Ancient Jaffa was built on a high
kurkar sandstone ridge, with a broad view of the coastline, giving it a strategic importance in military history. The
tell of Jaffa, created through the accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries, made the hill even higher.
Early Bronze Age Early Bronze I Jaffa was settled as early as the Early Bronze Age I period (4th millennium BCE). This is evidenced by numerous potsherds identified in excavations. The scarcity of material from this period is likely due to early remains being deeply buried beneath later occupational layers.
Early Bronze III While no direct archaeological have been found, some scholars have hypothesised that during the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2850–2400 BCE), Jaffa served as a natural harbour in the developing trade route between the
Old Kingdom of Egypt and the city of
Byblos (in present-day
Lebanon).
Middle Bronze Age Middle Bronze II The earliest remains of an actual settlement date to the 18th century BCE. Jaffa formed part of a broader pattern of settlements, comprising small villages, fortresses, and watchtowers, established in the central
coastal plain during this period. These include sites such as
Tel Aphek,
Tel Gerisa, and
Yavne-Yam. Excavations in Areas B–D on the northern slope of the mound revealed fortifications, including an earthen rampart that likely supported a mudbrick superstructure, which has not survived. Additional fortification elements, including traces of a gate dated to the 17th–16th centuries BCE, were uncovered in Area A on the eastern slope. These features are characteristic of Middle Bronze Age sites in the
Levant. Middle Bronze Age Jaffa was relatively modest in scale, covering approximately three hectares, but nonetheless occupied a strategic position along maritime trade routes connecting the Levant,
Egypt, and
Cyprus. Evidence of this trade includes imported Middle Cypriot pottery types, such as Black-on-Red Ware and White-Painted Ware, as well as Egyptian
Hyksos scarabs discovered at the site.
Late Bronze Age Egyptian period As late as the 15th century BCE Jaffa came under the imperial control of
Egypt's New Kingdom. It is listed among the cities conquered by
Thutmose III () of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, whose campaigns in the Levant are generally dated to the late 16th through early 15th centuries BCE. Jaffa likely served as a
ḥtm-base—a fortified harbour used to monitor movement along the coast. Jaffa is mentioned in
Papyrus Harris 500, which contains a partially preserved tale known as
The Taking of Joppa. The story recounts a Canaanite revolt against Egyptian rule. According to the account, the rebel leader left Jaffa—possibly to acquire supplies—and encountered the
Egyptian general Djehuty, who killed him. Djehuty then tricked the remaining rebels by hiding 200 soldiers in sacks, which were transported into the city under the guise of goods. Once inside, the soldiers emerged and captured Jaffa, apparently without a fight. This tale bears a striking resemblance to the later
Greek story of the
Trojan Horse, as recounted by
Homer, although it predates it by at least two centuries. The historicity of the story is questionable, considering its folkloristic character, but scholars have noted it may have conveyed historical memory, echoing Jaffa's importance to the Egyptian rule in the 15th century BCE. Around 1350 BCE, Jaffa was of strategic importance as attested by the
Amarna letters. It served as residence for Egyptian officials and as the administrative centre of the central coastal plain. The site is mentioned under its Egyptian name
Yapu, along its royal
granaries. During that period, Amarna Letter EA 138 implied that the Pharaoh suggested
Rib-Hadda, the king of
Byblos to seek refuge in the residence of an Egyptian official named Api. A clay-inscribed letter from the 12th century BCE found at the "''Governor's Palace''" (Building 1104) at the nearby
Tel Aphek, which served as a Royal-agricultural estate, recounts the supply of 12,000 to 15,000 litres of wheat to Jaffa. These were received by a man named Tur-šimati, likely an Egyptian official. Archaeological investigations in Jaffa have revealed massive fortifications and a monumental gateway from this period, nicknamed "Ramesses Gate", as well as a temple titled the "Lion Temple". Numerous Egyptian artifacts such as
scarabs were found, attesting to Egyptian cultural influences.
Iron Age Iron II In the
Hebrew Bible, Jaffa is depicted as the northernmost
Philistine city, bordering the
Israelite territories – more specifically those of
Tribe of Dan (hence the modern term "
Gush Dan" for the centre of the coastal plain). The Israelites did not manage to take Jaffa from the Philistines. Jaffa is mentioned four times in the
Hebrew Bible: as the northernmost
Philistine city by the coast, bordering the territory of the Tribe of
Dan (); as port-of-entry for the
cedars of Lebanon for
Solomon's Temple (); as the place whence the prophet
Jonah embarked for
Tarshish (); and again as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for the
Second Temple of Jerusalem ().
