| Name | Tel Aviv-Yafo |
|---|
| Native name | |
|---|
| Iso | Tell ʔabib Yapo |
|---|
| Settlement type | City |
|---|
| Nickname | The White City, The City That Never Sleeps, The Big Orange |
|---|
| Pushpin map | Israel |
|---|
| Pushpin map caption | Location of Tel Aviv within Israel |
|---|
| Coordinates display | inline,title |
|---|
| Subdivision type | Country |
|---|
| Subdivision name | |
|---|
| Subdivision type1 | District |
|---|
| Subdivision name1 | Tel Aviv |
|---|
| Subdivision type2 | Metropolitan Area |
|---|
| Subdivision name2 | Gush Dan |
|---|
| Established title | Founded |
|---|
| Established date | April 11, 1909 |
|---|
| Government type | Mayor-council |
|---|
| Governing body | Tel Aviv municipality |
|---|
| Leader party | Labor |
|---|
| Leader title | Mayor |
|---|
| Leader name | Ron Huldai |
|---|
| Area total km2 | 51.4 |
|---|
| Area urban km2 | 176 |
|---|
| Area metro km2 | 1516 |
|---|
| Elevation m | 5 |
|---|
| Population total | 404,400 |
|---|
| Population rank | 2nd in Israel |
|---|
| Population urban | 1,284,400 |
|---|
| Population metro | 3,325,700 |
|---|
| Population as of | 2010 |
|---|
| Population density km2 | 7867.7 |
|---|
| Population density rank | 12th in Israel |
|---|
| Population density urban km2 | 7297.7 |
|---|
| Population density metro km2 | 2193.7 |
|---|
| Population demonym | Tel Avivi |
|---|
| Demographics type1 | Ethnicity |
|---|
| Demographics1 title1 | Jews |
|---|
| Demographics1 info1 | 91% |
|---|
| Demographics1 title2 | Muslims |
|---|
| Demographics1 info2 | 3% |
|---|
| Demographics1 title3 | Christians |
|---|
| Demographics1 info3 | 1% |
|---|
| Demographics1 title4 | Unclassified |
|---|
| Demographics1 info4 | 5% |
|---|
| Timezone1 | IST |
|---|
| Utc offset1 | +2 |
|---|
| Timezone1 dst | IDT |
|---|
| Utc offset1 dst | +3 |
|---|
| Postal code type | Postal code |
|---|
| Postal code | 61999 |
|---|
| Area code type | Area code |
|---|
| Area code | +972 (Israel) 3 (City) |
|---|
| Website | tel-aviv.gov.il |
|---|
Tel Aviv (), officially
Tel Aviv-Yafo (, Hebrew for "Spring Mound"-
Jaffa;
), is the
second most populous city in
Israel, with a population of 404,400. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by
Ron Huldai. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as
Tel Avivim.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Yaffo outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa (, Yafo; , Yaffa). The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population in this period. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings.
Tel Aviv is a beta+ world city, alongside cities such as Barcelona and San Francisco.
Known as "The City That Never Sleeps", its beaches, parks, bars, cafés, restaurants, shopping, cosmopolitan lifestyle and 24-hour culture have made it a popular destination, visited by over 1.6 million foreign tourists annually. Tel Aviv is an economic hub, home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, corporate offices and research and development centers. It is the country's financial capital and a major performing arts and business center. In 2007, New York City-based David Kaufman named it the "Mediterranean's New Capital of Cool". In 2010, Knight Frank's world city survey ranked it 34th globally. Tel Aviv has been named the third "hottest city for 2011" (behind only New York City and Tangier) by Lonely Planet, third-best in the Middle East & Africa by Travel + Leisure magazine, and the ninth-best beach city in the world by National Geographic.
Etymology
The name
Tel Aviv (literally "Spring Mound") was chosen in 1910 among many suggestions, including "Herzliya".
Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of
Theodor Herzl's book
Altneuland ("Old New Land"), translated from German by
Nahum Sokolow. Sokolow took the name from : "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the
river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."; this
biblical Tel Aviv (transliterated as
Tel-Abib in the
King James Bible) is an unidentified site in
Mesopotamia and not the modern Tel Aviv. This name was found fitting as it embraced the idea of the renaissance of the ancient Jewish homeland.
