Old Jaffa ( he, יפו העתיקה afa ha'atiká– Ancient Yafo; ar, يافا العتيقه afa al.ʿatīqa– Ancient Jaffa or afa al.qadīma– Old Jaffa ) is a neighborhood of

Tel Aviv-Yafo Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and the oldest part of Jaffa. A neighborhood with art galleries, restaurants, theaters, museums, and nightclubs, it is one of Tel Aviv's main tourist attractions. Jaffa is the southwest district of the

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

–Jaffa municipality. Old Jaffa is located in the northwest of Jaffa, on a hill along the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. Geologically, the hill of Old Jaffa is the continental north end of a

kurkar Kurkar ( ar, كركار / he, כורכר) is the term used in Palestinian Arabic and modern Hebrew for the rock type of which lithified sea sand dunes consist. The equivalent term used in Lebanon is ramleh.[Aharon Horowitz. ''The Quaternary of ...

ridge, historically further protected through fortifications and heightened by debris.

History

Ottoman Empire

The Old City was damaged by the Napoleonic wars and an earthquake in 1837. When the wall of Jaffa was dismantled between 1878 and 1888 to allow expansion, both the city and the centres of government shifted eastwards, though the Old City remained the cultural centre of the city. During the nineteenth century, the Christian population, especially the Greek Orthodox community, grew rapidly and dramatically in the Old Jaffa, and they formed the wealthy

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

and the educated class in the city, and emerged as a major force in the increasingly

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Co ...

trade of

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

British Mandate

During the Great Revolt in 1936–1939, the connection between Tel Aviv and the Jaffa port was partially severed by disruption in the Old City. This had two primary effects: the British retaliated using massive

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 saltpe ...

charges to destroy at least 220 buildings, which left over 6000 Arabs homeless,Hughes, M. (2009
The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–39
''English Historical Review'' Vol. CXXIV No. 507, pp. 314–354. and encouraged the building of a small Jewish port on the Yarkon estuary to the north of Tel Aviv to reduce reliance on Arab Jaffa.

Israel

Disputes about the merging of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with the former wanting only to add the Jewish neighborhoods in the north of Jaffa and the latter wanting a total merge led to a gradual unification.Arnon Golan (1995), The demarcation of Tel Aviv-Jaffa's municipal boundaries, ''Planning Perspectives'', vol. 10, pp. 383–398. The Old City was partly added on 18 May 1949 as part of the first Arab-controlled land to fall under Jewish control. The remainder of the Old City would be added in 24 April 1950 when the complete unification occurred. Old Jaffa has increasingly gentrified with the residential population dropping dramatically and an increasing number of art galleries, restaurants, souvenir shops as well as various ongoing archaeological digs. According to Historian Menachem Klein, 70% of structures in old Jaffa have been destroyed between 1960 and 1985, with much of the old city being covered by ''Pisga Park''.Roth-Rowland, Natasha. “Wiping Palestinian History off the Map in Jaffa.” +972 Magazine, June 5, 2016
Link
There is a particular interest on the cultural melange by the relatively rare, in Israel, triple mix of

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

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and Christian.

Boundaries

Current boundaries of the "Old Jaffa and Jaffa Port" neighborhood, as defined by the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo (clockwise): * North: north and east of Jaffa Beach, Retzif HaAliya HaShniya * East: northbound lanes of David Raziel (putting the

Jaffa Clock Tower The Jaffa Clock Tower ( he, מגדל השעון יפו, ''Migdal haShaon Yafo'', ar, يافا برج الساعة, tr, Yafa Saat Kulesi) stands in the middle of the north end of Yefet Street in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. The tower, built of limestone, i ...

in Old Jaffa), Yefet Street * South: Yehuda HaYamit, Namal Yafo Street, the southern wall of the Jaffa Port parking lot * West: the

shore

Attractions

* Subregions: Jaffa Port in the west and Yefet Street on its eastern border * Museums, galleries and studios: Farkash Gallery, Uri Geller Museum, Ilana Goor Museum,

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

Itay Noy, Ilan Adar * Places of worship: Al-Bahr Mosque, Libyan Synagogue, Mahmoudiya Mosque, Saint Nicholas Monastery, St. Peter's Church * Theaters: The Arab-Hebrew Theater, Hasimta Theater,

Nalaga'at ''Na Laga'at'' (in English, Please Touch) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Adina Tal and Eran Gur around the first of its kind in the world ensemble whose actors are all deafblind (double disability). The organization establishe ...

* Towers:

, Jaffa Light Immediately outside Old Jaffa: Abouelafia Bakery, Abu Hassan Restaurant

References

{{Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv 4th-century BC establishments Ancient cities of the Middle East Arab localities in Israel Arab Christian communities in Israel Jaffa