114-461: Majdal (Arabic: مجدل , meaning "tower") may refer to: Israel and Palestine [ edit ] al-Majdal or al-Majdal Asqalan , a Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, now part of Ashkelon in Israel al-Majdal, Tiberias , a Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, now in Israel, thought to be the site of ancient Magdala Khirbat al-Majdal ,
228-424: A Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa), and enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year. Most precipitation falls in the form of rain between the months of October and April, with intervening dry summers, and there is almost no rainfall from June to September. The average annual temperature is 20.9 °C (69.6 °F), and the average sea temperature is 18–20 °C (64–68 °F) during
342-467: A Shi'a Ismaili sect based in India, were used to construct a small marble prayer platform, which is visited by Shi'ite pilgrims from India and Pakistan. A domed structure housing the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Awad sits atop a hill overlooking Ashkelon's northern beaches. Ashkelon Khan and Museum contains archaeological finds, among them a replica of Ashkelon's Canaanite silver calf, whose discovery
456-661: A secular , liberal-minded center with a vibrant nightlife and café culture. Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N 34°48′E / 32.083°N 34.800°E / 32.083; 34.800 on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline , in central Israel, the historic land bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor soil fertility . The land has been flattened and has no important gradients; its most notable geographical features are bluffs above
570-559: A British Government report estimated that there were 550 cotton looms in the town with an annual output worth 30–40 million francs . But the industry suffered from imports from Europe and by 1927 only 119 weaving establishments remained. The three major fabrics produced were "malak" (silk), 'ikhdari' (bands of red and green) and 'jiljileh' (dark red bands). These were used for festival dresses throughout Southern Palestine. Many other fabrics were produced, some with poetic names such as ji'nneh u nar ("heaven and hell"), nasheq rohoh ("breath of
684-699: A Hamas terrorist in the Café Apropo bombing on 27 March 1997. One of the deadliest attacks occurred on 1 June 2001, during the Second Intifada , when a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance to the Dolphinarium discothèque , killing 21, mostly teenagers, and injuring 132. Another Hamas suicide bomber killed six civilians and injured 70 in the Allenby Street bus bombing . Twenty-three civilians were killed and over 100 injured in
798-727: A Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, now in Israel al-Majdal, a Palestinian village in Haifa Subdistrict depopulated in 1925, now part of Ramat Yohanan in Israel Al-Mujaydil , a Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, now in Israel Majd al-Krum , a town in northern Israel Majdal Yaba , a Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, now in Israel Magdala , ancient Jewish city identified with al-Majdal, near Tiberias Majdal Bani Fadil ,
912-495: A center of nightlife and discotheques for Israelis who lived in the suburbs and adjoining cities. By 1989, Tel Aviv had acquired the nickname "Nonstop City", as a reflection of the growing recognition of its nightlife and 24/7 culture, and "Nonstop City" had to some extent replaced the former moniker of "First Hebrew City". The largest project built in this era was the Dizengoff Center , Israel's first shopping mall, which
1026-835: A consortium of three international companies: Veolia water, IDE Technologies and Elran. In March 2006, it was voted "Desalination Plant of the Year" in the Global Water Awards. Since 1992, Israel Beer Breweries has been operating in Ashkelon, brewing Carlsberg and Tuborg beer for the Israeli market. The Ashkelon Sports Arena opened in 1999. The "Jewish Eye" is a Jewish world film festival that takes place annually in Ashkelon. The festival marked its seventh year in 2010. The Breeza Music Festival has been held yearly in and around Ashkelon's amphitheatre since 1992. Most of
1140-467: A credit rating of AAA+. In the 2000s and early 2010s, Tel Aviv received tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, primarily from Sudan and Eritrea , changing the demographic profile of areas of the city. In 2009, Tel Aviv celebrated its official centennial. In addition to city- and country-wide celebrations, digital collections of historical materials were assembled. These include the History section of
1254-568: A day as British forces scoured the city for militants. In spite of this, Jewish guerrilla attacks continued in Tel Aviv and other areas under martial law in Palestine. According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan for dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Tel Aviv was to be included in the proposed Jewish state . Jaffa with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people—53,930 Muslims, 30,820 Jews and 16,800 Christians—was designated as part of
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#17327761329201368-593: A matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government in 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the northern Jewish suburbs 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. On 10 December 1948,
1482-779: A modern Palestinian village in the West Bank Syria [ edit ] al-Majdal, Syria , a village in the Hama Governorate of Syria Majdal Shams , a village in the Golan Heights, currently under Israeli occupation Lebanon [ edit ] Majadel , a village in Lebanon Majdal Anjar , a village in Lebanon Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
1596-569: A new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School , founded in Jaffa in 1906. The cornerstone for the building was laid on 28 July 1909. The town was originally named Ahuzat Bayit. On 21 May 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. The flag and city arms of Tel Aviv (see above) contain under the red Star of David 2 words from the biblical book of Jeremiah: "I (God) will build You up again and you will be rebuilt." (Jer 31:4) Tel Aviv
