Yafo

 

(jăf'ə, yä'fä) , Heb. Yafo, part of Tel Aviv, W central Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. Originally a Phoenician city, Jaffa has been historically important largely because of its port (which was closed in 1965, when the port of Ashdod was completed). It was captured by Egypt in 1472 B.C. and made a provincial capital. In 701 B.C. the city was besieged by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. It was often held by Philistia, and not until after the Captivity in Babylon (6th cent. B.C.) did it become Hebrew territory. Alexander the Great took Jaffa in the late 4th cent. B.C. The city changed hands frequently in the fighting between the Maccabees and the Syrians (2d and 1st cent. B.C.) and was destroyed by Vespasian in A.D. 68. The rebuilt city of Jaffa was conquered by the Arabs in 636. The Crusaders took it in 1126, Saladin recaptured it in 1187, and Richard I retook the city in 1191. In 1196 the Arabs again captured Jaffa, and in the 16th cent. the city, then in decline, was annexed by the Ottoman Empire. In the late 17th cent. Jaffa began to develop again as a seaport. It was captured by Napoleon in 1799. In World War I British troops took Jaffa, which became part of the British-administered Palestine mandate (1922–48). In 1947 and 1948 there was sharp fighting between Jaffa, which was largely inhabited by Arabs, and the adjoining Jewish city of Tel Aviv. On the day (May 14, 1948) that the state of Israel was proclaimed, the Arabs in Jaffa surrendered and were joined with Jews in a religiously mixed city. Jaffa has an old fishing harbor, modern boat docks, and a tourism center. The city is noted for its export of oranges. The usual Bible spelling is Joppa.

Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ, Yafo Arabic: يَافَا  Yāfā?; also Japho, Joppa; also, per c.1350 BCE Amarna Letters, Yapu) is an ancient port city located south of Tel Aviv, Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. Today it is a neighborhood of the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo.

It is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, as one of the cities given to the Tribe of Dan (Book of Joshua 19:46), as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for Solomon's Temple (2 Chronicles 2:16), as the place whence the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish (Book of Jonah 1:3) and as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for the Second Temple of Jerusalem (Book of Ezra 3:7). It was also an important city in the Arab Middle East. During the Crusades, it was the County of Jaffa, a stronghold of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. ^[1]

History

Name sources

Jaffa (or Yafo) is one of the most ancient port cities in the world. Some claim that Jaffa was named after Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah, who built it after the Great Flood. A Hebrew etymology indicates that the city is called Jaffa because of its beauty (yofi in Hebrew). The Hellenist tradition links the name to "Iopeia", which is Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda. However, the Hellenist accounting for the name dates from hundreds of years after the original naming. ^{[citation needed]}

Ancient period

The ancient site of Jaffa is Tel Yafo, or "Jaffa Hill," which rises to a height of 40 meters (130 feet) and offers a commanding view of the coastline. Hence its strategic importance in military history. At the foot of the hill were springs of fresh water. The accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries made the hill even higher.

Jaffa's natural harbor has been in use since the Bronze Age. It is mentioned in an Ancient Egyptian letter from 1470 BCE, glorifying its conquest by Pharaoh Thutmose III, who hid armed warriors in large baskets and gave the baskets as a present to the Canaanite city's governor. The city is also mentioned in the Amarna letters under its Egyptian name Ya-Pho, ( Ya-Pu, EA 296, l.33). In 1991, a replica of the Egyptian gate lintels, bearing the titles of Pharaoh Ramesses II, was re-erected on its original site. The city was under Egyptian rule until around 800 BCE.

Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as the territorial border of the Tribe of Dan, hence the term "Gush Dan", used today for the coastal plain. Many descendants of Dan lived along the coast and earned their living from shipmaking and sailing. In the "Song of Deborah" the prophetess asks: "דן למה יגור אוניות": "Why doth Dan dwell in ships?" ^{[citation needed] [2]}

King David and his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa and used its port to bring the cedars used in the construction of the First Temple from Tyre. The city remained in Jewish hands even after the split of the Kingdom of Israel. In 701 BCE, in the days of King Hezekiah (חזקיהו), Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded the region from Jaffa.

