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The Passfield White Paper , issued October 20, 1930, by colonial secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine, which previously had been set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. The new statement resulted from the Hope Simpson Commission 's investigation into the deeper causes of the 1929 Palestine riots , that initially started over access to the Western Wall . The white paper limited official Jewish immigration to a much greater degree.

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106-573: The paper's tone was decidedly anti-Zionist since several of its institutions were severely criticized, including the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor) and the Jewish Agency , which both promoted Jewish employment of only Jewish labor , thereby supporting the ejection of Palestinians from purchased land, most who previously worked under a tenant farming system . Like the Hope Simpson Report,

212-424: 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

318-652: 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

424-458: A December 1922 quote: [...] Our central problem is immigration ... and not adapting our lives to this or that doctrine. [...] How can we run our Zionist movement in such a way that [... we] will be able to carry out the conquest of the land by the Jewish worker, and which will find the resources to organise the massive immigration and settlement of workers through their own capabilities? The creation of

530-673: 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

636-487: 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

742-462: 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

848-558: 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

954-627: 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,

1060-568: A member of this union. During the 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests the Chairperson of the Histadrut, Anon Bar-David, declared a unionwide strike following the announcement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's intention to dismiss Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant . The strike was called off on the same day after Netanyahu announced he will be entering negotiations with the opposition regarding

1166-403: A new Zionist movement, a Zionist movement of workers, is the first prerequisite for the fulfillment of Zionism. [...] Without [such] a new Zionist movement that is entirely at our disposal, there is no future or hope for our activities Ben-Gurion transformed the Histadrut in a few months. He set up a well-defined hierarchy and reduced the competencies of local workers' councils. He also centralised

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1272-554: 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

1378-425: A powerful force in Israeli society and the economy. In 2017 it had 570,000 members and a total of 700,000 workers being employed under collective agreements it had negotiated with employers in the country. Following its support of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests , on February 8, 2012, Histadrut called a general strike in support of lower-paid subcontracted, and unorganized workers, negotiating with both

1484-589: 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

1590-415: 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

1696-620: A vigorous campaign against the document. In Britain it led to British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald 's clarification of the white paper in front of the British House of Commons and in a letter to Chaim Weizmann in 1931 known as the MacDonald letter . The MacDonald Letter aimed to placate the Zionists while disturbing the Palestinians as little as possible. When many Zionists took the letter as

1802-522: 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,

1908-485: A withdrawal of the white paper, it became labelled the 'black letter' by Palestinians. This was despite the fact that Prime Minister said in parliament on 11 February 1931 that he was "very unwilling to give the letter the same status as the dominating document" i.e. the Passfield White Paper. The letter itself also stated that it aimed to provide justice to "non-Jewish sections of the community". By confirming that

2014-524: 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

2120-544: Is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality , headed by Mayor Ron Huldai , and 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

2226-449: 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

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2332-481: 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

2438-555: 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

2544-525: 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

2650-633: 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

2756-550: 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

2862-476: The Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel . Located on 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

2968-779: 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

3074-673: 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

3180-565: 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

3286-641: The judicial reform and halt the legislation. Several days later, a report by journalist Michael Shemesh alleged that the strike was coordinated with the Prime Minister's office in order for Netanyahu to be able to apply pressure on his coalition members to halt the legislation. The initial aim of the Histadrut was to take responsibility for all spheres of activity of the worker's movement: settlement, defense, trade unions, education, housing construction, health, banking, cooperative ventures, welfare and even culture. The Histadrut took over economic firms operated by

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3392-449: 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

3498-523: The (Arab) majority of its population. In support of the supposed shortage of land in Palestine, Passfield's wife Beatrice Webb claimed that there was "no room to swing a cat" there. Zionists claimed it backtracked from what they felt were commitments in the Balfour Declaration and, if implemented, would limit Jewish immigration to Palestine . Contrary to these claims, the White Paper states that

3604-434: 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

3710-513: 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

3816-561: 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

3922-471: 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

4028-477: 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

4134-440: The Histadrut and government, and the Histadrut also largely dominated public transport, agriculture, and insurance industries. In addition, it owned Clalit Health Services , Israel's largest Kupat Holim, or health insurance and medical services fund. Clalit was the only health fund in the country to accept members without discriminating based on their age or medical situation, but with the condition that they must also be members of

4240-463: The Histadrut began giving up its business holdings. It lost control of Bank Hapoalim in the aftermath of the 1983 Israel bank stock crisis , when the Israeli government nationalized it along with other major banks. A notable shift in power took place in 1994 when the Labor Party lost its leadership and governing role in the Histadrut, and a new party named RAM, composed of individuals who had left