Assyrian period In the late 8th century BCE,
Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, recorded conquering Jaffa from its sovereign, the
Philistine king of
Ashkelon. Additionally, the city is mentioned in several
Zeno papyri. The area was transferred to
Seleucid control after the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE. According to , probably in the 163–162 BCE years during the
Maccabean revolt, Jaffa's non-Jewish inhabitants invited its Jewish foreign residents onto boats, subsequently sinking them and drowning hundreds. In retaliation,
Judas Maccabeus attacked Jaffa, setting the harbour on fire, destroying ships, and killing many inhabitants, though he did not attempt to hold the city. By 147
–146 BCE, his brother
Jonathan Apphus expelled the garrison of Seleucid king
Demetrius II from Jaffa but did not conquer the city. In 143 BCE,
Simon Thassi established a garrison in Jaffa, expelled the non-Jewish inhabitants to prevent them from collaborating with the Seleucid commander Tryphon, and fortified the city. During the operations of
Antiochus VII Sidetes in Judaea, he demanded the surrender of Jaffa among other cities. Simon negotiated a settlement by agreeing to pay a smaller tribute. Under Hasmonean king
Alexander Jannaeus (103
–76 BCE), Jaffa was one of several coastal cities controlled by the Jews, including
Straton's Tower,
Apollonia,
Iamnia, and
Gaza. Archaeological evidence from this period is limited but includes remnants of walls, tombs from the early first century BCE, and hoards of coins. Incidents of piracy before the Roman conquest are mentioned by
Josephus, who accused Aristobulus of instigating raids and acts of piracy. These claims are echoed by Diodorus and Strabo, though their reliability is debated, given the term
leistai (pirates) was often used pejoratively in this period. The population of the city during this period was predominantly Jewish. Excavations suggest urban expansion during the
Hellenistic period under Ptolemaic rule, followed by contraction under Seleucid and early Roman rule, and renewed expansion later in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Subsequently, the city was resettled by Jews expelled from neighbouring regions, along with references in
Talmudic sources to scholars associated with Jaffa. The new religion arrived in Jaffa relatively late, not appearing in historical records until the
Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. Early Christian texts describe Jaffa as a modest settlement, with varying accounts of its prosperity and state of preservation. In ''
Midrash Tanna'im
in its chapter , reference is made to Jose ben Halafta (2nd century) traveling through Jaffa. Jaffa seems to have attracted serious Jewish scholars in the 4th and 5th century. The Jerusalem Talmud (compiled 4th and 5th century) in Moed Ketan
references Rabi Akha bar Khanina of Jaffa; and in Pesachim
chapter 1 refers to Rabi Pinchas ben Yair of Jaffa. The Babylonian Talmud (compiled 5th century) in Megillah
16b mentions Rav Adda Demin of Jaffa. Leviticus Rabbah (compiled between 5th and 7th century) mentions Rav Nachman of Jaffa. The Pesikta Rabbati'' (written in the 9th century) in chapter 17 mentions R. Tanchum of Jaffa. Several streets and alleys of the Jaffa Flea Market area are named after these scholars.
Early Islamic period region In 636 Jaffa was conquered by Arabs. Under Islamic rule, it served as a port of
Ramla, then the provincial capital.
Al-Muqaddasi (/946 – 991) described
Yafah as "lying on the sea, is but a small town, although the
emporium of Palestine and the port of
Ar-Ramlah. It is protected by a strong wall with iron gates, and the sea-gates also are of iron. The
mosque is pleasant to the eye, and overlooks the sea. The harbour is excellent".
Mamluk period In March 1268,
Baibars, the sultan of the
Egyptian Mamluks, conquered Jaffa simultaneously with conquering
Antioch. Baibars's goal was to conquer
Christian crusader strongholds. commemorates the event:
In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate,...gave power to his servant...who has trust in him...who fights for Him and defends the faith of His Prophet...Sultan of Islam and the Muslims, Baybars...who came out with his victorious army on the 10th of the month of
Rajab from the land of Egypt, resolved to carry out
jihad and combat the intransigent
infidels. He camped in the port city of Jaffa in the morning and conquered it, by God's will, in the third hour of that day. Then he ordered the erection of the dome over the blessed minaret, as well as the gate of this mosque...in the year 666 of the
Hijra [1268 CE]. May God have mercy upon him and upon all Muslims.
