of Tel Aviv–Yafo's municipal boundaries, ''Planning Perspectives'', vol. 10, pp. 383–398. The former wished to incorporate only the well-off Jewish suburbs in the north of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. The issue also had international sensitivity, since the main part of Jaffa was in the Arab portion of the United Nations Partition Plan, whereas Tel Aviv was not, and no armistice agreements had yet been signed. An alternative proposal, merging

and

into Jaffa to form a bigger city south of Tel Aviv, was rejected on financial grounds, as the two small Jewish settlements lacked the funds necessary to sustain Jaffa. On 10 December 1948, the government announced the annexation to Tel Aviv of Jaffa's Jewish suburbs of Maccabi (

American–German Colony The American–German Colony (, ''HaMoshava HaAmerika'it–Germanit'') is a residential neighborhood in the southern part of Tel Aviv, Israel. It is located between Eilat Street and HaRabbi MiBacherach Street and adjoins Neve Tzedek. It was origi ...

), Volovelsky (northwestern Florentin),

Giv'at Herzl Givat Herzl (, lit. Herzl's hill) is a Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, neighborhood located in the southern part of Tel Aviv, Israel. It contains an ancient Jewish necropolis which was looted mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...

, and Shapira; territories outside Jaffa's municipal boundary, specifically the Arab neighbourhood of Abu Kabir, the Arab village of Salama and some of its agricultural land, and the working class Jewish areas of Hatikva and Ezra, were annexed to Tel Aviv at the same time, thus introducing around 50,000 new residents into the city. On 18 May 1949, the new boundary was drawn along Shari' Es Salahi (now Olei Zion Street) and Shari' El Quds (now Ben-Zvi Road), thereby adding into Tel Aviv the former Arab neighbourhood of Manshiya and part of Jaffa city centre, for the first time including land that had been in the Arab portion of the UN partition plan. The government decided on a permanent unification of Tel Aviv and Jaffa on 4 October 1949, but the actual unification was delayed until 16 June 1950 due to concerted opposition from Tel Aviv's mayor

Israel Rokach Israel Rokach, Order of the British Empire, Honorary CBE (; December 31, 1896 – September 13, 1959) was an Israeli politician, Knesset member, and the fourth Mayor of Tel Aviv from 1936 to 1953. Biography Israel Rokach was born in 1896 in Neve ...

, who had demanded government funding of 1M I£ towards the expenses of providing municipal services to Jaffa. Jaffa was expected to consume 18% of the unified municipality's budget, while contributing only 4% of its income. The two sides came to an agreement under which the government covered 100K I£ of the unified municipality's expenses, as well as funded healthcare, education, and social services for Jaffa residents directly from the state budget. The name of the unified city was Tel Aviv until 19 August 1950, when it was renamed as Tel Aviv–Yafo in order to preserve the historical name Jaffa. The population of Jaffa prior to the unification was estimated as 40,000, out of them 5,000 Arabs, and most of the others new ''

olim ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described ...

''. The land which had formerly belonged to Jaffa municipality, and was annexed into Tel Aviv, includes the neighbourhoods of Manshiya, Florentin,

, and Shapira; and such landmarks as

Charles Clore Park Charles Clore Park (, ''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, property magnate and philanthropist. T ...

Hassan Bek Mosque The Hassan Bek Mosque (; ; ), also known as the Hasan Bey Mosque, is one of the most well-known mosques of Tel Aviv, Israel. The mosque was built between 1916 and 1923 at the northern boundary of Arab Jaffa, and its history is closely bound u ...

Carmel Market Carmel Market (, ''Shuk HaCarmel'') is an outdoor marketplace in Tel Aviv, Israel. History The Carmel market was established in the 1920s.Jaffa railway station, and the new Tel Aviv central bus station. On the other hand, Jaffa boundaries were expanded to the southeast, incorporating Gaon Stadium and the new neighbourhoods of Neve Ofer, Jaffa Gimel and Jaffa Dalet. Other former Arab villages incorporated into Tel Aviv–Jaffa include

Al-Mas'udiyya Al-Mas'udiyya (also known as ''Summayl''), was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on Decem ...