1710-533: A post to his Telegram channel. Once the deadline hit, Hamas launched a barrage of missiles towards Ashkelon. In the early years, the city was primarily inhabited by Mizrahi Jews , who fled to Israel after being expelled from Muslim lands . Today, Mizrahi Jews still constitute the majority of the population. In the early 1950s, many South African Jews settled in Ashkelon, establishing the Afridar neighbourhood. They were followed by an influx of immigrants from
1824-608: A raid. The city was also the scene of fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Irgun during the Altalena Affair , in which the IDF stopped an Irgun attempt to import arms for its own use. In December 1949, the Israeli government relocated to Jerusalem . Due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem , most embassies remained in or near Tel Aviv. The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became
1938-773: A result of the collapsed structure. Southern District Police chief Uri Bar-Lev believed the Grad-model Katyusha rocket was manufactured in Iran . In March 2009, a Qassam rocket hit a school, destroying classrooms and injuring two people. In November 2014, the mayor, Itamar Shimoni , began a policy of discrimination against Arab workers, refusing to allow them to work on city projects to build bomb shelters for children. His discriminatory actions brought criticism from others, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat who likened
2052-415: A result, the Israeli government issued gas masks to its citizens. When the first Iraqi missiles hit Israel, some people injected themselves with an antidote for nerve gas. The inhabitants of the southeastern suburb of Hatikva erected an angel-monument as a sign of their gratitude that "it was through a great miracle, that many people were preserved from being killed by a direct hit of a Scud rocket." Since
2166-520: A sewer under the bathhouse, leading to conjectures that prostitutes had discarded their unwanted newborns there. The remains of a 4th-century Byzantine church with marble slab flooring and glass mosaic walls can be seen in the Barnea Quarter. Remains of a synagogue from this period have also been found. An 11th-century mosque, Maqam al-Imam al-Husayn , a site of pilgrimage for both Sunni and Shia Muslims, which had been built under
2280-778: A small number remained in Ashkelon. Lavon argued that this operation dissipated "the last shred of trust the Arabs had in Israel, the sincerity of the State's declarations on democracy and civil equality, and the last remnant of confidence the Arab workers had in the Histadrut." Acting on an Egyptian complaint, the Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission ruled that the Palestinians transferred from Majdal should be returned to Israel, but this
2394-416: A total (urban and rural) of 43,680 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. 2,050 dunams were public land; all the rest was owned by Arabs. of the dunams, 2,337 were used for citrus and bananas, 2,886 were plantations and irrigable land, 35,442 for cereals, while 1,346 were built-up land. Majdal was known for its weaving industry. The town had around 500 looms in 1909. In 1920
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#17327761329202508-451: A total of 420 houses and a population of 1175, though the population count included men only. In the 1922 census of Palestine , Majdal had a population of 5,064; 33 Christians and 5,031 Muslims , increasing in the 1931 census to 6,226 (6,166 Muslims and 41 Christians) with 172 in the suburbs (167 Muslims, 4 Christians, and one Jew). In the 1945 statistics Majdal had a population of 9,910; ninety Christians and 9,820 Muslims, with
2622-533: A wave of Palestinian suicide bombings in the city from the mid-1990s, to the end of the Second Intifada, as well as the dot-com bubble , which affected the city's rapidly growing hi-tech sector. On 4 November 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin , was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo peace accord. The outdoor plaza where this occurred, formerly known as Kikar Malchei Yisrael,
2736-472: Is twinned with: Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( Hebrew : תֵּל אָבִיב-יָפוֹ , romanized : Tēl ʾĀvīv-Yāfō , IPA: [tel aˈviv jaˈfo] ; Arabic : تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا , romanized : Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā ), 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
2850-585: Is a state of war , I know no other definition for it. If it lasts a week or two, we can handle that, but we have no intention of allowing this to become part of our daily routine." In March 2008, 230 buildings and 30 cars were damaged by rocket fire on Ashkelon. On 12 May 2008, a rocket fired from the northern Gazan city of Beit Lahiya hit a shopping mall in southern Ashkelon, causing significant structural damage. According to The Jerusalem Post , four people were seriously injured and 87 were treated for shock . Fifteen people suffered minor to moderate injuries as
2964-497: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ashkelon#History Ashkelon or Ashqelon ( / ˈ æ ʃ k ə l ɒ n / ASH -kə-lon ; Hebrew : אַשְׁקְלוֹן , romanized : ʾAšqəlōn , IPA: [ʔaʃkeˈlon] ; Arabic : عَسْقَلَان , romanized : ʿAsqalān ) is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on
3078-528: Is found to have consumed the least water per person. In the early 21st century, Tel Aviv's municipality transformed a derelict power station into a public park, now named "Gan HaHashmal" ("Electricity Park"), paving the way for eco-friendly and environmentally conscious designs. In October 2008, Martin Weyl turned an old garbage dump near Ben Gurion International Airport , called Hiriya , into an attraction by building an arc of plastic bottles. The site, which
3192-400: Is home to Tel Aviv University , Yarkon Park , and upscale residential neighborhoods such as Ramat Aviv and Afeka . Tel Aviv is ranked as the greenest city in Israel. Since 2008, city lights are turned off annually in support of Earth Hour . In February 2009, the municipality launched a water saving campaign, including competition granting free parking for a year to the household that