Abu'l-Fida (1273–1331), writing in 1321, described "Yafa, in Filastin" as "a small but very pleasant town lying on the sea-shore. It has a celebrated harbour. The town of Yafa is well fortified. Its markets are much frequented, and many merchants ply their trades here. There is a large harbour frequented by all the ships coming to Filastin, and from it they set sail to all lands. Between it and Ar Ramlah the distance is 6 miles, and it lies west of Ar Ramlah."
Ottoman period 16th–18th centuries In 1515, Jaffa was conquered by the
Ottoman sultan Selim I. In the
census of 1596, it appeared located in the
nahiya of
Ramla in the
liwa of
Gaza. It had a population of 15 households, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3 % on various products; a total of 7,520
akçe. Botanist and traveller
Leonhard Rauwolf landed near the site of the town on 13 September 1575 and wrote "we landed on the high, rocky shore where the town of Joppe did stand formerly, at this time the town was so demolished that there was not one house to be found." (p. 212, Rauwolf, 1582) The 17th century saw the beginning of the re-establishment of churches and hostels for Christian pilgrims en route to Jerusalem and the Galilee. During the 18th century, the coastline around Jaffa was often besieged by pirates and this led to the inhabitants relocating to
Ramla and
Lod, where they relied on messages from a solitary guard house to inform them when ships were approaching the harbour. The landing of goods and passengers was notoriously difficult and dangerous. Until well into the 20th century, ships had to rely on teams of oarsmen to bring their cargo ashore. In 1775, Jaffa, then controlled by
Daher al-Umar,
was besieged by
Abu al-Dhahab, the mamluk strongman of
Ottoman Egypt. After 49 days of siege, the city was captured and all adult males in the city were executed, the women and children taken captive.
Napoleon (1799) , 1804
propaganda painting commissioned by Napoleon; completed by
Baron Gros, who had not visited Jaffa On 7 March 1799, French troops under
Napoleon captured the town in what became known as the
siege of Jaffa. The French breached the city walls, after which Napoleon granted his troops two days to sack the city in retaliation for his envoys being killed when delivering an ultimatum of surrender. French soldiers rampaged through the city, killing, looting and raping. Napoleon also ordered the massacre of 2,100 Ottoman prisoners of war after discovering that some of them had been previously captured by the French and released upon a promise not to take up arms again. Napoleon's deputy commissioner of war Jacques-François Miot described it thus: Many more died in an epidemic of
bubonic plague that broke out soon afterwards.
19th century after the
Oriental Crisis of 1840 Residential life in the city was reestablished in the early 19th century. The governor who was appointed after the devastation brought about by Napoleon,
Muhammad Abu-Nabbut, commenced wide-ranging building and restoration work in Jaffa, including the
Mahmoudiya Mosque and the public fountain known as
Sabil Abu Nabbut. During the 1834
Peasants' revolt in Palestine, Jaffa was besieged for forty days by "mountaineers" in revolt against
Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. In 1820, Isaiah Ajiman of Istanbul built a synagogue and hostel for the accommodation of Jews on their way to their
four holy cities - Jerusalem,
Hebron,
Tiberias and
Safed. This area became known as Dar al-Yehud (Arabic for "the house of the Jews"); and was the basis of the Jewish community in Jaffa. The appointment of Mahmud Aja as Ottoman governor marked the beginning of a period of stability and growth for the city, interrupted by the 1832 conquest of the city by
Muhammad Ali of Egypt. By 1839, at least 153
Sephardic Jews were living in Jaffa. The community was served for fifty years by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi
miRagusa. In the early 1850s, HaLevi leased an orchard to
Clorinda S. Minor, founder of a Christian messianic community that established Mount Hope, a farming initiative to encourage local Jews to learn manual trades, which the
Messianics did in order to pave the way for the
Second Coming of Jesus. In 1855, the British Jewish philanthropist
Moses Montefiore bought the orchard from HaLevi, although Minor continued to manage it. , 1887 American missionary Ellen Clare Miller, visiting Jaffa in 1867, reported that the town had a population of "about 5000, 1000 of these being Christians, 800 Jews and the rest Moslems". The city
walls were torn down during the 1870s, allowing the city to expand.