, annexed on 20 December 1942, in the New North;

Jarisha Jarisha (, also transliterated Jerisha; ) was a Palestinian Arab village located from the ancient site of Tell Jarisha (Tel Gerisa), on the south bank of Al-Awja (Yarkon River).Ben-Tor and Greenberg, 1992, p. 246.Khalidi and Elmusa, 1992, p. 246 ...

, annexed on 25 November 1943, on the southern bank of

Yarkon River The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River (, ''Nahal HaYarkon''; , ''Nahr al-Auja''), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west throu ...

;

Al-Jammasin al-Gharbi Al-Jammasin al-Gharbi was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 17, 1948. It was located 6.5 km northeast of Jaffa. Etymology The name ref ...

, annexed on 31 March 1948, and since 1957 redeveloped into Bavli neighbourhood; and

Al-Shaykh Muwannis Al-Shaykh Muwannis (), also Sheikh Munis, was a small Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Jaffa Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located approximately 8.5 kilometers from the center of J ...

, annexed on 25 February 1949, and since 1955 redeveloped into

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

main campus. ;Streets renamed After the Jewish takeover, all pre-existing street names in Jaffa were abolished, and replaced with numeric identifiers. By 1954, only the four main streets had proper names: Jerusalem (former

Djemal Pasha Ahmed Djemal (; ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha or Cemâl Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As an officer of the II Corps, he was ...

; then

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

; then No.1) Avenue; Tarshish (former Bustrus; then No.2; now

David Raziel David Raziel (; 19 November 1910 – 20 May 1941) was a leader of the Zionist underground in British Mandatory Palestine and one of the founders of the Irgun. During World War II, Irgun entered a truce with the British so they could collabora ...

) Street; Eilat Street (former No.298); and Shalma Road (former No.310). The road passing between Florentin and

Neve Tzedek Neve Tzedek (, ''lit.'' Abode of Justice) is a Jewish neighborhood in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Judaism, Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the old city of the ancient port of Jaffa. It was founded by a group of 48 J ...

neighbourhoods was until 1948 named Tel Aviv Road, being the main thoroughfare between the two city centres. After the annexation of Florentin into Tel Aviv, it became an internal road in Tel Aviv, so its name no longer made sense. Thus the section lying within the new Tel Aviv boundaries was renamed into Jaffa Road; and the section which became the new Tel Aviv–Jaffa boundary, into Eilat Street. Salama Road, a main eastwards road from Jaffa towards the depopulated village of Salama, was renamed Shalma Road after the reconstructed Hebrew name of ''Capharsalama'' () which is mentioned in as the location of the battle of Caphar-salama. However, both names remain in use. Arabic street names were eventually replaced with Hebrew ones, e.g. Al-Kutub Street was renamed Resh Galuta Street, Abu Ubeyda Street was renamed She’erit Yisra’el Street, and Al-Salahi Street was renamed Olei Zion Street. This practice has been criticized by residents of affected Arabic neighborhoods, who deem the names inappropriate (for example, a street named after Rabbi

Simcha Bunim of Peshischa Simcha Bunim Bonhardt of Peshischa (, ; – 4 September 1827) also known as the Rebbe Reb Bunim was the second Grand Rabbi of Peshischa ( Przysucha, Poland) as well as one of the key leaders of Hasidic Judaism in Poland. The main disciple of ...

was called a "local laughingstock" by Tel Aviv-Jaffa city councillor Ahmed Belha; and a street where the Al Siksik Mosque is located was renamed

Beit Eshel Beit Eshel () was a Jewish settlement established in the Negev desert in Mandate Palestine in 1943 as one of the " three lookouts" in the northern Negev, alongside Revivim and Gvulot. It was located two kilometres southeast of Beersheba. Name A ...

Street, after a short-lived Jewish settlement in what is now

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

) and demand a return to Arabic names.

Urban development

From the 1990s onwards, efforts have been made to restore Arab and Islamic landmarks, such as the Mosque of the Sea and

, and document the history of Jaffa's Arab population. Parts of the Old City have been renovated, turning Jaffa into a tourist attraction featuring old restored buildings, art galleries, theaters, souvenir shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes and promenades. Many artists have moved their studios from Tel Aviv to the Old City and its surroundings, such as the Jaffa port, the American–Germany Colony and the flea market. Beyond the Old City and tourist sites, many neighborhoods of Jaffa are poor and underdeveloped. However, real-estate prices have risen sharply due to gentrification projects in Ajami, Noga, and Lev Yafo. The municipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo is currently working to beautify and modernize the port area.

