Ottoman and British eras map Ajami was founded during
Ottoman rule over
Palestine at the end of the 19th century, as a small
Maronite Christian settlement. The neighborhood's streets were laid parallel to the coast, with ample houses and small stairway-alleys leading down to the shore. A Maronite monastery and church founded in 1855, stood in the nearby harbor. In 1895, Father Antonios Shbeir Ghostaoui, a monk from the
Lebanese Maronite Order, built a new church and a monastery on an area of 1,600 square meters. Later on, between 1901 and 1920, the church was demolished and replaced by a bigger and more attractive one, the first stone of which was laid during a grand ceremony on February 28, 1904. This Maronite church still stands today, and it is located in the south tip of Dolphin Street, in the middle of Ajami neighborhood. The neighborhood's houses were built from limestone surrounded by large courtyards, reflecting the economic ability of its Maronite residents. Being an affluent residential area of the upper middle-class, Ajami had been the first neighborhood of Jaffa – in fact in the whole of Palestine - to be swiftly and fully connected to the new electric grid which had been built by the Jaffa Electric Company in 1923
1948 war and establishment of Israel Ajami played a significant role in the history of Jaffa including the
1948 Palestine war and the events of the
Nakba. Following the decision by the
British Government to end the
Mandate for Palestine, violence erupted between the Jewish paramilitary groups (
Haganah and
Irgun) and Palestinian Arab irregulars. Jaffa witnessed some of the most violent of these encounters. On May 13, 1948, the day before the
declaration of the Israeli state, Jaffa surrendered; the remaining Arab residents were forced to move into Ajami, where they were subject to martial law. By the end of the war, it is estimated that over 90% of Jaffa's
Palestinian Arab residents fled or were expelled, as part of the larger
1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, leaving only ~3,000 Palestinians remaining in Jaffa. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Israeli government tried to separate Jews and Palestinians of Jaffa: “It will be best to have special areas for the Jews and areas for the Arabs,” said the military governor Meir Laniado. Palestinians were moved to Ajami, which was surrounded on all sides by Jewish quarters. Moshe Erem from the Israeli Ministry for Minority Affairs protested to Minister
Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit: “Ajami is about to be closed off with a
barbed-wire fence that will rigorously separate the Arab neighborhood and the Jewish section. That arrangement will immediately render Ajami a sealed-off
ghetto. It is hard to accept this idea, which stirs in us associations of excessive horror. … And once more we are thereby sowing a toxic seed … in the heart of the Arabs. A ghetto in barbed wire, a ghetto, cut off from access to the sea. Shall this be our political approach?” Palestinians needed special permits “to exit the barbed wire.” Over the years, Ajami became run-down and neglected, and was reported to be the lowest-income neighborhood in Tel Aviv-Yafo despite being known for its palatial villas and unique architectural styles prior to 1948. The neighborhood suffers from a severe housing crisis and drug use.
Gentrification projects Despite these socio-economic problems and the neighborhood's severe housing crisis, the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality drew up plans to develop the neighborhood, which subsequently increased housing prices and led to the exodus of a growing number of Palestinian residents. Many of Ajami's Arab residents feel that they have come to suffer under
Tel Aviv-Yafo's Municipality's plans to 'develop' the neighborhood. Since the start of the gentrification process, many wealthy Jewish Israelis have moved into the neighborhood. In addition, some 497 eviction and demolition orders have been served by the
Amidar, Israel's government-operated public housing company, targeting Ajami and Jabaliyya residents. Ajami residents claim that this is a result of discriminatory policies which date back to the establishment of the Israeli state, but the Amidar company says they are illegal squatters. The housing crisis developed political overtones when one of the housing projects,
B'emuna, said its apartments would be sold only to members of the
religious-Zionist community. In February 2010, the
Tel Aviv District Court dismissed a stop work petition presented by 27 Ajami residents, which argued that the stipulation that housing in the project be available only to religious Jews discriminated against the neighborhood's Arab residents. In November 2010, the
Supreme Court of Israel rejected the appeal and upheld the continuation of the project. ==Landmarks==