3306-567: Is home to Tel Aviv University , the largest university in the country with more than 30,000 students. The city was founded in 1909 by the Yishuv ( Jewish residents) and initially given the Hebrew name Ahuzat Bayit ( Hebrew : אחוזת בית , lit. 'House Estate' or 'Homestead'), namesake of the Jewish association which established the neighbourhood as a modern housing estate on the outskirts of
3420-526: Is home to most of Israel's foreign embassies . It is a beta+ world city and is ranked 57th in the 2022 Global Financial Centres Index . Tel Aviv has the third- or fourth-largest economy and the largest economy per capita in the Middle East . Tel Aviv is ranked the 4th top global startup ecosystem hub. The city currently has the highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv receives over 2.5 million international visitors annually. Tel Aviv
3534-487: Is modern-day Tel Aviv-Yafo's only urban centre that existed in early modern times. Jaffa was an important port city in the region for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows signs of human settlement there starting in roughly 7,500 BC. The city was established around 1,800 BC at the latest. Its natural harbour has been used since the Bronze Age . By the time Tel Aviv was founded as a separate city during Ottoman rule of
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3648-568: The Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "homestead") society. One of the society's goals was to form a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the garden city movement . The first 60 plots were purchased in Kerem Djebali (Karm al-Jabali) near Jaffa by Jacobus Kann , a Dutch citizen, who registered them in his name to circumvent
3762-534: The British administration , friction between Arabs and Jews in Palestine increased. On 1 May 1921, the Jaffa riots resulted in the deaths of 48 Arabs and 47 Jews and injuries to 146 Jews and 73 Arabs. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa for Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv began to develop as a commercial center. In 1923, Tel Aviv was the first town to be wired to electricity in Palestine, followed by Jaffa later in
3876-602: The Eretz Israel Museum , the Museum of Art , Yarkon Park , and the city's promenade and beach . Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzl ’s 1902 novel Altneuland ("Old New Land"), as translated from German by Nahum Sokolow . Sokolow had adopted the name of a Mesopotamian site near the city of Babylon mentioned in Ezekiel : "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Abib [Tel Aviv], that lived by
3990-594: The Fatimids by Badr al-Jamali and where tradition held that the head of Mohammad's grandson Hussein ibn Ali was buried, was blown up by the IDF under instructions from Moshe Dayan as part of a broader programme to destroy mosques in July 1950. The area was subsequently redeveloped for a local Israeli hospital, Barzilai . After the site was re-identified on the hospital grounds, funds from Mohammed Burhanuddin , leader of
4104-561: The First Intifada , Tel Aviv has suffered from Palestinian political violence . The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on 19 October 1994, on the Line 5 bus , when a bomber killed 22 civilians and injured 50 as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. On 6 March 1996, another Hamas suicide bomber killed 13 people (12 civilians and 1 soldier), many of them children, in the Dizengoff Center suicide bombing . Three women were killed by
4218-791: The Hebrew Bible . Other ancient sites in Tel Aviv include: Tell Qasile , Tel Gerisa , Abattoir Hill , Tel Hashash , and Tell Qudadi . During the First Aliyah in the 1880s, when Jewish immigrants began arriving in the region in significant numbers, new Jewish neighborhoods were founded outside Jaffa on the current territory of Tel Aviv. The first was Neve Tzedek , founded in 1887 by Mizrahi Jews due to overcrowding in Jaffa and built on lands owned by Aharon Chelouche . Other neighborhoods were Neve Shalom (1890), Yafa Nof (1896), Achva (1899), Ohel Moshe (1904), Kerem HaTeimanim (1906), and others. Once Tel Aviv received city status in
4332-531: The Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 474,530, it is the economic and technological center of the country and a global high tech hub . If East Jerusalem is considered part of Israel, Tel Aviv is the country's second-most-populous city, after Jerusalem ; if not, Tel Aviv is the most populous city, ahead of West Jerusalem . Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality , headed by Mayor Ron Huldai , and
4446-707: The Israeli army in 1950. Situated ten kilometres (6 mi) from Gaza , the hospital has been the target of numerous Qassam rocket attacks, sometimes as many as 140 over one weekend. The hospital plays a vital role in treating wounded soldiers and terror victims. A rocket and missile-proof emergency room opened in February 2018. The city has 19 elementary schools, and nine junior high and high schools. The Ashkelon Academic College opened in 1998, and now hosts thousands of students. Harvard University operates an archaeological summer school program in Ashkelon. Ashkelon
4560-698: The Jewish Virtual Library , the Jewish population of Tel Aviv had risen to 150,000 by 1937, compared to Jaffa's mainly Arab 69,000 residents, and by 1939 rose to 160,000, which was over a third of Palestine's total Jewish population. The village statistics of 1938 listed Tel Aviv's population as 140,000, all Jews. Many German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus , the Modernist school of architecture in Germany, and left Germany during
4674-549: The Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres (30 mi) south of Tel Aviv , and 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of the border with the Gaza Strip . The modern city is named after the ancient seaport of Ascalon , which was destroyed in 1270 and whose remains are on the southwestern edge of the modern metropolis. The Israeli city, first known as Migdal, was founded in 1949 approximately 4 km inland from ancient Ascalon at
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4788-574: The Tel Aviv central bus station massacre . Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. In the Mike's Place suicide bombing , an attack on a bar by a British Muslim suicide bomber resulted in the deaths of three civilians and wounded over 50. Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility. An Islamic Jihad bomber killed five and wounded over 50 on 25 February 2005 Stage Club bombing . The most recent suicide attack in
