Jaffa’s current urbane landscape however, masks an amazingly rich history as one of the oldest port cities in the world – with huge potential yet to be exploited.

For good or bad, the massive redevelopment that has turned Jaffa into a satellite of Tel Aviv’s hip art and entertainment scene will change the face of Jaffa: but Jaffa’s historical heritage will never disappear.

History of Jaffa / Yafo

When taking a look at Jaffa’s amazing history, you could easily weave the tapestry of time to span the kingdoms of the Egyptian Pharoahs, the early biblical period, the bloody Crusades, the magnificence of the Ottoman Turks, the days when the British ruled most of the world, and right up to Israel’s independence. That’s a lot of history for one little fishing port city.

And whilst archaeologists can prove dates from excavated artifacts they can never verify the beguiling myths that surround the city.

Fables are retold of Jaffa/Yafo being named after Yefet, son of Noah who settled here after the Great Flood and the scriptures tell of how Jonah sailed from Jafa to Tarshish to escape God’s wrath.

Others will tell you Old Jaffa is the place where Andromeda was chained to the cliffs after her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, claimed her daughter was more beautiful than the daughters of Greek God Poseidon. Today you can see the chains on Andromeda’s rock at the entrance to Jaffa where they have remained since Perseus rescued the fair maiden from the jaws of The Cracken.

Previous rulers of Jaffa / Yafo

Jaffa has seen many rulers in its time. The city was the center for the government of Israel after it had been conquered by Pharoah III in the 15th century BCE. It was later populated by the Tribe of Dan until the days of King Solomon when Jaffa was a major port for the importation of Cedar from Lebanon that were used to build the Holy Temple.

Jaffa has also been the subject of conquest by Alexander the Great, Roman Legions and was the landing site for King Richard the Lionheart and his Crusaders, and then later Napoléon Bonaparte in his quest to capture the lands of the Ottoman Empire. And throughout these changing times, Jaffa remained the gateway to the Holy Land for pilgrims, refugees and immigrants.

Breakaway and reunification

By 1879 the city was outgrowing its boundaries, so the old wall was breached to begin new neighborhoods, including Neve Tzedek. There then followed a really turbulent time for both Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

At the outbreak of the First World War the ruling Turks were concerned about the city being a base of subversion and espionage with British sympathies and it became a stagnant place where no development or construction happened.

When the British finally arrived in the Holy Land in 1919 all the Jewish residents were banished from both Jaffa and Tel Aviv. It was only after the Turks left that the populace was able to return but during this time the Jews had moves underway to separate Tel Aviv as an independent city in its own right.

Tel Aviv finally freed itself as a neighborhood of Jaffa in 1921 after the Arab Riots, which were the culmination of the hostilities between the districts of Neve Tzedek and Manshia, which is today one of the commercial districts of Tel Aviv.

During the 1940s Jaffa was a seat of conflict held by the Revisionist National Military Organization until their surrender on May 13, 1948, the day before the State of Israel was formally recognized worldwide. All focus then switched to Tel Aviv. It was firmly established as the capital and became home to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament and government ministries.

Then, just one year later in 1949, the new Mayor of Tel Aviv, Israel Rokach, decided to reunite with Jaffa and in October 1949 the unification was granted government approval. Forty years after Jaffa’s Jews had left to establish Tel Aviv, the two cities became the new municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo.

The future

And now, a new era for Jaffa begins: the old harbor and many parts of Old Jaffa are slowly being transformed, turning Jaffa into a real tourist attraction with beautifully restored buildings, galleries, theaters, shops, restaurants, cafes and promenades.

Beyond Old Jaffa and its tourist sites, much of the “real” Jaffa is poor and underdeveloped. And thanks to some gentrification projects in al-Ajami and Lev Yafo, and the ever increasing prices in central Tel Aviv, real estate prices in Jaffa are also starting to rocket. Not a great thing, as the recent social protests throughout Israel this past summer will testify…

This redevelopment and gentrification will surely have an impact on Jaffa and its residents, for good and bad; but only ol’ Mother Time really knows what’s in the next chapter in Jaffa’s long history…

No, it’s not a chunk of the Western Wall. And no, it’s not a two year old felafel. What we have for you is a reprint of the New York Times on the day Israel’s independence was announced, back in 1948. The complete 32-page newspaper!

And to get your hands on this piece of history, all you have to do is add a comment below (make sure you enter your email address so we can contact you) OR head on over to our Facebook page (click here) and Like this post, the one about the prize (you have to Like the page before you can Like any posts). PLEASE NOTE: Liking this blog post will not enter you in the draw because we may not be connected and therefore I’ll have no way of knowing who you are. You have to Like the Facebook page and post.