Demography

Modern Jaffa has a

heterogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts relating to the uniformity of a substance, process or image. A homogeneous feature is uniform in composition or character (i.e., color, shape, size, weight, height, distribution, texture, language, i ...

population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. As of 2021, Jaffa has 52,470 residents, about a third of which are

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

Landmarks

The ''Clock Square'' with its distinctive clocktower was built in 1906 in honor of

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

. The ''Saraya'' (governor's palace) was built in the 1890s. ''Andromeda rock'' is the rock to which beautiful Andromeda was chained in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. The ''Zodiac alleys'' are a maze of restored alleys leading to the harbor. ''Jaffa Hill'' is a center for

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

finds, including restored Egyptian gates, about 3,500 years old. ''Jaffa Lighthouse'' is an inactive

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

located in the old port. The Jaffa Museum of Antiquities is located in an 18th-century Ottoman building constructed on the remains of a

Crusader Crusader or Crusaders may refer to: Military * Crusader, a participant in one of the Crusades * Convair NB-36H Crusader, an experimental nuclear-powered bomber * Crusader tank, a British cruiser tank of World War II * Crusaders (guerrilla), a C ...

fortress. In 1811, Abu Nabout turned it into his seat of government. In the late 19th century, the governmental moved to the "New Saraya," and the building was sold to a wealthy Greek-Orthodox family who established a soap factory there. Since 1961, it has housed an archaeological museum, which is currently closed to the general public. The Libyan Synagogue (''Beit Zunana'') was a synagogue built by a Jewish landlord, Zunana, in the 18th century. It was turned into a hotel and then a soap factory, and reopened as a synagogue for Libyan Jewish immigrants after 1948. In 1995, it became a museum. Other museums and galleries in the area include the Farkash Gallery collection.

Churches and monasteries

The

''Monastery of Archangel Michael'' ( Patriarchate of Jerusalem) near Jaffa Port also has

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and Russian communities in its compound. Built in 1894, the Church of St. Peter and St. Tabitha serves the Russian Orthodox Christian community, with services in Russian and Hebrew; underneath the chapel nearby there is what is believed to be the tomb of St Tabitha. St. Peter's Church is a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Roman-Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

basilica and hospice built in 1654 on the remains of a

fortress A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from L ...

, and commemorates

St Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

, as he brought the disciple

Tabitha Tabitha () is an English feminine given name, originating with (or made popular through) Tabitha ( Dorcas), mentioned in the New Testament Acts 9:36. In the Bible Tabitha, or Dorcas, the Greek equivalent of the name, is a woman mentioned in t ...

back from the dead;

is believed to have stayed there. Immanuel Church, built 1904, serves today a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

congregation with services in English and Hebrew. The Saint Nicholas Armenian Monastery was built in the 17th century.

Mosques

Al-Bahr Mosque, lit. the Sea Mosque, overlooking the harbour, is depicted in a painting from 1675 by the Dutch painter

Cornelis de Bruijn Cornelis de Bruijn or Cornelius de Bruyn (; 16521726/7), also formerly known in English by his French name Corneille Le Brun, was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of peop ...

. It may be Jaffa's oldest existing mosque. Built originally in 1675, changes to the structure have been made since then, such as the addition of a second floor and reconstruction of the upper part of the minaret. It was used by fishermen and sailors frequenting the port, and residents of the surrounding area. According to local legend, the wives of sailors living in Jaffa prayed there for the safe return of their husbands. The mosque was renovated in 1997. Mahmoudia Mosque was built in 1812 by Abu Nabbut, governor of Jaffa from 1810 to 1820. Outside the mosque is a water fountain (''sabil'') for pilgrims. Nouzha Mosque on Jerusalem Boulevard is Jaffa's main mosque today.