4902-490: The garden city model. Migdal was surrounded by a broad ring of orchards. Barnea developed slowly, but Afridar grew rapidly. The first homes, built in 1951, were inhabited by new Jewish immigrants from South Africa and South America, with some native-born Israelis. The first public housing project for residents of the transit camps, the Southern Hills Project (Hageva'ot Hadromiyot) or Zion Hill (Givat Zion),
5016-449: The river Chebar , and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days." The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including " Herzliya ". It was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv ( אביב , or Abib ) is a Hebrew word that can be translated as "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tell (or tel ) is an artificial mound created over centuries through
5130-457: The "ghetto". Moshe Dayan and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion were in favor of expulsion, while Mapam and the Israeli labor union Histadrut objected. The government offered the Palestinians positive inducements to leave, including a favorable currency exchange, but also caused panic through night-time raids. The first group was deported to the Gaza Strip by truck on 17 August 1950 after an expulsion order had been served. The deportation
5244-434: The 1920s, those neighborhoods joined the newly formed municipality, now becoming separated from Jaffa. [REDACTED] Ottoman Empire 1909–1917 [REDACTED] United Kingdom 1917–1948 [REDACTED] Israel 1948–present The Second Aliyah led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form
5358-527: The 1930s. Some, like Arieh Sharon , came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus and similar schools to the local conditions there, creating what is recognized as the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style in the world. Tel Aviv's White City emerged in the 1930s, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. During World War II, Tel Aviv
5472-409: The 1948 war. The Arab village of Majdal was mentioned by historians and tourists at the end of the 15th century. In 1596, Ottoman records showed Majdal to be a large village of 559 Muslim households, making it the 7th-most-populous locality in Palestine after Safad , Jerusalem , Gaza , Nablus , Hebron and Kafr Kanna . An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Medschdel had
5586-564: The 1990s, the decline in Tel Aviv's population began to be reversed and stabilized, at first temporarily due to a wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union . Tel Aviv absorbed 42,000 immigrants from the FSU, many educated in scientific, technological, medical and mathematical fields. In this period, the number of engineers in the city doubled. Tel Aviv soon began to emerge as a global high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and high-tech office buildings followed. In 1993, Tel Aviv
5700-423: The Arab state. Civil War broke out in the country and in particular between the neighbouring cities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, which had been assigned to the Jewish and Arab states respectively. After several months of siege, on 13 May 1948, Jaffa fell and the Arab population fled en masse. After Israel declared Independence on 14 May 1948, Tel Aviv was the temporary government center of the State of Israel. The city
5814-482: The European cities of Warsaw and Odesa . The marketing pamphlets advocating for its establishment stated: In this city we will build the streets so they have roads and sidewalks and electric lights. Every house will have water from wells that will flow through pipes as in every modern European city, and also sewerage pipes will be installed for the health of the city and its residents. The walled city of Jaffa
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#17327761329205928-599: The Jaffa Municipality in 1921. According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities , Tel Aviv had a population of 15,185 (15,065 Jews, 78 Muslims and 42 Christians). The population of Tel Aviv had increased to around 34,000 by 1925. The 1931 census recorded Tel Aviv as having a population of 46,101 (45,564 Jews, 288 with no religion, 143 Christians, and 106 Muslims) in 12,545 houses. With increasing Jewish immigration during
6042-578: The Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population. Jews were free to return to their homes in Tel Aviv at the end of the following year when, with the end of World War I and the defeat of the Ottomans, the British took control of Palestine. The town had rapidly become an attraction to immigrants, with a local activist writing: The immigrants were attracted to Tel Aviv because they found in it all
6156-604: The Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River mouth. Because of the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa and between the city's neighborhoods do not exist. The city is located 60 km (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 km (56 mi) south of the city of Haifa . Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya to the north, Ramat HaSharon to
6270-532: The Palestinian town of al-Majdal (Arabic: الْمِجْدَل , romanized: al-Mijdal ; Hebrew: אֵל־מִגְ׳דַּל , romanized: ʾĒl-Mīǧdal ). Its inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine ; on the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948,
6384-543: The Turkish prohibition on Jewish land acquisition. Meir Dizengoff , later Tel Aviv's first mayor , also joined the Ahuzat Bayit society. His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with Arabs. On 11 April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv. The lottery
6498-555: The United Kingdom . During the 1990s, the city received additional arrivals of Ethiopian Jews and Russian Jews . Ashkelon is the northern terminus for the Trans-Israel pipeline , which brings petroleum products from Eilat to an oil terminal at the port. The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant is the largest in the world. The project was developed as a BOT ( build–operate–transfer ) by