As Amassador of Israel to the United States, Dr. Michael B. Oren, said “This newspaper is an incredible piece of history, and serves an important resource in documenting our history.”

The winner will be randomly selected using our Random Name Picker and announced on Independence Day (hangover permitting, so probably Wednesday!). We’ll then get in touch and post it to you. Don’t forget – if you’re not in it, you can’t win it!

Good luck!

And to really understand the roots of Judeo-Christianity, one of the founding pillars of what this area is all about, you really should head down to Qumran.

Qumran’s historical significance is, of course, dominated by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Beginning with the miraculous discovery made by a lost Bedouin boy in 1946, numerous scrolls were uncovered which were later revealed to be the oldest biblical Hebrew scriptures ever found (and not just ragged scraps of paper!). In total, the 700 scriptures are titanic in implication, as they contained evidence of speeches by Jesus and ancient Jewish prayers, among others, and the Qumran scrolls also affirmed the foundations of Judeo-Christianity.

What is less familiar to tourists is the history of the small group of isolationist inhabitants who populated Qumran, the Essenes. They were a hermit Jewish sect who believed that they were the chosen people and segregated themselves from society for spiritual reflection and study, abandoning worldly pleasures. They were preparing for an apocalyptic war and believed that its inception through a social revolution was nigh. Common practices included scheduled mass prayers, celibacy (which explains the small population of only 200) and a largely agricultural focus.

What to see at Qumran National Park

There hence emerges a twofold mission that a tourist seeking to fully explore the Qumran site really should take on. The first is, of course, to view the Dead Sea Scrolls. Doubters will be hard-pressed to find a rebuttal to the physical evidence of Jesus’ speeches in the Holy Land. Believers consider this a pilgrimage, to view the best-restored Biblical prose in history. The second is to view the other documents, which compile information about the Essenes’ daily lives, and the artifacts that offer up for inspection the minute details of their existence.

The historians among you will view with great interest the documentation of their deeply religious existence, including their unwavering observation of the Sabbath, communitarian duties and strictly observed prayer routines. Artifacts including ancient agricultural tools, pottery, aqueducts and cisterns add flavor and credence to these texts. The excellent audio-visual presentations should not be missed. The history of this region is often complex and confusing, but is admirably fleshed out in an entertaining, accurate and concise manner.

The Qumran National Park consists of multiple caves with varying exhibits of focus and content, so to use your time wisely, it is highly recommended that you purchase a local map from the Visitor’s Center.

Once you’re done at Qumran, we’d highly recommend the mighty desert fortress at Masada, just down the road. In fact, it might be better to start the day at Masada which is more open to the elements, and then head to Qumran.

How to get there

Getting to Qumran National Park is a short 40-minute bus or car ride from Jerusalem. If you are driving, turn into Kibbutz Kala along Route 90 which runs parallel to the Dead Sea.

Opening hours are fairly regular. From April 1 through September 30, the site is open from 0800 hours to 1700 hours, though entrances will stop at 1600 hours. From October 1 through March 31, the site is open from 0800 hours to 1600 hours, though entrances will stop at 1500 hours. Take note that on Fridays and the eve of Jewish holidays, the sites close an hour earlier and entrances are also disallowed an hour earlier.

The site is fairly easy to get around, and will probably take you 1-2 hours.

Prices: Adult: NIS 21; Child: NIS 9, and senior citizens get a 50% discount. There are group discounts.

Telephone: 02-9942235

The opening sequence of the documentary has a great little clip of how Tel Aviv grew into the metropolitan monster it is today, thanks to a scale model of the city created by animator Liron Damir. Worth a watch!

Here’s a longer clip of the first part of the documentary, just for those interested in a bit of Tel Aviv history.