1900–1914 By the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Jaffa had swelled considerably. A group of Jews left Jaffa for the sand dunes to the north, where in 1909 they held a lottery to divide the lots acquired earlier. The settlement was known at first as Ahuzat Bayit, but an assembly of its residents changed its name to
Tel Aviv in 1910. Other Jewish suburbs to Jaffa had already been founded
since 1887, with others following until
the Great War. In 1904, rabbi
Abraham Isaac Kook (1864–1935) moved to Ottoman Palestine and took up the position of
Chief Rabbi of Jaffa.
Late Ottoman-period economy In the 19th century, Jaffa was best known for its soap industry. Modern industry emerged in the late 1880s. The most successful enterprises were metalworking factories, among them the machine shop run by the
Templers that employed over 100 workers in 1910.
Late Ottoman agriculture; Jaffa oranges Until the mid-19th century, Jaffa's orange groves were mainly owned by Arabs, who employed traditional methods of farming. The pioneers of modern agriculture in Jaffa were American settlers, who brought in farm machinery in the 1850s and 1860s, followed by the Templers and the Jews. From the 1880s, real estate became an important branch of the economy. A 'biarah' (a watered garden) cost 100,000 piastres and annually produced 15,000, of which the farming costs were 5,000: 'A very fair percentage return on the investment.' Water for the gardens was easily accessible with wells between ten and forty feet deep. Jaffa's citrus industry began to flourish in the last quarter of the 19th century. E.C. Miller records that 'about ten million' oranges were being exported annually, and that the town was surrounded by 'three or four hundred orange gardens, each containing upwards of one thousand trees'. Shamuti or Shamouti oranges, aka "
Jaffa oranges", were the major crop, but
citrons, lemons and
mandarin oranges were also grown. Jaffa had a reputation for producing the best
pomegranates. Developed the mid-19th century, the Jaffa orange was first produced for export in the city after being developed by Arab farmers. The Jaffa orange emerged as a mutation on a tree of the 'Baladi' variety of
sweet orange (
C. sinensis) near the city of Jaffa. After the
Crimean War (1853–56), the most important innovation in local agriculture was the rapid expansion of citrus cultivation. Foremost among the varieties cultivated was the Jaffa (Shamouti) orange, and mention of it being exported to Europe first appears in British consular reports in the 1850s. Another reason cited for the growth of the industry was the relative lack of European control over the cultivation of oranges compared to cotton, formerly a primary commodity crop of Palestine, but outpaced by the Jaffa orange. The prosperity of the orange industry brought increased European interest and involvement in the development of
Jaffa. In 1902, a study of the growth of the orange industry by
Zionist officials outlined the different Palestinian owners and their primary export markets as England, Turkey, Egypt and
Austria-Hungary. While the traditional Arabic cultivation methods were considered "primitive," an in-depth study of the financial expenditure involved reveals that they were ultimately more cost-efficient than the Zionist-European enterprises that followed them some two decades later.
First World War In 1917, the
Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation resulted in the Ottomans expelling the entire civilian population. While Muslim evacuees were allowed to return before long, the Jewish evacuees remained in camps (and some in Egypt) until after the British conquest. soldiers outside Jaffa municipality building, WWI (winter 1917–18) During the course of their
campaign through Ottoman Palestine and the Sinai (1915–1918) against the Ottomans, the British took Jaffa in November 1917, although it remained under observation and fire from the Ottomans. The
battle of Jaffa in late December 1917 pushed back the Ottoman forces securing Jaffa and the line of communication between it and Jerusalem, which had already been
taken on 11 December.
British Mandate File:Jaffa 1929.jpg|Jaffa 1929 1:20,000 File:Jaffa 1943.jpg|Jaffa 1943 1:20,000 File:Bat Yam 1945.jpg|Jaffa 1945 1:250,000
1920s: conflict and development According to the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Jaffa had a population of 47,799, consisting of 20,699 Muslims, 20,152 Jews and 6,850 Christians, increasing to 51,866 in the
1931 census, residing in 11,304 houses. During the
British Mandate, tension between the Jewish and Arab population increased. A wave of Arab attacks during 1920 and 1921 caused many Jewish residents to flee and resettle in
Tel Aviv, initially a marginal Jewish neighbourhood north of Jaffa. The
Jaffa riots in 1921, (known in Hebrew as
Meoraot Tarpa) began with a
May Day parade that turned violent. Arab rioters attacked Jewish residents and buildings killing 47 Jews and wounding 146. The Hebrew author
Yosef Haim Brenner was killed in the riots. At the end of 1922, Tel Aviv had 15,000 residents: by 1927, the population had risen to 38,000. Still, during most of the 1920s Jaffa and Tel Aviv maintained peaceful co-existence. Most Jewish businesses were located in Jaffa, some Jewish neighbourhoods paid taxes to the municipality of Jaffa, many young Jews who could not afford the housing costs of Tel Aviv resided there, and the big neighbourhood of
Menashiya was by and large fully mixed. The first electric company in the British Mandate of Palestine, although owned by Jewish shareholders, had been named the Jaffa Electric Company. In 1923, both Jaffa and Tel Aviv had begun a rapid process of wired electrification through a joint grid.
