Tel Aviv–Yafo

Tel Aviv–Yafo

 or Tel Aviv–Jaffa

City (pop., 2005 est.: 371,400) and main port of Israel. The hub of Israel's largest urban centre, it was formed in 1950 by the incorporation of the ancient port of Jaffa with Tel Aviv, its former suburb. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 and was the capital of Israel (1948–50). It grew with Jewish immigration in the early 20th century and by 1936 was the largest and most important city in Palestine. Jaffa was an old Canaanite city that was taken by Egypt in the 15th century BC and occupied by the Israelite kings David and Solomon. Over the centuries it was ruled by the Ptolemies, Syrians, and Romans, captured by the Crusaders, and razed by the Mamluks. The British occupied it in 1917; it surrendered to Jewish military forces during the first Arab-Israeli war (1948). Israel's main business, communications, and cultural centre, it is the site of more than half of Israel's industrial plants, the country's stock exchange, Tel Aviv University (1953), and Bar-Ilan University (1953).