6612-430: The accumulation of successive layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Although founded in 1909 as a small settlement on the sand dunes north of Jaffa, Tel Aviv was envisaged as a future city from the start. Its founders hoped that in contrast to what they perceived as the squalid and unsanitary conditions of neighbouring Arab towns, Tel Aviv was to be a clean and modern city, inspired by
6726-625: The ancient port city of Jaffa ( Yafo in Hebrew), then part of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem within the Ottoman Empire . Its name was changed the following year to Tel Aviv, after the biblical name Tel Abib ( lit. " Tell of Spring") adopted by Nahum Sokolow as the title for his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl 's 1902 novel Altneuland ("Old New Land"). Other Jewish suburbs of Jaffa had been established before Tel Aviv,
6840-514: The ancient world was discovered in Ashkelon. A Roman burial tomb two kilometres north of Ashkelon National Park was discovered in 1937. There are two burial tombs, a painted Hellenistic cave and a Roman cave. The Hellenistic cave is decorated with paintings of nymphs, water scenes, mythological figures and animals. In 1986 ruins of 4th- to 6th-century baths were found in Ashkelon. The bathhouses are believed to have been used for prostitution. The remains of nearly 100 mostly male infants were found in
6954-468: The assailant went on a stabbing spree, injuring eight people. Due to an Israel Border Police roadblock at the entrance and immediate response of the Border Police team during the subsequent stabbings, a much larger and fatal mass-casualty incident was avoided. On 21 November 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense , the Tel Aviv area was targeted by rockets, and air raid sirens were sounded in
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#17327761329207068-456: The beginning of 1970s, the common image of Tel Aviv became that of a decaying city, as Tel Aviv's population fell 20%. In the 1970s, the apparent sense of Tel Aviv's urban decline became a theme in the work of novelists such as Yaakov Shabtai , in works describing the city such as Sof Davar ( The End of Things ) and Zikhron Devarim ( The Memory of Things ). A symptomatic article of 1980 asked "Is Tel Aviv Dying?" and portrayed what it saw as
7182-467: The city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages. The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled, leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of whom 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948 and most of the rest were deported by 1950. Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish. Migdal, as it
7296-414: The city changed in the 2000s, as it began to attract a higher proportion of young residents. By 2012, 28 percent of the city's population was aged between 20 and 34 years old. Between 2007 and 2012, the city's population growth averaged 6.29 percent. As a result of its population recovery and industrial transition, the city's finances were transformed, and by 2012 it was running a budget surplus and maintained
7410-687: The city for the first time since the Gulf War . All of the rockets either missed populated areas or were shot down by an Iron Dome rocket defense battery stationed near the city. During the operation, a bomb blast on a bus wounded at least 28 civilians, three seriously. This was described as a terrorist attack by Israel, Russia, and the United States and was condemned by the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia, whilst Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared that
7524-495: The city hosts its well-known, annual Open House Tel Aviv weekend, which offers the general public free entrance to the city's famous landmarks, private houses and public buildings. In 2010, the design of the renovated Tel Aviv Port ( Nemal Tel Aviv ) won the award for outstanding landscape architecture at the European Biennial for Landscape Architecture in Barcelona . In 2014, the Sarona Market Complex opened, following an 8-year renovation project of Sarona colony . Tel Aviv has
7638-411: The city occurred on 17 April 2006, when 11 people were killed and at least 70 wounded in a suicide bombing near the old central bus station . Another attack took place on 29 August 2011 in which a Palestinian attacker stole an Israeli taxi cab and rammed it into a police checkpoint guarding the popular Haoman 17 nightclub in Tel Aviv which was filled with 2,000 Israeli teenagers. After crashing,
7752-424: The city's existential problems: "Residents leaving the city, businesses penetrating into residential areas, economic and social gaps, deteriorating neighbourhoods, contaminated air – Is the First Hebrew City destined for a slow death? Will it become a ghost town?". However, others saw this as a transitional period. By the late 1980s, attitudes to the city's future had become markedly more optimistic. It had also become
7866-453: The city. In 1946, following the King David Hotel bombing , the British carried out Operation Shark , in which the entire city was searched for Jewish militants and most of the residents questioned, during which the entire city was placed under curfew. During the March 1947 martial law in Mandatory Palestine , Tel Aviv was placed under martial law by the British authorities for 15 days, with the residents kept under curfew for all but three hours
7980-439: The city. It made significant investment in major boulevards, to create attractive pedestrian corridors. Former industrial areas like the city's previously derelict Northern Tel Aviv Port and the Jaffa railway station , were upgraded and transformed into leisure areas. A process of gentrification began in some of the poor neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv and many older buildings began to be renovated. The demographic profile of
8094-582: The comforts they were used to in Europe: electric light, water, a little cleanliness, cinema, opera, theatre, and also more or less advanced schools... busy streets, full restaurants, cafes open until 2 a.m., singing, music, and dancing. Tel Aviv, along with the rest of the Jaffa municipality, was conquered by the British imperial army in late 1917 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and became part of British-administered Mandatory Palestine until 1948. Tel Aviv, established as suburb of Jaffa, received "township" or local council status within