1930s: Arab revolt (1936–39) flying an
Arab flag, 1937 The
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine severely impacted Jaffa. On 19 April 1936,
riots broke out in Jaffa after rumours spread among the local Arab community that Jews had started to kill Arabs; Arab rioters attacked Jewish targets for three days before British security forces quelled the rioting. 9 Jews and 2 Arabs were killed and dozens more were wounded. In response to the riots, Arab leadership in Palestine declared a
general strike, which began in the
Jaffa Port and quickly spread to the rest of the region. After the start of the general strike,
British troops stationed in Palestine were bolstered by reinforcements from
Malta and
Egypt to subdue rioting which had broken out in several major Palestinian cities. Arab rioters in Jaffa used the
Old City, which contained a maze of homes, winding alleyways and an underground sewer system, to escape arrest by British security forces. On the evening of 17 June, 1,500 British troops entered Jaffa and a
Royal Navy warship moved near the Jaffa Port to seal off escape routes by sea. On 29 June, British forces carried out another round of house demolitions, carving a swath from north to south. The report produced by the
Peel Commission in 1937 recommended that Jaffa, together with
Bethlehem,
Jerusalem,
Lydda and
Ramle, remain under permanent British control, forming a "corridor" from the sea port to the Holy Places, accessible to Arabs and Jews alike; whereas the rest of Mandatory Palestine was to be split between an Arab state and a Jewish state.
1940–47: WWII; frictions Village Statistics of 1945 listed Jaffa with a population of 94,310, of whom 50,880 were Muslims, 28,000 were Jews, 15,400 were Christians and 30 were classified as "other". The Christians were mostly
Greek Orthodox and about one-sixth of them were members of the
Eastern Catholic Churches. One of the most prominent members of the Arab Christian community was the Greek Orthodox
Issa El-Issa, publisher of the newspaper
Falastin. In 1945, the Jewish community of Jaffa complained to the city mayor
Yousef Haikal that their neighbourhoods didn't receive appropriate municipal services (street lighting and paving, garbage removal, sewerage etc.) even though they contributed 40% of the municipality's budget. Some of the services (education, healthcare, and social services) had already been provided by
Tel Aviv Municipality at its own expense, which formed the base for the Jewish community's demand that the Mandatory government annex their neighbourhoods to Tel Aviv. In the year of 1946, Tel Aviv Municipality spent
£P 300K on services for the Jewish neighbourhoods of Jaffa, an increase from £P 80K in the year of 1942.
1948 war In 1947, the UN Special Commission on Palestine recommended that Jaffa be included in the planned Jewish state. Due to the large Arab majority, however, it was instead designated as an
enclave of the Arab state in the 1947
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. The enclave would have excluded the northern Jewish-populated parts of the city, but included the agricultural lands to the south and east of the city, extending to the then-boundaries of
Mikveh Israel,
Holon and
Bat Yam. The resolution was rejected by Palestinian Arab leadership and by the Arab League. Following the outbreak of
civil war following the passing of the UN partition resolution, the mayors of Jaffa and Tel Aviv tried to calm their communities. One of the main concerns for the people of Jaffa was the protection of the citrus fruit export trade which had still not reached its pre-Second World War highs. Eventually the bilateral orange-picking and exporting of both sides continued although without a formal agreement. As in Haifa, the irregulars intimidated the local population. In February Jaffa's Mayor,
Yousef Haikal, contacted
David Ben-Gurion through a British intermediary trying to secure a peace agreement with Tel Aviv, but the commander of the Arab militia in Jaffa opposed it. Simultaneously the
Haganah had launched
Operation Hametz, which overran the villages east of Jaffa and cut the town off from the interior. On 27 April the British Government, fearing a repetition of the mass
exodus from Haifa the week before, ordered the British Army to confront the Irgun in battle and their offensive ended. On 29 April, the Irgun commander for the Tel-Aviv & Jaffa district,
Eliyahu Tamler, was killed by a British shell. British
High Commissioner for Palestine,
Alan Cunningham stated that "It should be made clear that IZL attack with mortars was indiscriminate and designed to create panic among the civilian inhabitants." neighbourhood of Jaffa, May 1948. The Irgun bombing of Jaffa, whose casualties were mostly civilians, combined with the