Archaeology

The majority of excavations in Jaffa are salvage in nature and have been conducted by the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA) since the 1990s. Excavations on Rabbi Pinchas Street, for example, in the flea market have revealed walls and water conduits dating to the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Early Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman periods. A limestone slab () engraved with a menorah discovered on Tanchum Street is believed to be the door of a tomb. Additional efforts to conduct research excavations at that site included those of B. J. Isserlin (1950),

Ze'ev Herzog Ze'ev Herzog (; born 1941) is an Israeli archeologist, professor of archaeology at The Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University specializing in social archaeology, ancient architecture and field archaeol ...

(1997–1999), and most recently the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (since 2007), directed by Aaron A. Burke (

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

) and Martin Peilstocker ( Johannes Gutenberg University). In December 2020, archaeologists from the IAA revealed a 3,800-year-old jar containing the badly preserved remains of a baby dates back to the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. "There's always the interpretation that the jar is almost like a womb, so basically the idea is to return hebaby back into Mother Earth, or into the symbolic protection of his mother", said archaeologist Alfredo Mederos Martin. Researchers also covered the remains of at least two horses and pottery dated to the late

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, 232

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by Mollusca, mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters ...

s, 30

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

coins, 95 glass vessel fragments from the Roman and

periods 14 fifth-century BCE rock-carved burials featuring lamps.

Education

Collège des Frères de Jaffa is a French international school. Tabeetha School in Jaffa was founded in 1863. It is owned by the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

. The school provides education in English to children from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds. Muzot () is an arts school in old Jaffa that caters to teenagers who haven't successfully integrated into traditional schools. It offers them a unique opportunity to combine artistic pursuits with academic studies leading to a matriculation certificate. The democratic school in Jaffa established in 2004 is based on the ideas of

democratic education Democratic education is a type of formal education that is organized democratically, so that students can manage their own learning and participate in the governance of their educational environment. Democratic education is often specifically ...

, catering students from 1st to 12th grade. The campus of the

Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo (, ''HaAkademit Tel Aviv Yaffo'') is a public college based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is authorized to grant its graduates bachelor's degrees (BA, BSc and BSN) and masters degrees (MA, MSc and MBA). History ...

is a public

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

, hosting more than 4500 Israeli and Arab students. The college's faculties include

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

economics and management Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses ...

information system An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, Information Processing and Management, store, and information distribution, distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, info ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

Local governance, politics

Administratively, Jaffa constitutes Borough 7 of the

Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality () is the arm of local government responsible for the administration of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality handles such municipal affairs as education, culture, social welfare, infrastructure, ...

, and is divided into four sub-boroughs and twelve neighborhoods. Compared to Tel Aviv-Yafo as a whole, votes for Arab parties are especially prevalent in Jaffa in national elections.

Haviv Rettig Gur Haviv Rettig Gur (; born April 4, 1981) is an Israeli journalist who serves as the political correspondent and senior analyst for ''The Times of Israel''. Early life Haviv Rettig (later Rettig Gur) was born in Jerusalem. His parents were Americ ...

The 20th Knesset — parliament of a splintered, tribal Israel
In the 2018 Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council election, the Yafa list, which represents the Arab population of Jaffa, received 28% of the vote in Jaffa, making it the most voted party there; the second place was taken by the

Hadash Hadash is a left-wing to far-left political coalition in Israel formed by the Israeli Communist Party and other leftist groups. History The party was formed on 15 March 1977 when the Rakah and Non-Partisans parliamentary group changed its ...

-affiliated We are the City list, with 14% of the vote. Among Jewish political parties, right-wing parties such as

Shas Shas () is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi religious List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardic Jews, Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until ...

and

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

perform better in Jaffa relative to the municipality-wide results, similarly to the working-class neighborhoods in southern Tel Aviv; in particular, Shas received 12% of the vote in Jaffa in the 2018 city council elections, making it the third-most voted for party in Jaffa.

Socioeconomic and political problems

Jaffa suffers from drug problems, high crime rates and violence. Some Arab residents have alleged that the Israeli authorities are attempting to Judaize Jaffa by evicting Arab residents from houses owned by the

Amidar ''Amidar'' is a video game developed by Konami and released in arcades in 1982 by Stern. The format is similar to that of ''Pac-Man'': the player moves around a fixed rectilinear lattice, attempting to visit each location on the board while av ...

government-operated public housing company. Amidar representatives say the residents are illegal squatters.