And some of you might not agree with some of their views and political leanings, and yes, even their place in the list, but there’s no doubting their influence on Israeli history. Please, repeat after me: this list is intended as a good read, an introduction to some of the characters behind Israel, nothing more, nothing less…

	God – Quite probably the first real original Israeli hero. Some might argue whether or not he’s exclusively Israeli, but without him it’s hard to see how Israel could exist. Also now accessible via Twitter (@God). Read more about God…
	Jesus of Nazareth - The son of God (see above), Jesus had an important part to play in the history of the Holy Land some 2000 years ago. Ever since his birth in Bethlehem, his presence here has been celebrated by millions of Christian visitors via the many Holy Land Christian sites. For more…
	Moses – God’s right-hand man in creating the Holy Land, Moses was handed the Ten Commandments by God and also asked to bring back the Hebrews from Egypt. He lived til 120 years old but never made it to Israel. As far as we know, he has no connection with the chain of Holy Moses restaurants in Israel. For more…
	Theodore Herzl - The founding father of Zionism, Herzl is the main man behind the finding of a homeland for the Jewish nation. After attempts to create a homeland in Uganda and Russia failed, he helped initiate a plan in the Middle East – the Israel that we know and love today. For more…
	David Ben Gurion - Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurionplayed a big part in the 1948 War of Independence. He also helped build many of the country’s systems and infrastructure and also helped to bring many Jews from all over the world. After his death in 1973 he was voted one of Time’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. For more…
	Simcha Blass- Who? That’s right, Simcha Blass, Israel’s water engineer extraordinaire. He was the man who developed and produced the water dripping system during the 1950s that has done a great deal to make Israel bloom, despite the very difficult climate. For more…
	Avraham Stern - One of Israel’s first real freedom fighters, Stern even created an underground unit known as Lehi in his efforts to oust the British from the Holy Land in the 1930′s/40s. I’ve always had a soft spot for him ever since living in Stern street in the Florentine neighbourhood a few years back. For more…
	Menachem Begin - Begin was another of Israel’s freedom fighters during the 1930s/40s, who led the Irgun. He later became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel, during which time he signed a peace treaty with Sadat of Egypt in 1979, which earned them both a Nobel Peace prize. For more…
	Yitzhak Shamir – Quite possibly the shortest legend on the list, Shamir was another who first made his name as a freedom fighter struggling against British rule, as a member of both the Irgun and Lehi. He later worked for the Mossad (Israel secret service) before moving into politics. He was Prime Minister twice during the 1980s. For more…
	Uziel Gal- A German born gun designer, he is the man behind the Uzi submachine gun, which was officially adopted by the Israeli army in 1951. Uzi gets a place on this list because I’ve had the privilege to handle one of his guns when I played an Israeli paratrooper in a movie partly filmed in Tel Aviv. For more…
	Eli Cohen-  A legendary Israeli spy who infiltrated the Syrian intelligence and upper echelons of the Syrian Army. Thanks largely to his work, the Syrian defences on the Golan Heights were quickly wiped out at the start of the Six Day War in 1967. Caught in the act, he was publicly executed in 1965. He was extremely well connected; at one point he was apparently third in line to succeed as Syrian President! For more…
	Moshe Dayan - Perhaps the man with the world’s most famous eyepatch (he lost his eye in battle), Dayan is the face that represents the fighting State of Israel that battled so valiantly throughout the 50s and 60s. As a very charismatic Defence Minister he took a lot of credit for the Six Day War in 1967. For more…
	Golda Meir - Israel’s first woman Prime Minister, from 1969 to 1974, often known as the Iron Lady (long before Maggie Thatcher) and “the best man in the government”. She was partly blamed for the losses during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, which ultimately brought an end to her Premiership. She died 4 years later. For more…
	Ariel Sharon - The former Prime Minister now lying in a coma, Sharon has always been a controversial figure in Israel. From his early army days as the leader of Israel’s first special unit force, to his withdrawal from Gaza in 2004, he has always been in the headlines, for good or bad. Perhaps the last of Israel’s golden generation. For more…
	Yitzhak Rabin - Twice Israel’s Prime Minister during the 70s and 90s, Rabin was mainly a military man, including a famous stint as Chief of Staff through the victorious Six Day War. He was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords which won him, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat Nobel Peace prizes, but which ultimately led to his assassination in 1995, an act that rocked a nation…For more…
	Mirabilis (ICQ) - Just think how the modern techie world would look without ICQ’s groundbreaking messaging system. Who knows, would we even have gone down the road of Facebook or Twitter? And selling to AOL for $400m for a product that wasn’t generating any revenue guarantees their legendary status, at least among the IT set. For more…

An olde worlde map of Israel and the surrounding area

OK, so you’re interested in digging a little deeper into what makes the Holy Land really tick (some might even say the tick-tick-tick of a time-bomb…). This article gives a short history of Israel, a highlights package if you like, and is based on facts researched – if we’ve drastically erred and something is wrong, please let us know. And if you need more about the history of Israel, we can highly recommend the books in our store, most of which have been read and devoured by this author.