Aviv is Hebrew for "spring" (the season), symbolizing renewal, and
tel is an
archaeological site that reveals layers of civilization built one over the other.
Theories vary about the etymology of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. Some believe that the name derives from yafah or yofi, Hebrew for "beautiful" or "beauty". Another tradition is that Japheth, son of Noah, founded the city and that it was named for him.
History
Jaffa
The ancient port of
Jaffa changed hands many times in the course of history.
Archeological excavations from 1955 to 1974 unearthed towers and gates from the
Middle Bronze Age. Subsequent excavations, from 1997 onwards, helped date earlier discoveries. as bordering on the territory of the
Tribe of Dan; and as the port at which the wood for
Solomon's Temple in
Jerusalem arrived from Lebanon. According to some sources it has been a port for at least 4,000 years.
In 1099, the Christian armies of the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon occupied Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Muslims, fortified the town and improved its harbor. As the County of Jaffa, the town soon became important as the main sea supply route for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Jaffa was captured by Saladin in 1192 but swiftly re-taken by Richard Coeur de Lion, who added to its defenses. In 1223, Emperor Frederick II added further fortications. To prevent further Crusader incursions, the city was ransacked in 1336, 1344 and 1346 by Nasir al-Din Muhammad. In the 16th century, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottomans and was administered as a village in the Sanjak of Gaza. The sea wall, high, remained intact until the 1930s, when it was built over during a renovation of the port by the British Mandatory authorities. In 1908, the group purchased of dunes northeast of Jaffa. Following this purchase, Meir Dizengoff, who later became Tel Aviv's first mayor, decided to join Ahuzat Bayit. His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs.
In April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune on what is now Rothschild Boulevard to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv, although some neighbourhoods, such as Kerem HaTeimanim, already existed. The lottery was organised by Akiva Arye Weiss, president of the building society. The names of the families were inscribed on white shells and the plot number on shells of a different color. Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed.
By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than .
Under the British Mandate
Under
British administration, political friction between Jews and Arabs in
Palestine increased. On May 1, 1921, the
Jaffa Riots erupted and an Arab mob killed dozens of Jewish residents. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa for Tel Aviv, increasing the population of Tel Aviv from 2,000 in 1920 to around 34,000 by 1925.
Tel Aviv continued to expand in 1926, but suffered an economic setback between 1927 and 1930.
According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan for dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Tel Aviv, by then a city of 230,000, was slated for inclusion in the Jewish state. Jaffa with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people, 53,930 of whom were Muslim and 16,800 Christian, making up the Arab population, and 30,820 Jewish, was designated as part of the Arab state. The Arabs, however, rejected the plan. Today, all but two embassies are in Tel Aviv or environs. The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became a matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government in 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the northern Jewish suburbs of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular, liberal-minded center with a vibrant nightlife and café culture. A long period of steady decline followed, however, and by the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. The city is regarded as a strong candidate for global city status.
In the Gulf War in 1991, Tel Aviv was attacked by Scud rockets from Iraq, but there were few casualties and no fatalities. The inhabitants of the southeastern suburb of HaTikva erected an angel-monument as a sign of their gratitude, that "it was through a great miracle, that many people were preserved from being killed by a direct hit of a Scud rocket."
On November 4, 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo peace accord. The outdoor plaza where this occurred, formerly known as Kikar Malchei Yisrael, was renamed Rabin Square.
In 2009, Tel Aviv celebrated its official centennial. In addition to city- and country-wide celebrations, digital collections of historical materials were assembled. These include the History section of the official Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year website; and Stanford University's Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, documenting the history of the city.