Transportation

Ottoman station, now leisure venue

Jaffa Railway Station was the first railway station in the Levant. It served as the terminus for the

Jaffa–Jerusalem railway The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway (also J & J) is a railway that connected Jaffa and Jerusalem. The line was built in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Ottoman Syria) by the French company ''Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusale ...

. The station opened in 1891 and closed in 1948. In 2005–09, the station was restored and converted into an entertainment and leisure venue marketed as "HaTachana", Hebrew for "the station".

Bus and tramway (light rail)

Jaffa is served by the

Dan Bus Company Dan Bus Company () is an Israeli bus company based in Tel Aviv. It operates local bus service in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area (Gush Dan). Dan operates 1,200 buses and has 2,400 employees. It transports approximately over 600,000 passengers d ...

, which operates buses to various neighborhoods of

and

. The Red Line of the

Tel Aviv Light Rail The Tel Aviv Light Rail (, Romanized: ''Ha'rakēvet Ha'kalā Be'Tel Avīv'', , Romanized: ''Qītar Tall ʾAbīb Al-khāfifa''), also known as Dankal (, ) is a mass transit system for Gush Dan, the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in central Israel. T ...

, inaugurated in 2023, crosses Jaffa north to south along Jerusalem Boulevard.

Railway

Of the current stations in the

Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. (, ''Rakevet Yisra'el'') is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of of track. All its lines are standar ...

network, the Holon Junction and Holon–Wolfson railway stations sit on the boundary between Jaffa and

, while Tel Aviv HaHagana is in Tel Aviv proper, slightly to the east of Jaffa.

In popular culture

Jaffa cakes Jaffa Cakes are a cake introduced by McVitie and Price in the UK in 1927 and named after Jaffa oranges. In their most common form, Jaffa cakes are circular, in diameter, and have three layers: a Genoise sponge base, a layer of orange-flavo ...

, a British

confection Confectionery is the art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two broad and somew ...

, are named after

s and are therefore indirectly a namesake of Jaffa. ''The Knight Of Jaffa'' is the second episode of the

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

story '' The Crusade'' (1965), set in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

during the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...

. The 1981 film '' Clash of the Titans'' is set in ancient Joppa. The 2009 Oscar-nominated film '' Ajami'' is set in modern Jaffa.

Notable residents

Asma Agbarieh Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka (, ; born 1973) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Israeli Arab journalist and political activist who heads the Organization for Democratic Action (Da'am) party. She is the only Israeli Arab woman to head a political party. Bio ...

(born 1974), Israeli Arab journalist and political activist * Hanan Al-Agha (1948–2008), Palestinian plastic artist *

Shmuel Yosef Agnon Shmuel Yosef Agnon (; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the pseudonym Shai A ...

(1888–1970), Nobel Prize-winning author * Dahn Ben-Amotz (1924–1989), radio broadcaster and author *

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963; born Izaak Shimshelevich) was a historian, ethnologist, Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving president of Israel. He was 1952 Israeli presidential elec ...

(1884–1963), historian, Labor Zionist leader, and President of Israel *

Benny Hinn Toufik Benedictus "Benny" Hinn (born 3 December 1952) is an Israeli-born Palestinian-American-Canadian televangelist, best known for his regular "Miracle Crusades"— revival meeting or faith healing summits that are usually held in stadiums i ...

(born 1953), TV evangelist and preacher * Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche (1870–1934), one of the founders of Tel Aviv; businessman * Joseph Constant (1892–1969), sculptor and writer *

George Deek George Deek (, ; born ) is an Israeli diplomat. In 2018, Deek was appointed Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan. He is the first Israeli Arab Christian to become an ambassador. Childhood, education, and family background Deek grew up in an Eastern ...

(born 1984), Israeli Arab diplomat *

Ismail al-Faruqi Ismaʿil Raji al-Faruqi (, ; January 1, 1921 – May 27, 1986) was a Palestinian-American Muslim philosopher and scholar of religion. He contributed significantly to Islamic studies, ethics, and interfaith dialogue, and is best known for pio ...

(1921–1986), Palestinian-American philosopher *

Lea Gottlieb Lea Gottlieb (; 17 September 1918 – 17 November 2012) was an Israeli fashion designer and businesswoman. She aliyah, immigrated to Israel from Hungary after World War II, and founded the Gottex company. Biography Lea Lenke Roth was born in Sa ...