Are you settled comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

A Jewish presence in Israel can be traced back to 3000 BC with the land called Kanaan, populated by Kanaanites, and a certain Abraham, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, known as the patriarchs of Israel. These guys are buried in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Abraham’s descendants managed to unite as a nation in about 1300 BC after their Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Uncle Moses, who soon revealed a certain Ten Commandments.

Over many years the Jews were banished by various conquering empires and then returned triumphantly from exile, only to be swarmed over by Romans in 63 BC. During one revolt in 66 CE, the Jews named their land Israel for the first time. Another revolt (yes, the Jews were a rebellious bunch) in 135 CE saw the Jews barred from Israel and the land was renamed Palaestina (oh, can you spot the latin form of Palestine?). Palaestina became part of the East Roman Empire until 634.

In 634 Palaestina was conquered by the Caliphate (Islamic rulers). This rule was interrupted between 1099 and 1187, when the Christian Crusaders crusaded their crusade through the Middle East, killing Jews and Arabs with religious fervor. From 1187 Palaestina was ruled by the rulers of Egypt. The Ottoman Empire conquered the area in 1517 and it became a province of Syria.

At this point the history trail goes a little cold, until efforts were initiated to establish a sovereign nation for the Jews at the end of the nineteenth century, by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement. Uncle Theo was backed up by the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which plugged the British governments support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. After defeating the Ottomans in World War I, Palestine was seized by the United Kingdom in 1917/1918 and the area became the British League of Nation Mandate of Palestine in 1923.

In the subsequent years, Jews immigrated from all around the world, perhaps most notably from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Violence between Arab and Jewish communities was common. British efforts to keep their Arab buddies happy and restrict immigration were countered by the world’s support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis during World War II. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration.

In 1948, the Jewish Community in Israel under David Ben-Gurion, modern Israel’s first real icon, complete with wild hair, reestablished sovereignty over their homeland. Declaration of independence of the State of Israel was announced on May 14, 1948. The next day, the neighboring Arab countries, who were understandably kind of pissed, rejected the UN partition plan and attacked Israel, but Israel actually ended up conquering more of Palestine than reckoned by the United Nations. Many Palestinian Arabs fled the country, a contentious issue that still plays out today…

Israel made it until 1956 without another war before the Suez war grabbed international attention. In response to Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran, French, British and Israeli forces fought Egypt. Ultimately there were no gains in territory and was followed by several years of terrorist attacks and infiltrations across Israel’s borders.

In what was perhaps Israel’s finest hour, Israel launched the Six Day War in 1967, in response to Egypt’s order to UN peacekeepers to withdraw from the Sinai and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel’s borders. After 6 intense days, all parties agreed to a cease-fire. Israel retained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem. Areas which were to play a central role in shaping Israel over the years to come.

In 1973 Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Although Israel was hit hard the first few days by Egypt and Syria, Israel managed to push them back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped bring about a ceasefire. But Israel’s golden post-67 era was over.

The Yom Kippur war resulted in Prime Minister Golda Meir being succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. In 1977 the conservative Likud alliance won the elections and for the first time Israel had a government without strong socialist influences, led by Menachem Begin. The 1970′ s also saw Israel’s emergence into the international community of culture. Most notably, two consecutive Eurovision contest wins (78-79) and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s conquering of European basketball in 1977.

Negotiations led by Begin in 1979 resulted in the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, including the dramatic visit by President Sadat of Egypt to Israel. This also led to the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai in 1982. In the same year, in an effort to force Yasser Arafat’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) out of Beirut, Israel invaded Lebanon. The PLO eventually withdrew its forces from Lebanon.

The end of Saddam Hussein’s threat during the Gulf War in 1991 led to negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. After the election victory of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, Israel and the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles in 1993; this set out a number of principles, including the transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently signed agreements in 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians. In the same year Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty.

This new era of hope was soon tempered by the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, perhaps Israel’s most heart wrenching moment, bringing the bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Rabin was succeeded by Shimon “2nd place” Peres (good old Shimon, always ready to step in), but he still managed to lose the 1996 elections to Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-of-center Likud. In 1999 Ehud Barak of the more left-of-center Avoda won elections. After further Israel-Palestinian talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel and the Palestine territories in 2000.

For a number of years confidence on both sides diminished and terror struck the streets of Israel with alarming regularity, leading once again to the return of the Likud party, in the guise of Ariel Sharon. His sudden hospitalization led to the rise of Ehud Olmert, once mayor of Jerusalem and since much maligned leader, especially after the failure of the 2006 Second Lebanon War. His decision to stand down in the autumn of 2008 means another new era for Israel.