Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians: Breifly, Jaffa History

Posted on November 12, 2000

Jaffa
Known in Arabic as Yafa, in Hebrew as Yafo, and in ancient biblical writings as Joppa, Jaffa has been occupied for millennia and conquered by numerous invaders and empires, including Romans, crusaders, Ottomans, Napoleon, the Egyptian campaign of Ibrahim Pasha, the British, and finally, Israel. Along with ACRE, Jaffa was one of Palestine's main two seaports until the twentieth century. It was a trade city of major importance, as well as the traditional point of arrival for first pilgrims and later Jewish immigrants.
Given the city's fertile and irrigated farmland and central location, agriculture and trade were the mainstays of Jaffa's economy. Jaffa was also noted for its large fruit groves, particularly its famous orange groves, home of the renowned Jaffa orange, which was exported throughout the world.
Jaffa's position as Palestine's gateway to the world made it one of the country's most important centers of trade. Trade grew during the Egyptian period, and Jaffa's size and importance grew further as Palestine became increasingly linked with the industrial European economy in the nineteenth century .Importing and exporting were facilitated by the opening of a railroad line to Jerusalem in 1892. After World War I, the railroad line starting in Qantara was extended through Jaffa to Haifa. Jaffa was also a center for fishing and the manufacture of soap and olive oil, as well as benefiting from tourism and pilgrimage.
Jaffa's population began to grow in the nineteenth century, just as its demography began to change. Population increased from 23,000 in 1892 to 70,000 just prior to World War I. Not all of the new inhabitants were Arabs, however. Settlers from the German religious Temple Society movement arrived in 1869. The Roman Catholic Franciscan Order built a monastery on the site of the citadel, and French and Italian merchants began arriving as trade with Europe expanded. Beginning around 1841, Sephardic Jews from North Africa began settling in Jaffa as well. They were joined by European Jews from the 1880s. Despite the establishment of the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv in 1909 just to the north of Jaffa, Jaffa's Jewish population continued to grow.
Jaffa was also one of the main cultural centers for Palestinians. Its writers made important contributions to the Palestinian literary movement, and most of the country's Arabic newspapers were published there.
The PALESTINE MANDATE and the Palestinian Zionist conflict affected Jaffa's fortunes considerably. The city's population grew from 47,000 in 1922 to some 94,000 in 1944 (of whom 28,000 were Jews). But because of the 1936 general strike in the Palestinian sector, Haifa and Tel Aviv quickly eclipsed Jaffa in its role as the main port in Palestine, despite the opening of Jaffa's harbor that year. 'the city was also affected by the rising nationalist tensions between Jews and Palestinians, especially given the fact that Jaffa was the main port of entry for Jewish immigrants. Intercommunal violence escalated into general violence in April 1921. In June 1936, large parts of the old city were demolished by the British in the midst of the general strike.
In April 1948, during the ARAB-ISRAELI WAR OF 1948, Jaffa was attacked by Irgun and Haganah forces; it surrendered on May 13. After a mass exodus, only some 3,600 of its Palestinian inhabitants remained in the city by the end of 1948. The decline of Jaffa thereafter was signified by its merger with Tel Aviv and the establishment of a joint municipality .
Michael R. Fischbach

The above was quoted from Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians edited by Philip Mattar

Source: www. palestineremembered
Link: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/Jaffa/Story160.html

Palestinian History, A Chronology

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638
Arabs under the Caliph 'Umar capture Palestine from Byzantines.
661-750
Umayyad caliphs rule Palestine from Damascus. Dynasty descended from Umayya of Meccan tribe of Quraysh. Construction of Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem by Caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705). Construction of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem by Caliph al-Walid I (705-715).
750-1258
'Abbasid caliphs rule Palestine from Iraq. Dynasty, founded by Abu al-' Abbas al-Saffah, who is descended from' Abbas, uncle of the Prophet.
969
Fatimid dynasty, claiming descent from the Prophet's daughter Fatima and her cousin 'Ali, rule Palestine from Egypt. They proclaim themselves caliphs in rivalry to the' Abbasids.
1071
Saljuqs, originally from Isfahan, capture Jerusalem and parts of Palestine, which remains officially within the 'Abbasid Empire.
1099-1187
Crusaders establish the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1187
Kurdish general Saladin (Salah al-Din who was born in Takrit northern Iraq, the birth place of Saddam Hussein too), son of Ayyub, the sultan of Mosul, defeats Crusaders at Hittin in northern Palestine and recaptures Jerusalem. The Ayyubid dynasty rules Palestine from Cairo.
1260
Mamluks succeed Ayyubids, ruling Palestine from Cairo; defeat Mongols at Battle of 'Ayn Jalut near Nazareth.
1291
Mamluks capture final Crusader strongholds of Acre and Caesarea.
1516-1917
Palestine incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with its capital in Istanbul.
1832-1840
Muhammad 'Ali Pasha of Egypt occupies Palestine. Ottomans subsequently reassert their rule.
1876-1877
Palestinian deputies from Jerusalem attend the first Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul, elected under a new Ottoman Constitution.
1878
The first modern Zionist agricultural settlement of Petach Tiqwa established (click here to learn more about Zionist and its impact on the Palestinian people).
1882-1903
First wave of 25,000 Zionist immigrants enters Palestine, coming mainly from eastern Europe.
1882
Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris starts financial backing for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1887-1888
Palestine divided by Ottomans into the districts (sanjaks) of Jerusalem, Nablus, and Acre. The first was attached directly to Istanbul, the others to the wilayet of Beirut.
1896
Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and writer, publishes Der Judenstaat, advocating establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine or elsewhere.
1896
Jewish Colonization Association, founded in 1891 in London by German Baron Maurice de Hirsch, starts aiding Zionist settlements in Palestine.
1897
First Zionist Congress in Switzerland issues the Basle Program calling for the establishment of a "home for the Jewish people in Palestine." It also establishes the World Zionist Organization (WZO) to work to that end.