(1918–2012), Israeli founder and fashion designer of

Gottex Gottex is an Israeli goods designer swimwear manufacturer based in Tel Aviv. History Gottex was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1956 by Lea Gottlieb, who headed the design team until 1998. She adapted her expertise as a raincoat manufacture ...

* Ibtisam Mara'ana (born 1975), Arab-Israeli filmmaker and member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

* Victor Norris Hamilton (born ), Palestinian-born American cryptologist * J. E. Hanauer (1850–1938), author, photographer, and Canon of St George's Church * Hilmi Hanoun (1913–2001), writer and politician * Yizhar Harari (1908–1978), Zionist activist and Israeli politician *

Haim Hazan Haim Hazan (; born 1947) is a professor of sociology and social anthropology at Tel Aviv University in Israel. His research focuses on old age as a social phenomenon. He is also an active partner at the Herzog Institute for the Study of Aging and ...

(1937–1994), Israeli basketball player * Zeev Hershkowitz, former Israeli footballer *

Nadia Hilou Nadia Hilou (, ‎; 5 July 1953 – 27 February 2015) was an Arab-Israeli social worker and politician, who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 2006 and 2009. She was the second female Israeli Arab MK after Hussniya ...

(1953–2015), Arab-Israeli politician * Pinhas Hozez (born 1957), Israeli basketball player * Issa El-Issa (1878–1950), Palestinian journalist * Daoud El-Issa (1903–1983), Palestinian journalist * Yousef El-Issa (1870–1948), Palestinian journalist * Raja El-Issa (1922–2008), Palestinian journalist *

Michel Loève Michel Loève (; January 22, 1907 – February 17, 1979) was a French-American probability theory, probabilist and mathematical statistics, mathematical statistician, of Jewish origin. He is known in mathematical statistics and probability theory ...

(1907–1979), probabilist and mathematical statistician *

Haim Ramon Haim Ramon (; born 10 April 1950) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1983 and 2009, and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy. Biography ...

(born 1950), Israeli politician *

Sasha Roiz Sasha Roiz (; born October 21, 1973) is a Canadian actor known for his portrayals of Sam Adama in the science-fiction TV series '' Caprica'' and Captain Sean Renard in the American fantasy TV series '' Grimm''. Early life Roiz was born in Tel ...

(born 1973), Canadian actor * Yoav Saffar (born 1975), Israeli basketball player * Yosef Sapir (1902–1972), Israeli politician * Haim Starkman (born 1944), Israeli basketball player *

Rifaat Turk Rifaat "Jimmy" Turk (; , nicknamed Jimmy the Rocket,"Rifaat Turk,"
Olympedia/ born 16 September 1954) is ...

(born 1954), Arab-Israeli football player and manager, and deputy mayor of Tel Aviv

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* Jaffa in 1880, SWP Map 13
IAA
/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.13.jpg Wikimedia commonsCoordinates: East longitude, 34.45; North latitude, 32.3 * * * * * * * * * (no plugin needed) *
Plan of Jaffa, 1:6,000
1918. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, The National Library of Israel. {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Israel Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv Mediterranean port cities and towns in Israel Bronze Age sites in Israel Iron Age sites in Israel Mixed Israeli communities Arab Christian communities in Israel Ioppe Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea 15th-century BC establishments Phoenician cities

Etymology

History

Middle Bronze

Late Bronze

Iron Age

Iron II

=Assyrian period

Classical antiquity

Late antiquity

Middle Ages

Early Islamic period

Crusader/Ayyubid period

Mamluk period

Ottoman period

16th-18th centuries

Napoleon (1799)

19th century

1900–1914

Late Ottoman-period economy

Late Ottoman agriculture; Jaffa oranges

First World War

British Mandate

1920s: conflict and development

1930s: Arab revolt (1936–39)

1940-47: WWII; frictions

1948 war

State of Israel

Gradual annexation into Tel Aviv

Urban development

Demography

Landmarks

Churches and monasteries

Mosques

Archaeology

Education

Local governance, politics

Socioeconomic and political problems

Transportation

Ottoman station, now leisure venue

Bus and tramway (light rail)

Railway

In popular culture

Notable residents

See also

References

Bibliography

External links