Jaffa was a Seleucid port until it was taken over by the Maccabean rebels (1 Maccabees x.76, xiv.5). In the Roman suppression of the Jewish Revolt, Jaffa was captured and burned by Cestius Gallus. The Roman Jewish historian Josephus writes that eight thousand inhabitants were massacred. Pirates operating from the rebuilt port incurred the wrath of Vespasian, who razed the city and erected a citadel in its place, installing a Roman garrison there.

The New Testament account of St. Peter's resurrection of the widow Tabitha, (Dorcas) (Acts, ix, 36-42) takes place in Jaffa. St. Peter later had a vision in which God told him not to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles or between kosher and non-kosher (Acts, x, 10-16). This vision heralded a major ideological split between Judaism and Christianity. A painting in St. Peter's, a Roman Catholic church in Jaffa, depicts this event.

Medieval period

Unimportant during the first centuries of Christianity, Jaffa did not have a bishop until the fifth century CE. In 636 Jaffa was conquered by Arabs. Under Islamic rule, it served as a port of Ramla, then the provincial capital.

Jaffa was captured during the Crusades, and became the County of Jaffa and Ascalon, one of the vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. One of its counts, John of Ibelin, wrote the principal book of the Assizes of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. During the period of the Crusades, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela (1170) sojourned at Jaffa, and found there just one Jew, a dyer by trade. Saladin took it in 1187. The city surrendered to King Richard the Lionheart on September 10, 1191, three days after the Battle of Arsuf. Despite efforts by Saladin to reoccupy the city in July 1192 (see Battle of Jaffa) the city remained in the hands of the Crusaders, and on 2nd September 1192 the Treaty of Jaffa was formally sworn, guaranteeing a three year truce between the two armies. In 1268 Jaffa was conquered by Egyptian mamluks, led by Baibars. In 14th century they completely destroyed the city for fear of new crusades. According to the traveler Cotwyk, Jaffa was a heap of ruins at the end of the 16th century.

The Ottoman period

On March 7, 1799 Napoleon I of France captured Jaffa and his troops proceeded to kill more than two thousand Albanian captives.

Jaffa was well known for its cash crops such as citrus and bananas. Until the establishment of Tel Aviv and the era of the Mandate for Palestine, Jaffa had the most advanced commercial, banking, fishing, and agriculture industries in Palestine. It had many factories specializing in cigarette making, cement making, tile and roof tile production, iron casting, cotton processing plants, traditional handmade carpets, leather products, wood boxes for Jaffa oranges, textiles, presses and publications. The majority of all publications and newspapers in Palestine were published in Jaffa.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the population of Jaffa had swelled considerably and new suburbs were built on the sand dunes along the coast. By 1909, the new Jewish suburbs north of Jaffa were reorganized as the city of Tel Aviv.

In 1904 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1864-1935) moved to Palestine and took up the position of chief rabbi of Jaffa:

In 1904, he came to the Land of Israel to assume the rabbinical post in Jaffa, which also included responsibility for the new secular Zionist agricultural settlements nearby. His influence on people in different walks of life was already noticeable, as he attempted to introduce Torah and Halakha into the life of the city and the settlements.^[3]

In 1917, the Ottomans banished all of Jaffa's residents as they feared the British army would occupy the city. The British did indeed occupy the city (see Sinai and Palestine Campaign), but let its residents return after a year.

Under the British mandate

During 1917-1920, there were thousands of Jewish residents in Jaffa. A wave of Arab pogrom attacks during 1920 and 1921 caused many Jewish residents to flee and resettle in Tel Aviv. The 1921 riots (known as the Meoraot Tarpa by the Jews) began with a May Day parade that turned violent. The Arab rioters attacked Jewish people and buildings, including the residents of "The House of Immigrants" and the Jewish author Yosef Haim Brenner.