Geography
Tel Aviv is located around on the
Israeli Mediterranean coastline, the
historic land bridge between
Europe,
Asia and
Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor
soil fertility. The land has been flattened and has no important gradients; its most notable geographical features are bluffs above the Mediterranean coastline and the
Yarkon River mouth. Because of the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa and between the city's neighborhoods do not exist. The city is located northwest of Jerusalem and south of the city of
Haifa. Neighboring cities and towns include
Herzliya to the north,
Ramat HaSharon to the northeast,
Petah Tikva,
Bnei Brak,
Ramat Gan and
Giv'atayim to the east,
Holon to the southeast, and
Bat Yam to the south. The city is economically stratified between the north and south. Southern Tel Aviv is generally reputed to be poorer than Northern Tel Aviv with the exception of
Neve Tzedek and some recent development on
Jaffa beach. Central Tel Aviv is home to
Azrieli Center and the important financial and commerce district along
Ayalon Highway. The northern side of Tel Aviv is home to
Tel Aviv University,
Hayarkon Park, and upscale residential neighborhoods such as
Ramat Aviv and
Afeka.
Climate
Tel Aviv has a
Mediterranean climate (
Köppen climate classification:
Csa), with hot, humid summers, unpredictable springs and autumns, and cool, rainy winters. Humidity tends to be high year-round due to the city lying on the coast. In winter, average temperatures are usually between and , with temperatures as low as occurring on average 2.1 days a year and as high as occurring several times a winter. The highest rainfall in one month was on January 2000. The highest rainfall in 24 hours was on November 8, 1955. In summer, the average is , with daytime temperatures sometimes exceeding . Despite the high humidity, precipitation during summertime is rare. Tel Aviv averages of precipitation annually, which mostly occurs during autumn, winter and spring. Winter is the wettest season, yet snow is extremely rare, with the last recorded
snowfall within city limits occurring in February 1950. Tel Aviv enjoys plenty of sunshine and long daytime hours with more than 300 sunny days a year. The average annual sunshine hours amount is 3317 hours, higher than
Miami and
Los angeles.
Neighborhoods
Tel Aviv is divided into nine districts that have formed naturally over the city's short history. The oldest of these is Jaffa, the ancient
port city out of which Tel Aviv grew. This area is traditionally made up demographically of a greater percentage of Arabs, but recent
gentrification is replacing them with a young professional and artist population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby
Neve Tzedek, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa.
Ramat Aviv, a district in the northern part of the city, that is largely made up of luxury apartments and includes the
Tel Aviv University, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning. The area known as
HaKirya is the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters and a large
military base. Florentine has quickly been reinvented as a hip, "cool" place to be in Tel Aviv with coffeehouses, markets, bars, galleries and parties.
Architecture
is an
Eclectic Style landmark in the heart of Tel Aviv]]
The early architecture of Tel Aviv consisted largely of
European-style single-story houses with red-tiled roofs. Some 3,000 buildings were created in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.
High-rise construction and towers
The
Shalom Meir Tower, Israel's first skyscraper, was built in Tel Aviv in 1965 and remained the country's tallest building until 1999. The
Azrieli Center, composed of three buildings— one square, one triangular, and one circular—usurped that title. Since 2001, Israel's tallest building is the
City Gate Tower, which is located in the neighboring city of
Ramat Gan, although the country's tallest wholly residential building, the
W-Tower, is in Tel Aviv. New neighborhoods, such as
Park Tzameret, are being constructed to house apartment towers such as
YOO Tel Aviv towers, designed by
Philippe Starck. Other districts, such as
Sarona, are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the
1 Rothschild Tower and
First International Bank Tower. As Tel Aviv celebrated its centennial in 2009, the city attracted a number of architects and developers, including
I. M. Pei,
Donald Trump, and
Richard Meier. American journalist
David Kaufman reported in
New York magazine that since Tel Aviv “was named a
UNESCO World Heritage site, gorgeous historic buildings from the Ottoman and Bauhaus era have been repurposed as fabulous hotels, eateries, boutiques, and design museums.”
Environmental campaigns and urban restoration
in Tel Aviv]]
Tel Aviv is ranked as the
greenest city in Israel. City lights are turned off, annually, in support of
Earth Hour, starting March 2008. In February 2009, the municipality launched a water saving campaign, including competition granting free parking for a year to the household that is found to have consumed the least amount of water per person.