fall of Haifa a few days earlier and fear of another massacre similar to the Irgun's
Deir Yassin massacre, caused panic amongst the Arab population of Jaffa, and most of them eventually fled the city. An Irgun intelligence report from 28 April stated that their bombardment of the city had "stopped the movement of buses to Jaffa and in it and paralyzed completely the supply of food to the city and in it. Hotels turned into hospitals. The shelling caused great panic. The port filled up with masses of refugees and the boarding of boats took place in confusion." In the following days a further 10,000–20,000 people fled by sea. When the Haganah took control of the town on 14 May around 4,000 people were left. The town and harbour's warehouses were extensively looted. The displacement of Jaffa's Arab population was part of the larger
1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. The city surrendered to the Haganah on 14 May 1948 and shortly after the British police and army left the city. Israeli historian
Benny Morris writes that "There was widespread institutional and private looting by Haganah and IZL troops and Tel Aviv citizens who infiltrated the town, there was robbery on the roads by patrolling Jewish troops (with ‘watches, rings, cash, etc.’ taken) and there was widespread vandalisation of property." The military administration in Jaffa lasted until 1 June 1949, at which point,
Tel Aviv Municipality took over the administration; Jaffa Municipality,
de-jure still in existence at the time, had not exercised any authority since 1948 until its dissolution in 1950.
State of Israel Gradual annexation into Tel Aviv The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became a matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government during 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the well-off Jewish suburbs in the north of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. and most of the others new
olim. Other former Arab villages incorporated into Tel Aviv–Jaffa include
Al-Mas'udiyya, annexed on 20 December 1942, in the New North;
Jarisha, annexed on 25 November 1943, on the southern bank of
Yarkon River;
Al-Jammasin al-Gharbi, annexed on 31 March 1948, and since 1957 redeveloped into
Bavli neighbourhood; and
Al-Shaykh Muwannis, annexed on 25 February 1949, The road passing between
Florentin and
Neve Tzedek neighbourhoods was until 1948 named Tel Aviv Road, being the main thoroughfare between the two city centres. After the annexation of Florentin into Tel Aviv, it became an internal road in Tel Aviv, so its name no longer made sense. Thus the section lying within the new Tel Aviv boundaries was renamed into Jaffa Road; and the section which became the new Tel Aviv–Jaffa boundary, into Eilat Street. Salama Road, a main eastwards road from Jaffa towards the depopulated village of
Salama, was renamed Shalma Road after the reconstructed Hebrew name of
Capharsalama () which is mentioned in as the location of the
battle of Caphar-salama. However, both names remain in use. Arabic street names were eventually replaced with Hebrew ones, e.g. Al-Kutub Street was renamed Resh Galuta Street, Abu Ubeyda Street was renamed She’erit Yisra’el Street, and Al-Salahi Street was renamed Olei Zion Street. This practice has been criticised by residents of affected Arabic neighbourhoods, who deem the names inappropriate (for example, a street named after Rabbi
Simcha Bunim of Peshischa was called a "local laughingstock" by Tel Aviv-Jaffa city councillor Ahmed Belha; and a street where the Al Siksik Mosque is located was renamed
Beit Eshel Street, after a short-lived Jewish settlement in what is now
Beersheba) and demand a return to Arabic names.
Urban development From the 1990s onwards, efforts have been made to restore Arab and Islamic landmarks, such as the Mosque of the Sea and
Hassan Bek Mosque, and document the history of Jaffa's Arab population. Parts of the
Old City have been renovated, turning Jaffa into a tourist attraction featuring old restored buildings, art galleries, theatres, souvenir shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes and promenades. Many artists have moved their studios from Tel Aviv to the Old City and its surroundings, such as the Jaffa port, the
American–Germany Colony and the flea market. Beyond the Old City and tourist sites, many neighbourhoods of Jaffa are poor and underdeveloped. However, real-estate prices have risen sharply due to gentrification projects in Ajami, Noga, and Lev Yafo. The municipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo is currently working to beautify and modernise the port area. ==Demography==