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1900 - 1918

1901
Jewish National Fund (JNF) set up by fifth Zionist Congress in Basle to acquire land for WZO; land acquired by JNF to be inalienably Jewish, and exclusively Jewish labor to be employed on it, click here to read to Zionist apartheid & racist quotes.
1904-1914
Second wave of about 40,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to about 6% of total. Since the inception of Zionism it has been claiming that Palestinian was an empty country, click here to read our rebuttal to this argument.
1909
Establishment of the first kibbutz, based exclusively on Jewish labor. Tel Aviv founded north of Jaffa.
1914
World War I starts.
1916
30 January
Husayn-McMahon correspondence between Sharif Husayn of Mecca (leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans) and Sir Henry McMahon (British High Commissioner of Egypt) ends in agreement for postwar independence and unity of Arab provinces of Ottoman Empire.
16 May
Sykes-Picot Agreement secretly signed, dividing Arab provinces of Ottoman Empire between Britain and France. Agreement revealed by Bolsheviks in December 1917.
June
Sharif Husayn proclaims Arab independence from Ottomans. Arab Revolt against Istanbul begins.
1917
2 November
Balfour Declaration. British Secretary of State Balfour pledges British support for "a Jewish national home in Palestine."
1918
September
Palestine occupied by Allied forces under British General Allenby.
30 October
World War I ends.

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1919 - 1922

1919-1923
Third wave of over 35,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to 12% of total. Registered Jewish landownership (1923) totals 3% of area of country.
1919
27 January-10 February
First Palestinian National Congress in Jerusalem sends memoranda to Paris Peace Conference rejecting Balfour Declaration and demanding independence.
28 August
Paris Peace Conference sends Commission of Inquiry to Near East, led by U.S. commission members Henry C. King and Charles Crane. England and France decline to participate. Commission recommends "serious modification" of idea of "making Palestine distinctly a Jewish Commonwealth."
1920
April
Disturbances in Palestine; 5 Jews killed, 200 wounded. British appoint Palin Commission of Inquiry .Commission report attributes troubles to none fulfillment of promises of Arab independence and fear of political and economic consequences of Zionism.
25 April
Palestine Mandate assigned to Britain by Supreme Council of San Remo Peace Conference.
May
British prevent Second Palestinian National Congress from convening.
1 July
High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, an Anglo-Jewish politician, inaugurates British civilian administration.
December
Third Palestinian National Congress, meeting in Haifa, elects Executive Committee, which remains in control of Palestinian political movement from 1920 to 1935.
1921
March
Founding of the Haganah, the Zionists' illegal underground military organization.
1 May
Disturbances in Jaffa protesting large-scale Zionist immigration; 46 Jews killed, 146 wounded. British Haycraft Commission of Inquiry (October) attributes disturbances to fears of Zionist mass immigration.
8 May
Haj Amin al-Husayni appointed Multi of Jerusalem.
May-June
Fourth Palestinian National Congress, convening in Jerusalem, decides to send a Palestinian delegation to London to explain the Palestinian case against the Balfour Declaration.
1922
3 June
British colonial secretary Winston Churchill issues White Paper excluding Transjordan from scope of Balfour Declaration. Ignoring political criteria, White Paper authorizes Jewish immigration according to "economic absorptive capacity" of the country.
24 July
League of Nations Council approves Mandate for Palestine.
August
Fifth Palestinian National Congress, meeting in Nablus, agrees to economic boycott of Zionists (see 1901 entry on JNF).
October
First British census of Palestine shows population of 757,182 -78% Muslim Arab, 11% Jewish, 9.6% Christian Arab. It is often claimed that Palestine was empty until Zionist Jews made the Palestinian desert bloom, click here to read our response to this argument.

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