In the early 21st century, Tel Aviv's municipality transformed a derelict
power station into a public park ("Gan HaHashmal") and
pedestrian walkway, paving the way for
eco-friendly and environmentally conscious designs. In October 2008, Martin Weyl turned an old garbage dump near
Ben Gurion International Airport, called
Hiriya, into an attraction by building an arc of plastic bottles. The site, which was renamed
Ariel Sharon Park to honor Israel’s former prime minister, will serve as the centerpiece in what is to become a
urban wilderness on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, designed by German
landscape architect,
Peter Latz.
Electric cars
In early 2008, Tel Aviv Municipality announced a pilot scheme to build charging stations for
electric cars. Initially, five charging points will be built, and eventually 150 points will be set up across the city as part of the Israeli
electric car project,
Project Better Place. Battery replacement points will be located at the city's entrances. A visitor center of Better Place is located in northwestern entrance to the city at Pi-Glilot site.
Better Place's primary R&D; facility is in Tel Aviv and is headed by Lior Storfer.
Demographics
The city has a population of 404,400 spread over a land area of (20 mi²), yielding a population density of 7,606 people per square kilometer (19,699 per square mile). According to the
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of 2009 Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.5%.
Jews of all backgrounds form 91.8% of the population,
Muslim and
Palestinian Christians make up 4.2%, and the remainder belong to other groups (including various non-Arab Christians and various non-Jewish
Asians). As Tel Aviv is a
multicultural city, many languages are spoken in addition to
Hebrew. According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered Asian
foreign workers live in the city. Compared with Westernised cities, crime in Tel Aviv is relatively low.
According to Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the average income in the city, which has an
unemployment rate of 6.9%, is 20% above the national average. The city's education standards are above the national average: of its 12th-grade students, 64.4% are eligible for
matriculation certificates.
Tel Aviv's population reached a peak in the early 1960s at around 390,000, falling to 317,000 in the late 1980s as high property prices forced families out and deterred young couples from moving in. In 2006, 22,000 people moved to the city, while only 18,500 left,
including historic buildings such as the Great Synagogue, established in the 1930s. In 2008, a center for secular Jewish Studies and a secular yeshiva opened in the city. Tensions between religious and secular Jews before the gay pride parade ended in vandalism of a synagogue. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Hassan Bek Mosque, on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The number of churches has grown to accommodate the religious needs of diplomats and foreign workers.
The population is 93 percent Jewish, 1 percent Muslim, and 1 percent Christian. The remaining 5 percent are not classified by religion. Israel Meir Lau is chief rabbi of the city.
Economy
Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, so that farming was not profitable, and maritime commerce was centered in
Haifa and
Ashdod. Instead, the city developed as a center of business and scientific research. In 1998, the city was described by Newsweek as one of the top 10 most technologically influential cities in the world. Since then, high-tech industry in the Tel Aviv area has continued to develop.
Tel Aviv is home to the
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Israel's only
stock exchange, which has reached record heights since the 1990s. The Tel Aviv Stock exchange has also gained attention for its resilience and ability to recover from war and disasters. For example, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was higher on the last day of both the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2009 Operation in Gaza then on the first day of fighting Many international
venture-capital firms,
scientific research institutes and high-tech companies are headquartered in the city. Industries in Tel Aviv include chemical processing, textile plants and food manufacturers.
In 2008, the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University reissued an inventory of world cities based on their level of advanced producer services. Tel Aviv was ranked as a beta+ world city. The cost of living in Israel is high, with Tel Aviv being its most expensive city to live in. According to Mercer, a human resources consulting firm based in New York, as of 2010 Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 19th most expensive in the world. It has been called "the city that never sleeps" and a "party capital" due to its thriving nightlife, young atmosphere and famous 24-hour culture. NBA player Anthony Parker called Tel Aviv the best basketball city to go out in. According to the Tel Aviv Municipality, it has 44 hotels with more than 6,500 rooms. Tel Aviv has branches of some of the world's leading hotels, including the Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Dan, Isrotel and Hilton. It is home to many museums, architectural and cultural sites, with city tours available in different languages. Apart from bus tours, there are also architectural tours, Segway tours, and walking tours.
Cuisine
Tel Aviv is famous for its wide variety of world-class restaurants, offering traditional Israeli dishes as well as international fare. More than 100
sushi restaurants, the third highest concentration in the world, do business in the city, and an
Italian restaurant in Tel Aviv was called the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
LGBT culture
Named by
Out Magazine "the
gay capital of the Middle East", Tel Aviv has a well-established
LGBT community.