8208-532: The discrimination to the anti-Semitism experienced by Jews in Europe 70 years earlier. On May 11, 2021, Hamas fired 137 rockets on Ashkelon killing 2 and injuring many others. During the October 2023 Gaza–Israel conflict , Ashkelon was a main target of Hamas missile barrages. On October 10, 2023, Abu Obaida , spokesperson for Hamas, warned all citizens of Ashkelon to evacuate before 5:00 P.M. local time via
8322-439: The early 1960s at 390,000, representing 16 percent of the country's total. By the early 1970s, Tel Aviv had entered a long and steady period of continuous population decline, which was accompanied by urban decay . By 1981, Tel Aviv had entered not just natural population decline, but an absolute population decline as well. In the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. Construction activity had moved away from
8436-533: The early stages of the 1948 war , along with the rest of the Gaza region that had been allocated to the Arab State in the United Nations plan. Over the next few months, the town was subjected to Israeli air-raids and shelling. All but about 1,000 of the town's residents were forced to leave by the time it was captured by Israeli forces as a sequel to Operation Yoav on 4 November 1948. General Yigal Allon ordered
8550-402: The event. The first water well was later dug at this site, located on what is today Rothschild Boulevard , across from Dizengoff House. Within a year, Herzl , Ahad Ha'am , Yehuda Halevi , Lilienblum , and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for
8664-426: The expulsion of the remaining Palestinians but the local commanders did not do so and the Arab population soon recovered to more than 2,500 due mostly to refugees slipping back and also due to the transfer of Palestinians from nearby villages. Most of them were elderly, women, or children. During the next year or so, the Palestinians were held in a confined area surrounded by barbed wire, which became commonly known as
8778-453: The first time including land that had been in the Arab portion of the UN partition plan. The government voted on the unification of Tel Aviv and Jaffa on 4 October 1949, but the decision was not implemented until 24 April 1950 due to the opposition of Tel Aviv mayor Israel Rokach . The name of the unified city was Tel Aviv until 19 August 1950, when it was renamed Tel Aviv-Yafo in order to preserve
8892-680: The founding capital of Israel – a function it retained officially until 1950. After the 1947–1949 Palestine war , Tel Aviv began the municipal annexation of parts of Jaffa, fully unified with Jaffa under the name Tel Aviv in April 1950, and was formally renamed to Tel Aviv-Yafo in August 1950. Tel Aviv's White City , designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of International Style buildings, including Bauhaus and other related modernist architectural styles. Popular attractions include Old Jaffa ,
9006-559: The founding members of Hamas were born in Mandatory Palestine , outside of the Gaza strip , or have parents who were. Many of them were from villages that were in the vicinity of present-day Ashkelon, including most of the party's leaders: On 1–2 March 2008, rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip (some of them Grad rockets ) hit Ashkelon, wounding seven, and causing property damage . Mayor Roni Mahatzri stated that "This
9120-530: The government announced the annexation to Tel Aviv of Jaffa's Jewish suburbs, the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Kabir , the Arab village of Salama and some of its agricultural land, and the Jewish Hatikva slum. On 25 February 1949, the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Shaykh Muwannis was also annexed to Tel Aviv. On 18 May 1949, Manshiya and part of Jaffa's central zone were added, for
9234-562: The historical name Jaffa. Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 km (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. In the 1960s, some of the older buildings were demolished, making way for the country's first high-rises. The historic Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium was controversially demolished, to make way for the Shalom Meir Tower , which was completed in 1965, and remained Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in
9348-596: The immigrant camps, on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village al-Jura , entrepreneur Zvi Segal , one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence, established the upscale Barnea neighborhood. A large tract of land south of Barnea was handed over to the trusteeship of the South African Zionist Federation, which established the neighborhood of Afridar. Plans for the city were drawn up in South Africa according to
9462-523: The inner ring of Tel Aviv, and had moved to its outer perimeter and adjoining cities. A mass out-migration of residents from Tel Aviv, to adjoining cities like Petah Tikva and Rehovot , where better housing conditions were available, was underway by the beginning of the 1970s, and only accelerated by the Yom Kippur War . Cramped housing conditions and high property prices pushed families out of Tel Aviv and deterred young people from moving in. From
9576-536: The musical performances are free. Israel Lacrosse operates substantial youth lacrosse programs in the city and recently hosted the Turkey men's national team in Israel's first home international in 2013. Ashkelon and environs is served by the Barzilai Medical Center , established in 1961. It was built in place of Hussein ibn Ali 's 11th-century mosque, a center of Muslim pilgrimages, destroyed by
9690-426: The new town, increasing the Jewish population to 2,500 within six months. These early immigrants were mostly from Yemen , North Africa , and Europe . In 1949, the town was renamed Migdal Gaza, and then Migdal Gad. Soon afterwards it became Migdal Ashkelon. The city began to expand as the population grew. In 1951, the neighborhood of Afridar was established for Jewish immigrants from South Africa , and in 1953 it
9804-498: The northeast, Petah Tikva , Bnei Brak , Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south. The city is economically stratified between the north and south. Southern Tel Aviv is considered less affluent than northern Tel Aviv with the exception of Neve Tzedek and northern and north-western Jaffa . Central Tel Aviv is home to Azrieli Center and the important financial and commerce district along Ayalon Highway . The northern side of Tel Aviv