In 1921 Rabbi Kook moved to Jerusalem when he was appointed as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and is still regarded as Israel's first chief rabbi as well.

At the end of 1922 Jaffa had 32,000 residents while Tel Aviv had 15,000. However, in 1927, Tel Aviv had 38,000 residents. The Jews of Jaffa lived on the outskirts of Jaffa, close to Tel Aviv. The old city of Jaffa, which was controlled by the Arabs, was almost empty of Jews. During the 1930s both cities had a combined population of 80,000 residents. In 1945, Arabs planted 146,316 dunams (146 km²) of citrus, and Jews planted 66,403 dunams (66 km²).

The 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, also known as the Great Arab uprising, inflicted great economic and infrastructural damage on Jaffa. Urban warfare between the British forces and Arab resistance destroyed many of the city's narrow alleys. The British demolished many houses belonging to Arab resistance. Jewish and British citizens moved their businesses out of Jaffa. As a reaction to the strike of the Arab seaport workers, the Jews built a modern seaport in Tel Aviv, which resulted in decreased income for Jaffa's Arab seaport.

In 1945 Jaffa had a population of 101,580; of whome 53,930 were Muslims, 30,820 were Jews and 16,800 were Christians.^[4] The Christians were mostly Greek-Orthodox with about one sixth of them being Greek-Catholic. One of the most prominent members of the Arab Christian community was the Arab Orthodox publisher of Filastin, Daoud Isa.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the UN's Special Commission on Palestine in 1947 recommended that Jaffa become part of the planned Jewish state. Due to the large Arab majority, however, it was instead designated as an Arab enclave in the Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan.

The Arabs rejected the plan and on 30 November, 1947, the day following the adoption of the UN resolution, seven Jews were killed by Arabs in Palestine in three separate incidents: at 8 o'clock in the morning, in what came to be seen as the opening shots of the 1948 War,^[5] three Arabs attacked a bus from Netanya to Jerusalem, killing five Jewish passengers. Half an hour later a second bus attack left a Jewish passenger dead. Later in the day a twenty-five-year old Jewish man was shot dead in Jaffa,^[6] where there were alleged attacks on Arabs by Jews.^[7] In Jerusalem, the Arab Higher Committee called a three-day general strike from Tuesday, December 2 to be followed by mass demonstrations after Friday prayers.

From the beginning of the strike onwards, Arab and Jewish clashes escalated and by December 11 the Jerusalem correspondent of The Times estimated that at least 130 people had died, "about 70 of them being Jews, 50 Arabs, and among the rest three British soldiers and one British policeman". ^[8]

On April 25, 1948, Irgun launched an offensive on Jaffa, then the largest Arab city in Palestine, during which many of its Arab residents fled through the harbor. Haganah units took the city on May 14. From a population of about 70,000-80,000 Arabs, only about 4,100 did not flee.^[9] To commemorate the Jewish soldiers who died in the battle for Jaffa, the "Conquest Garden" was planted in the city.

Modern Jaffa

In the years following the end of Israel's War of Independence, there was a massive influx of Jewish immigrants from Bulgaria, Morocco, Romania, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and other countries, who were settled all over Israel, Jaffa included. Severely damaged during Arab uprising and the 1948 War, Jaffa's Al Ajami neighborhood slowly turned into a slum. Jaffa in those days had the reputation of a "crime city".

In 1954, Jaffa became integral part of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and since then both cities are known as Tel Aviv-Yafo. Currently, Jaffa's Old City neighborhood is being renovated, and is inhabited mostly by artists and other gentrifying elements.

Modern Jaffa has a heterogeneous population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Jaffa's Arab population now numbers around 10,000 people. Jaffa is a major tourist attraction with an exciting combination of ancient, new and restored architecture. It offers art galleries, theaters, souvenir shops, exclusive restaurants, sidewalk cafes, boardwalks and shopping opportunities and a rich variety of culture, entertainment and food.