American journalist
David Kaufman has described the city as a place “packed with the kind of ‘we're here, we're queer’ vibe more typically found in
Sydney and
San Francisco.
The city hosts its well-known
pride parade, the biggest in
Asia, attracting over 100,000 people yearly.
Early 2008 saw the city hosting Israel's first sex festival. In January 2008, Tel Aviv's municipality established the city's
LGBT Community Center, providing all of the municipal and cultural services to the LGBT community under one roof. In December 2008, Tel Aviv began putting together a team of gay and lesbian athletes for the
2009 World Outgames in
Copenhagen. In addition, Tel Aviv hosts an annual LGBT
Film Festival.
Tel Aviv's LGBT community is the subject of Eytan Fox's 2006 film ''The Bubble.
Fashion
Tel Aviv has become an international center of fashion and design. It has been called the “next hot destination” for fashion. Israeli designers, such as swimwear company
Gottex show their collections at leading fashion shows, including New York’s
Bryant Park fashion show.
Entertainment and performing arts
, the largest dance center in Israel]]
Tel Aviv is Israel's major center of culture and entertainment. Eighteen of Israel's 35 major centers for the performing arts are located in the city, including five of the country's nine large theaters, where 55% of all performances in the country and 75%
of all attendance occurs. The
Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center is the home of the Israeli Opera, where
Plácido Domingo was house tenor between 1962 and 1965, and the
Cameri Theater. With 2,760 seats, the
Frederic R. Mann Auditorium (
Culture Palace) is the city's largest theater.
Habima Theater, Israel's national theater, was closed down for renovations in early 2008. Enav Cultural Center is one of the newer additions to the cultural scene.
The city often hosts pop and rock concerts in venues such as Hayarkon Park, the Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center and the Barby Club.
Opera and classical music performances are held daily in Tel Aviv, with many of the world's leading classical conductors and soloists performing on Tel Aviv stages over the years. Among these are the Eretz Israel Museum, known for its collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University is Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora that tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile. Batey Haosef Museum specializes in Israel Defense Forces military history. The Palmach Museum near Tel Aviv University offers a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach. Right next to Charles Clore Park is a museum of the Etzel. The Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center, located in the northern part of the city, hosts more than 60 major events annually. Many offbeat museums and galleries operate in the southern areas, including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art gallery.
Sports
is home to professional basketball team
Maccabi Tel Aviv]]
Tel Aviv is the only city with three clubs in
Israeli Premier League, the country's top
football league.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1906 and competes in more than 10 sport fields. Its
basketball team,
Maccabi Tel Aviv, is a world-known professional team, that holds 47 Israeli titles, has won 36 editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships, and its
football team has won 18 Israeli league titles and has won 22
State Cups, two
Toto Cups and two
Asian Club Championships.
Yael Arad, an athlete in Maccabi's
judo club, won a silver medal in the
1992 Olympic Games.
Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club, founded in 1923, comprises more than 11 sports clubs, including Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (13 championships, 11 State Cups, one Toto Cup and once Asian champions) which plays in Bloomfield Stadium, men's and women's basketball clubs. Bnei Yehuda (once Israeli champion, twice State Cup winners and twice Toto Cup winner) is the only Israeli football team in the top division that represents a neighborhood, the Hatikva Quarter in Tel Aviv, and not a city. Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv both formerly played in the top division, but dropped into the lower leagues, and merged in 2000, the new club now playing in Liga Artzit, the third tier. Another former first division team, Maccabi Jaffa, is now defunct, as are Maccabi HaTzefon Tel Aviv, Hapoel HaTzefon Tel Aviv and Hakoah Tel Aviv, who merged with Maccabi Ramat Gan and moved to Ramat Gan in 1959.
Tel Aviv is also the home to Hapoel Ussishkin, a fan-owned basketball club founded in 2007 due to disagreements between the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball club's management and the fans.
Two rowing clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, established in 1935 on the banks of the Yarkon River, is the largest rowing club in Israel. Meanwhile, the beaches of Tel Aviv provide a vibrant Matkot (beach paddleball) scene. Tel Aviv Lightning represent Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League. Tel Aviv also has an annual half marathon, run in 2008 by 10,000 athletes with runners coming from around the world.