9918-422: The northern part of the township was based on Ebenezer Howard 's garden city movement . The plan consisted of four main features: a hierarchical system of streets laid out in a grid, large blocks consisting of small-scale domestic dwellings, the organization of these blocks around central open spaces, and the concentration of cultural institutions to form a civic center. While most of the northern area of Tel Aviv
10032-414: The official Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year website; the Ahuzat Bayit collection, which focuses on the founding families of Tel Aviv, and includes photographs and biographies; and Stanford University 's Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, documenting the history of the city. Today, the city is regarded as a strong candidate for global city status . Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv had developed into
10146-488: The oldest among them being Neve Tzedek . Tel Aviv was given township status within the Jaffa Municipality in 1921, and became independent from Jaffa in 1934. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced that of Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. In 1948, the Israeli Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in the city, with Tel Aviv named as
10260-494: The organisation "blesses" the attack. More than 300 rockets were fired towards the Tel Aviv Metropolitan area in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis . New laws were introduced to protect Modernist buildings, and efforts to preserve them were aided by UNESCO recognition of Tel Aviv's White City as a world heritage site in 2003. In the early 2000s, Tel Aviv municipality focused on attracting more young residents to
10374-707: The population of Ashkelon was 153,138, making it the third-largest city in Israel's Southern District . The name Ashkelon is probably western Semitic , and might be connected to the triliteral root š-q-l ('to weigh', from a Semitic root ṯ-q-l , akin to Hebrew šāqal ( שָקַל ) or Arabic ṯiql ( ثِقْل ), 'weight', perhaps attesting to its importance as a center for mercantile activities. Its name appeared in Phoenician and Punic as ŠQLN ( 𐤔𐤒𐤋𐤍 ) and ʾŠQLN ( 𐤀𐤔𐤒𐤋𐤍 ). Majdal (Arabic) and Migdal (Hebrew) mean 'tower'. The archaeological site of Ascalon , today known as Tel Ashkelon,
10488-489: The region, Jaffa had been ruled by the Canaanites , Egyptians , Philistines , Israelites , Assyrians , Babylonians , Persians , Phoenicians , Ptolemies , Seleucids , Hasmoneans , Romans , Byzantines , the early Islamic caliphates , Crusaders , Ayyubids , and Mamluks before coming under Ottoman rule in 1515. It had been fought over numerous times. The city is mentioned in ancient Egyptian documents, as well as
10602-615: The same year. The opening ceremony of the Jaffa Electric Company powerhouse, on 10 June 1923, celebrated the lighting of the two main streets of Tel Aviv. In 1925, the Scottish biologist, sociologist, philanthropist and pioneering town planner Patrick Geddes drew up the Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv , a master plan for Tel Aviv which was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff . Geddes's plan for developing
10716-475: The soul") and abu mitayn ("father of two hundred"). In addition to agriculture, residents practiced animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the town. In 1943, they owned 354 heads of cattle , 168 sheep over a year old, 170 goats over a year old, 65 camels , 17 horses , 39 mules , 447 donkeys , 2966 fowls , and 808 pigeons . Majdal was occupied by the Egyptian army in
10830-404: The title Majdal . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Majdal&oldid=1254365269 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing Arabic-language text Short description
10944-455: The war, and every city in the Tel Aviv area except for Bnei Brak was hit. A total of 74 Israelis died as a result of the Iraqi attacks, mostly from suffocation and heart attacks, while approximately 230 Israelis were injured. Extensive property damage was also caused, and some 4,000 Israelis were left homeless. It was feared that Iraq would fire missiles filled with nerve agents or sarin . As
11058-544: Was hit by Italian airstrikes on 9 September 1940, which killed 137 people in the city. The village statistics of 1945 listed Tel Aviv's population as 166,660, consisting of 166,000 Jews, 300 "other", 230 Christians, and 130 Muslims. During the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine , Jewish Irgun and Lehi guerrillas launched repeated attacks against British military, police, and government targets in
11172-484: Was approved by Ben-Gurion and Dayan over the objections of Pinhas Lavon , secretary-general of the Histadrut, who envisioned the town as a productive example of equal opportunity. By October 1950, twenty Palestinian families remained, most of whom later moved to Lydda or Gaza. According to Israeli records, in total 2,333 Palestinians were transferred to the Gaza Strip, 60 to Jordan, 302 to other towns in Israel, and
11286-516: Was built according to this plan, the influx of European refugees in the 1930s necessitated the construction of taller apartment buildings on a larger footprint in the city. Ben Gurion House was built in 1930–31, part of a new workers' housing development. At the same time, Jewish cultural life was given a boost by the establishment of the Ohel Theatre and the decision of Habima Theatre to make Tel Aviv its permanent base in 1931. Tel Aviv
11400-590: Was built in 1952. Under a plan signed in October 2015, seven new neighborhoods comprising 32,000 housing units, a new stretch of highway, and three new highway interchanges will be built, turning Ashkelon into the sixth-largest city in Israel. The ancient site of Ascalon is now administered as the Ashkelon National Park . The walls that encircled the city are still visible, as well as Canaanite earth ramparts. The park contains mainly Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader ruins. The largest dog cemetery in