Jaffa beyond the Old City

Beyond the Old City and other tourist sites, much of Jaffa, including the districts of Al Ajami, Yafo Gimmel, Yafo Daled, Neve Ofer and Lev Yafo, have become a poor district of Tel Aviv despite the town's 5000 year old history. There have been some attempts at gentrification in Al Ajami and Lev Yafo. However, as a result of the gentrification in Al Ajami, for example, housing prices soared to the extent that young families are unable to afford housing there.

The public education system for Arabic speaking children has a 53% dropout rate, and a significant proportion of those who finish high school do so without a matriculation certificate (bagrut), with some being unable to read and write. The Hebrew-speaking public educational system is not much better, and as a result, parents who can afford to, send their children to schools in Tel Aviv or to private Christian schools. Having said this, things are beginning to change and some better new schools have been established, such as The Democratic School, a private, Jewish school, and the Jaffa School, an Arabic speaking school run by Jaffa's Al-rabita.

It is reported that Jaffa's Arab population experiences severe problems when looking for jobs, and those who do gain qualification are often discriminated against. As a result, unemployment and poverty rates soar and many Arab residents of Jaffa are dependent on welfare. Jaffa is also characterised by severe drug problems, high crime rates and very high rates of 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 government-operated public housing company. Amidar representatives claim that the residents are invaders who are illegally squatting in those houses.^[10]

Jaffa's Jewish population includes the "old timers", mostly the second generation of the immigrants settled in Jaffa during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as some very wealthy newcomers who bought and renovated old houses. Others, in Yafo Gimmel, Daled and Neve Ofer, are more recent immigrants, mostly from the former Soviet Union, some of whom do live in poor quality, cramped public housing.

Some members of both the Palestinian and Jewish communities in Jaffa have argued that the Palestinian past of the "Bride of the Sea" has been blurred by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality. In the early 1950s, almost all Palestinian street names were replaced by Jewish ones. From the 1990s onwards, however, efforts have been made to renew Arab and Islamic monuments (such as the Mosque of the Sea and Hassan Bek Mosque) and document the history of Jaffa's Arab population.

Places to see

• The Clock Square, built in 1906 in honor of Sultan Abdul Hamid II's 25th anniversary, became the center of Jaffa, and it is centered between Jaffa's markets.
• The Abulafia bakery in Yeffet Street (the main street of Jaffa) is a famous bakery and a symbol of Jewish-Arab coexistence.
• Mahamoudia Mosque which was built by Abu Nabut (the city governor during the 19th century) and includes a public water fountain (Sabil) for pilgrims.
• St. Peter's Church, a Franciscan church, built in the 19th century on the remains of Crusaders' fortress, which serves also as a hostel. It is said that Napoleon stayed in that church while it was a hostel.
• St. Michael and St. Tabitha Church, a Greek Orthodox Monastery, restored in 1994. St. Michael church serving Romanian immigrants, and St. Tabitha chapel serving Russian immigrants, in Russian and Hebrew.
• Russian St. Peter Monastery, built in 1895, at the site where St. Peter resurrected St. Tabitha. Inside the monastery is the site of the house where St. Tabitha lived with her family.
• The Andromeda rock, according to legends this was the rock to which beautiful Andromeda was chained.
• The Zodiac alleys, a network of restored alleys filled with art galleries, leading to the Jaffa seaport.
• Jaffa's Old Seaport.
• Jaffa's Hill, a center for archaeological excavations of the ancient cities. The most ancient are the Ancient Egyptian gates, about 3,500 years old, which have been restored.
• The Libyan Synagogue called Beit Zunana was purchased by the Jewish landlord Zunana in the 18th century. During the 19th century it stopped being used as a synagogue and became a hostel and later a soap factory. In 1948 it was re-established as a synagogue for Libyan Jewish immigrants, and in 1995 it became a museum.
• Nouzha Mosque, on Jerusalem Boulevard, today's Jaffa's main mosque.
• Al Ajami Mosque, a fairly new and popular mosque in south Ajami, on HaBaal Shemtov Street.
• Abou ElNabut and the sculpture garden. An ancient sabil (drinking place) constructed by Abu ElNabut for visitors on their way to Jaffa.
• Al Ajami or "Aliyah" beach, Jaffa's lovely beach, located in south Al Ajami.
• The Arab Jewish Community Center, on Toulouse Street.
• The Women's Court, a public space for Jaffa's women and girls (women only), on 220 Yefet Street.
• The Seraya Theatre, the Arabic Hebrew theatre in Jaffa's old city, located in the "old" Seraya Building, once part of the Dajani soap factory.

