TEL AVIVYAFO

also spelled Tel Avivjaffa, or Joppa, Arabic Yafa, also called Tel Aviv city of Israel that lies on the Mediterranean coast and is the hub of the nation's largest urban centre. It was formed in 1950 by the incorporation of the ancient port of Jaffa, or Yafo, with its former suburb, Tel Aviv. Jaffa was an old Canaanite city that was taken by Thuti, general of Thutmose III of Egypt, in the 15th century BC and became a provincial capital during the Egyptian New Kingdom. In the Old Testament the city is assigned to the tribe of Dan, but the Philistines early controlled it. The Israelite kings David and Solomon occupied it, the latter using it as the port for landing Lebanon timber floated down the coast from Tyre. In 701 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib captured Jaffa, then belonging to Ascalon. Later it was ruled by the Persians, but by about 350 BC it is recorded as independent. After Alexander the Great's conquest, the Ptolemies held it. In Maccabaean times the Syrians garrisoned the city, but the Israelite Jonathan captured it in 148 BC; Simon recaptured it, installed a garrison, and completed the harbour. In AD 68 the Roman emperor Vespasian captured it on his way to Jerusalem; by that time the superior artificial harbour and port city of Caesarea to the north was already bringing decline to Jaffa, an inadequate port. In Christian times it became the see of a bishop. The crusaders captured it (1126) but lost it to Saladin (1187). It was recaptured by Richard I of England (1191) and finally lost in 1196. Jaffa was razed and its harbour choked by the Mamluks of Egypt in 1345 because of a threatened new Crusade. Toward the end of the 17th century it began to develop again as a seaport. Although Jaffa has a long history, Tel Aviv is a comparatively new city, founded in 1909 when the Jewish quarter of Jaffa had become overcrowded from an influx of immigrants. The Zionist founders of Tel Aviv set out to build a European-style suburb, with straight, wide streets, parks, and modern urban facilities and services. Tel Aviv was named for Theodor Herzl's novel Altneuland (1902), which was translated into Hebrew as Tel Aviv (tel, hill; aviv, spring; hence Hill of Spring). During World War I the population of Tel Aviv, as well as the Jewish population of Jaffa, was expelled northward by the Turkish military authorities; only several months after Jaffa and Tel Aviv were taken by the British, on Nov. 10, 1917, did many of the residents return to their homes. Renewed growth began in 1920, with the wave of Jewish immigration that followed the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of the British mandate over Palestine (192348). Tel Aviv was separated from Jaffa and granted the status of a town in 1921, following anti-Jewish riots in Jaffa. By 1926 Tel Aviv's population had reached 38,000, and the town had become a thriving business centre. Its growth gathered momentum in the early 1930s, after the Nazis rose to power in Germany, and a substantial part of the flood of immigrants that sought refuge in British Palestine settled in and around the town. By 1936 its population had risen to 130,000, making Tel Aviv the largest and most important city in Palestine. When Jaffa surrendered to Jewish military forces during the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948, almost its entire Arab population of 65,000 fled, and Jewish immigrants took over a virtually empty city. The years following the birth of the State of Israel (1948) led to another growth explosion in Tel Aviv, and with the incorporation of Jaffa in 1950, the united city became known officially as Tel AvivYafo. It has since become the nation's main business, communications, and cultural centre. The urban area of which it is the centre contains some two million people, or about a third of the entire Israeli population. Modern Tel AvivYafo is a long, narrow city fronting the Mediterranean for about 6 miles (10 km) along the south-central part of the Israeli coastline. The city is built over three low ridges of sandstone hills that run roughly parallel to the coast. These ridges have decisively influenced the city's layout, with long main streets running north-south in the shallow troughs between ridges and short east-west streets crossing gaps in the ridges. The central business district, which is the economic heart of Israel, occupies the older part of Tel Aviv, while to the south and east lies the main manufacturing district. Most government offices lie northeast of the business centre. Farther to the east and south, Tel Aviv blends into a continuous built-up area that includes the substantial suburbs of Ramat Gan, Giv'atayim, Bat Yam, and Holon. More than half of Israel's industrial plants are found in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The main industries are textile and clothing, food and tobacco, metal and engineering, vehicles and transport equipment, diamond polishing, furniture and wood products, printing and publishing, and electric and electronic instruments and equipment. Israel's only stock exchange is located in Tel Aviv, and virtually all the banks, insurance companies, and other enterprises operating in Israel locate their main offices in the city. Most of Israel's newspapers, periodicals, and books are published in Tel Aviv. The city is also the main centre of Israel's important tourist industry and has many hotels. Herzliyya, a seaside resort just north of Tel Aviv, is the only other tourist centre of the region. Road transport is dominant in Israel, and Tel Aviv is the main national route focus and the headquarters of all major bus and truck companies. There are two small railway stations, in the north for Haifa-bound trains and in the southeast for Jerusalem and Beersheba. Lod (Lydda) airport, 9 miles (14 km) to the southeast, serves the city's international air traffic. The port of Jaffa was the country's second largest before it was shut down in 1965, on the inauguration of the modern port at Ashdod, which lies 19 miles (31 km) south of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv Universityincorporating the three leading regional hospitals for teaching purposeswas founded in 1953 and inaugurated in 1956. The Bar-Ilan University, a religious university in Ramat Gan, was founded in 1953. Tel Aviv also has several rabbinical and theological institutes (yeshivas), but the main concentration of such schools is in the outlying suburb of Bene Beraq, to which students are drawn from Jewish communities in all parts of the world. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has its home in Tel Aviv, as do the Chamber Ensemble, Israel's two leading choirs (Rinat and Zadikov), the Israeli Opera, and nearly all of Israel's dozen or so theatres, including the Habima National Theatre and the Cameri Theatre, the country's most popular. Pop. (1994 est.) 357,400.