11514-420: Was called in Hebrew, was initially repopulated by Jewish immigrants and demobilized soldiers. It was subsequently renamed multiple times, first as Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon, until in 1953 the coastal neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the name Ashkelon was adopted for the combined town. By 1961, Ashkelon was ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000. In 2022
11628-463: Was categorized as a world city . However, the city's municipality struggled to cope with an influx of new immigrants. Tel Aviv's tax base had been shrinking for many years, as a result of its preceding long term population decline, and this meant there was little money available at the time to invest in the city's deteriorating infrastructure and housing. In 1998, Tel Aviv was on the "verge of bankruptcy". Economic difficulties would then be compounded by
11742-731: Was completed in 1983. Other notable projects included the construction of Marganit Tower in 1987, the opening of the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in 1989, and the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (opened in 1973 and located to the current building in 1989). In the early 1980s, 13 embassies in Jerusalem moved to Tel Aviv as part of the UN's measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law . Today, most national embassies are located in Tel Aviv or environs. In
11856-711: Was granted the status of an independent municipality separate from Jaffa in 1934. The Jewish population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Many new Jewish immigrants to Palestine disembarked in Jaffa, and remained in Tel Aviv, turning the city into a center of urban life. Friction during the 1936–39 Arab revolt led to the opening of a local Jewish port, Tel Aviv Port , independent of Jaffa, in 1938. It closed on 25 October 1965. Lydda Airport (later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport opened between 1937 and 1938. According to
11970-565: Was incorporated into the city. The current name Ashkelon was adopted and the town was granted local council status in 1953. In 1955, Ashkelon had more than 16,000 residents. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000. This grew to 43,000 in 1972 and 53,000 in 1983. In 2005, the population was more than 106,000. In 1949 and 1950, three immigrant transit camps ( ma'abarot ) were established alongside Majdal (renamed Migdal) for Jewish refugees from Arab countries , Romania and Poland. Northwest of Migdal and
12084-416: Was not done. Majdal was granted to Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreements . Re-population of the recently vacated Arab dwellings by Jews had been official policy since at least December 1948, but the process began slowly. The Israeli national plan of June 1949 designated al-Majdal as the site for a regional urban center of 20,000 people. From July 1949, new immigrants and demobilized soldiers moved to
12198-483: Was organised by Akiva Aryeh Weiss , president of the building society. Weiss collected 120 sea shells on the beach, half of them white and half of them grey. The members' names were written on the white shells and the plot numbers on the grey shells. A boy drew names from one box of shells and a girl drew plot numbers from the second box. A photographer, Abraham Soskin (b. 1881 in Russia, made aliyah 1906 ), documented
12312-688: Was planned as an independent Hebrew city with wide streets and boulevards, running water for each house, and street lights. By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than 1 km (247 acres). In 1915 a census of Tel Aviv was conducted, recording a population 2,679. However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the residents of Jaffa and Tel Aviv as a wartime measure. A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described
12426-420: Was renamed Ariel Sharon Park to honor Israel's former prime minister, will serve as the centerpiece in what is to become a 2,000-acre (8.1 km ) urban wilderness on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, designed by German landscape architect , Peter Latz . At the end of the 20th century, the city began restoring historical neighborhoods such as Neve Tzedek and many buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2007,
12540-638: Was renamed Rabin Square . In the Gulf War in 1991, Tel Aviv was attacked by Scud missiles from Iraq. Iraq hoped to provoke an Israeli military response, which could have destroyed the US–Arab alliance. The United States pressured Israel not to retaliate, and after Israel acquiesced, the US and Netherlands rushed Patriot missiles to defend against the attacks, but they proved largely ineffective. Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities continued to be hit by Scuds throughout
12654-541: Was repeatedly bombed by Egyptian warplanes and shelled by Egyptian warships during the Israeli War of Independence , killing around 150 people. The most significant attack was the bombing of the central bus station , in which 42 people were killed. On 3 June 1948, the Israeli Air Force scored its first aerial victory over Tel Aviv when Israeli fighter pilot Modi Alon shot down two Egyptian bombers during
12768-404: Was reported on the front page of The New York Times . The Outdoor Museum near the municipal cultural center displays two Roman burial coffins made of marble depicting battle and hunting scenes, and famous mythological scenes. The Ashkelon Marina, located between Delila and Bar Kochba beaches, offers a shipyard and repair services. Ashkeluna is a water-slide park on Ashkelon beach. Most of
12882-588: Was the last action of the First Crusade . In 1270, the Mamluk sultan Baybars ordered the fortifications and harbour at the site to be destroyed. As a result of it, the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into disuse. The Palestinian village of Al-Jura (El-Jurah) stood northeast of and immediately adjacent to Tel Ashkelon and is documented in Ottoman tax registers. El-Jurah was depopulated during
12996-688: Was the oldest and largest seaport in Canaan , part of the pentapolis (a grouping of five cities) of the Philistines , north of Gaza City and south of Jaffa . The site was an important city during the Roman , Byzantine and Early Islamic periods , and particularly during the period of the Crusades , due to its location near the coast and between the Crusader states and Egypt. The Battle of Ascalon
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