Sister city

• Bonn in Germany

See also

• Tel Aviv
• Jewish navy

Footnotes

1. ^ Lily Galili; Ori Nir (Spring, 2001). "Jaffa: City of Strangers". Journal of Palestine Studies 30 (3): 100-102. Hebrew Press. 
2. ^ Judges 5:17
3. ^ Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish Virtual Library.
4. ^ Supplement to a Survey of Palestine (p. 12-13) which was prepared by the British Mandate for the United Nations in 1946-7
5. ^ Benevisti, 2002, p. 101.
6. ^ Gilbert, 1998, p. 155.
7. ^ '7 Jews Murdered', The Palestine Post, 1 December, 1947, p. 1.
8. ^ 'Fighting in Jerusalem', The Times, 12 December, 1947, p. 4; Issue 50942; col E.
9. ^ Morris, 2003, pp. 211-221.
10. ^ Protesters rally in Jaffa against move to evict local Arab families 28/4/07, Haaretz

References

• Pappe, Ilan (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, pp. 204–216. ISBN 978-1-85168-467-0
• Benvenisti, Meron (2002). Sacred Landscape. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23422-7
• Gilbert, Martin (1998). Israel: A History. Black Swan. ISBN 0-552-99545-2
• Moran, William (1987,1992)The Amarna Letters. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Morris, Benny (1987). The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7
• Nakhleh, Issa (1991). Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem. (2 vols.). New York: Intercontinental Books.
• Palumbo, Michael (1987). The Palestinian Catastrophe: The 1948 Expulsion of a People from their Homeland. Boston: Faber and Faber.
• Quigley, John (1990). Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.
• Segev, Tom. (1986). The First Israelis. New York: The Free Press.
• Silver, Eric (1984). Begin: The Haunted Prophet. New York: Random House.
• Levine, Mark (2005). Overthrowing Geography, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880 - 1948, Berkeley, University of California Press.
• Yahav, Dan (2005). Yafo, Kalat Hayam, Me'ir Rasha leShunot Oni, Degem Le'ishivionut Merhavi, Israel, Tamouz.
• Chelouche, Yosef Eliyahu (1931). Parashat Hayai [1870-1930] (Reminiscences of My Life [1870-1930]), Tel Aviv, Babel, 2005.
• Rotbard, Sharon (2005). Ir Levana, Ir Shehora (White City, Black City), Tel Aviv, Babel.
• Hanafi, Sari (2001). "Here and There : Towards an Analysis of the Relationship between the Palestinian Diaspora and the Center" 1st ed. Institute of Jerusalem Studies and Muwatin -The Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy

• LeBor, Adam (2006) "City of Oranges, Arabs and Jews in Jaffa", Bloomsbury, London

External Links

• Tel-Aviv/Yafo Municipality (English) (Hebrew)
• The Old Jaffa Development Corporation (English)
• The Old Jaffa Photographs in Cafetorah.com (English)
• Tel Aviv 4 Fun - A guide to Tel Aviv and Jaffa from the point of view of a local (English)
• Arab Jaffa seized before Israel's creation in 1948. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Jaffa
• Sites & businesses in tel aviv-jaffa (English)
• Schaalje, Jacqueline. "Jaffa", The Jewish Magazine, May 2001.
• Travel photos of Old Jaffa and its port
• World Cities Images. Jaffa
• Jaffa's world famous Abulafia bakery

Coordinates: 32°02′N, 34°45′E

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