4346-497: The Histadrut labor union, which was exclusively Jewish. As such, many Israelis were dependent on Histadrut membership for their health insurance. In the mid-1980s, an estimated 70% of the Israeli population was insured by Clalit. With the increasing liberalization and deregulation of the Israeli economy since the 1980s, the role and size of Histadrut declined. Hyperinflation saddled its business empire with enormous debts, and slow economic growth exposed its inefficiencies. Due to debts,

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4452-525: The Histadrut there was no other organisation in Palestine with the ability to absorb immigrants. By 1930 the Histadrut had become the central organisation of the Yishuv. It did what the Zionist Executive wanted, but was unable to do: absorb immigrants and organise the agricultural settlement, defense and expansion into new areas of production. According to Tzahor the Histadrut had become "the executive arm of

4558-410: The Histadrut today is Arnon Bar-David . The Histadrut has been criticized by European trade unions and international human rights groups over its failure to represent migrant workers, considered to be the most maltreated employees in Israel. In 2009, the Histadrut began accepting memberships of migrant workers. Another criticism of the Histadrut is that it appears to protect powerful interest groups in

4664-402: The Histadrut's Office for Public Works collapsed and went bankrupt, and in 1927 the same happened to its successor, the privatised Solel Boneh . In both cases, the Zionist Executive bailed them out and recognised the deficit in the category of "expenses for immigration absorption". The Zionist Executive, sharing the goal of stimulating immigration with the Histadrut, had to do this because besides

4770-584: 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

4876-568: 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

4982-713: The Jewish association which established the neighbourhood as a modern housing estate on the outskirts of 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,

5088-412: The Jewish workforce. More important than the 1917 American Federation of Labor (AFL) resolution recognizing "the legitimate claims of the Jewish people for the establishment of a national homeland in Palestine on the basis of self-government", was the grassroots campaign to finance Histadrut land purchases, infrastructure development and the establishment of farm cooperatives . Jewish garment workers in

5194-526: The Labor Party due to internal power struggles, took charge and began to sell off or eliminate its non-union-related assets and activities, proclaiming that from then on, it would function solely as a trade union. The most severe blow came when Israel's National Health Insurance Law came into effect in 1995, instituting a national universal health care framework and reorganizing the Israeli healthcare system . Under

5300-612: The Land of Israel (Hebrew: ההסתדרות הכללית של העובדים בארץ ישראל , HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael ), is Israel 's national trade union center and represents the majority of Israel's trade unionists . Established in December 1920 in Mandatory Palestine , it soon became one of the most powerful institutions in the Yishuv (the body of Jewish residents in the region prior to

5406-586: 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

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5512-458: The Passfield White Paper found this Zionist policy damaging to the economic development of the Arab population. It concluded that Jewish immigration to Palestine was taking land from the Arab fellahs ; sales of land to Jewish settlers should in future be restricted, and Arab unemployment levels should be a factor in considering permitted levels of Jewish immigration to Palestine. Furthermore, a legislative council should be formed which would represent

5618-532: 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

5724-682: The US in the early 20th century looked more to local improvements than the promises of Labor Zionism. The symbolic AFL endorsement of the Balfour Declaration failed to advance Zionist goals on the ground and many Jewish labor leaders were opposed to Zionist endeavors until the 1920 founding of Histadrut began to change their views. Within three years some labor leaders had reversed their positions, calling for moral and financial support for Histadrut. The garment unions Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and International Ladies Garment Workers Union extended their support to Histadrut. The Histadrut became one of

5830-496: The Zionist movement—but an arm acting on its own". It had become a "state in the making". According to Tzahor, while the Histadrut focused on constructive action, its leaders did not "abandon fundamental ideological principles". However, according to Ze'ev Sternhell in his book The Founding Myths of Israel , the labor leaders had already abandoned socialist principles by 1920 and only used them as "mobilizing myths". The chairman of

5936-430: 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

6042-461: 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

6148-456: 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

6254-414: 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

6360-668: 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

6466-670: 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

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6572-411: 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,

6678-484: 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

6784-620: 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

6890-439: 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

6996-416: The collection of membership dues, most of which were formerly used up by local branches. Absorption of immigration was seen as a very important task of the Histadrut. Providing immigrants with work was often seen as more important than the financial soundness of its operations. The labor leaders saw the failure to absorb immigrants as a moral bankruptcy that was much worse than financial bankruptcy. In 1924

7102-678: 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

7208-412: The development of a Jewish National Home in Palestine is a consideration, which would enjoy continued support, but it was not central to mandate governance. The paper states that the British intend to fulfill their mandate obligations to both Palestinian Arabs and Jews, and they would resolve any conflicts that might surface as a result of their respective needs. Zionist organizations worldwide mounted

7314-439: 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

7420-410: The establishment of the Histadrut. At the end of 1921 David Ben-Gurion was elected as Secretary. Membership grew from 4,400 in 1920 and to 8,394 members in 1922. In 1926 the Histadrut supported an art studio in Tel Aviv . By 1927, the Histadrut had around 22,000 members, accounting for 68% of the Jewish workforce in Mandatory Palestine. In 1939, its membership stood at about 100,000, or about 75% of

7526-456: The establishment of the state). Today, it has 800,000 members. The Histadrut was founded in December 1920 in Haifa to look out for the interests of Jewish workers. Until 1920, Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair had been unable to set up a unified workers organisation. In 1920, Third Aliyah immigrants founded Gdud HaAvoda and demanded a unified organization for all Jewish workers, which led to

7632-402: 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

7738-450: 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

7844-471: The first year of its existence, the Histadrut lacked central leadership, and many initiatives were taken at the local level. This changed after David Ben-Gurion became appointed in the General Secretariat. Ben-Gurion wanted to transform the Histadrut into a national instrument for the realisation of Zionism. According to Zeev Sternhell Ben-Gurion's exclusive commitment to this goal is illustrated by

7950-672: 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 ,

8056-399: The government and private employers on their behalf, demanding that the subcontracted workers be hired directly and be offered the pay and benefits granted to regular employees. A settlement was announced on Sunday, February 12, which provided for some gains by the subcontractors, but also for a 3-year moratorium on further strikes over subcontractor issues. In 2016, 27% of the workforce was

8162-517: 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

8268-425: The government itself via its many cooperative enterprises. Through its economic arm, Hevrat HaOvdim ("Society of Workers"), the Histadrut owned and operated numerous enterprises, including the country's largest industrial conglomerates , the country's largest bank , Bank Hapoalim , and the country's largest shipping company, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services . The Israeli services sector was completely dominated by

8374-430: The highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv receives over 2.5 million international visitors annually. Tel Aviv 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

8480-554: 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

8586-516: 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

8692-407: The labor market, i.e., that it does not protect all workers. 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

8798-431: The largest declines in union membership in labor history. The Histadrut's membership plunged almost instantly from 1.8 million (almost 80% of the workforce at the time) to about 200,000 members. The loss of revenue generated from Clalit's health insurance premiums and union dues caused an enormous decline in the Histadrut's resources, and it was forced to sell off valuable real estate assets to survive. Membership in 1983

8904-621: The law, Clalit Health Services' tie to the Histadrut was severed and Israelis were given a choice in membership between Clalit and the three other Israeli health insurance funds, which were now prohibited from discriminating against applicants for age and medical reasons. Once an affiliation with the Histadrut was no longer a prerequisite for membership in Clalit, many of its insured dropped their labor union membership, while others switched to other health funds now that age or pre-existing conditions no longer precluded them from joining. This resulted in one of

9010-462: The most powerful institutions in the state of Israel , a mainstay of the Labour Zionist movement and, aside from being a trade union, its state-building role made it the owner of a number of businesses and factories. Until Israel began moving away from a socialist economy, the Histadrut, along with the government, owned most of the economy. It was the second largest employer in the country next to

9116-498: 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

9222-422: 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

9328-414: 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

9434-479: 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

9540-485: 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

9646-409: The parties, which operated by subcontracting, and their Office of Information, which was expanded into a Labor Exchange. Already after a few months, the Histadrut became the single largest employer in the Yishuv. The Histadrut succeeded in improving worker's rights as e.g. the right to strike was recognised, employers had to motivate dismissal and workers got a place to turn to with their complaints. In

9752-706: The policy of the Palestine Mandate was to continue to support Jewish immigration, the Letter in effect negated some of the implications of the White Paper and facilitated increasing immigration during the rise of antisemitism in Europe in the 1930s. Histadrut Histadrut , fully the New General Workers' Federation ( Hebrew : הסתדרות העובדים הכללית החדשה ) and until 1994 the General Federation of Labour in

9858-483: 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

9964-594: 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

10070-451: 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

10176-469: 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

10282-482: Was 1,600,000 (including dependents), accounting for more than one-third of the total population of Israel and about 85% of all wage earners. About 170,000 Histadrut members were Arabs (who were admitted to membership starting in 1959). In 1989, the Histadrut was the employer of approximately 280,000 workers. The Histadrut managed to recover from its low point in membership and gradually grow in membership. In 2005, it had about 650,000 members. The Histadrut still remains

10388-510: 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

10494-463: 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

10600-705: 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

10706-701: 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

10812-479: 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

10918-669: 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

11024-420: 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,

11130-586: 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

11236-527: 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

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