In 2009, the Tel Aviv Marathon was revived after a fifteen-year hiatus, and is run annually since, attracting a field of over 18,000 runners.
The National Sport Center is a compound of stadiums and sports facilities, also located within the Olympic Committee of Israel center and the "National Athletics Stadium" with the Israeli Athletic Association. Adjacent is a multi-purpose sports hall with the "Association Judo Israeli" And several Israeli sports associations.
Media
Headquarters]]
The three largest
newspaper companies in Israel -
Yedioth Ahronoth,
Maariv and
Haaretz - are all based within the city limits. Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.
The three major Israeli
television networks,
Keshet,
Reshet, and
Channel 10, are based in the city, as well as two of the most popular radio stations in Israel:
Galatz and
Galgalatz, which are both based in
Jaffa.
Local government
Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections. All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections. The municipality is responsible for social services, community programs, public infrastructure, urban planning, tourism and other local affairs. The Tel Aviv City Hall is located at
Rabin Square.
Ron Huldai has been mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998. The longest serving mayor was
Shlomo Lahat, who was in office for 19 years. The shortest serving was
David Bloch, in office for two years, 1925–27.
The demographic split in the city created political divisions between the Labor Party, usually strongest in the north, and Likud and other right-wing and religious parties, usually strongest in the south. While much of the country leaned right ahead of the 2009 Knesset elections in Israel, 34% of the Tel Aviv electorate voted for Kadima. Outside the kibbutzim, Meretz receives more votes in Tel Aviv than in any other city in Israel.
Mayors
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Mayors of Tel Aviv
!
! Name
! Took office
! Left office
|-
|1
|
Meir Dizengoff
|1921
|1925
|-
|2
|
David Bloch
|1925
|1927
|-
|3
|Meir Dizengoff
|1928
|1936
|-
|4
|
Israel Rokach
|1936
|1952
|-
|5
|
Haim Levanon
|1953
|1959
|-
|6
|
Mordechai Namir
|1959
|1969
|-
|7
|
Yehoshua Rabinowitz
|1969
|1974
|-
|8
|
Shlomo Lahat ("Chich")
|1974
|1993
|-
|9
|
Roni Milo
|1993
|1998
|-
|10
|
Ron Huldai
|1998
|
|}
Education
at
Tel Aviv University]]
Tel Aviv is home to a significant number of schools, colleges and universities. As of 2006, 51,359 children attended school in Tel Aviv, of whom 8,977 were in municipal kindergartens, 23,573 in municipal
elementary schools, and 18,809 in high schools. Its campus is located in the neighborhood of
Ramat Aviv. Tel Aviv also has several colleges.
Gymnasia Herzliya moved from Jaffa to Tel Aviv in 1909. The school continues to operate, although it has moved to Jabotinsky Street. Other notable schools in Tel Aviv include Shevah Mofet, the second Hebrew school in the city, Ironi Alef High School for Arts and Alliance.
Transportation
facing Ramat Gan]]
in northern Tel Aviv]]
Tel Aviv is a major transportation hub, served by a comprehensive public transport network, with many major routes of the national transportation network running through the city.
Bus and taxi
As with the rest of Israel, bus transport is the most common form of public transport and is very widely used. The
Tel Aviv Central Bus Station is located in the southern part of the city.The main bus network in Tel Aviv metropolitan area operated by
Dan Bus Company,
metropoline and
kavim. the
Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.
The city is also served by local and inter-city share taxis. Many local and inter-city bus routes also have sherut taxis that follow the same route and display the same route number in their window. Fares are standardised within the region and are comparable to or less expensive than bus fares. Unlike other forms of public transport, these taxis also operate on Fridays and Saturdays (the Jewish sabbath "Shabbat"). Private taxis are white with a yellow sign on top. Fares are standardised and metered, but may be negotiated ahead of time with the driver.
Rail
The
Tel Aviv Central train station is the main
train station of the city, and the busiest station in Israel. The city has three additional
train stations along the Ayalon Highway: The
Tel Aviv University,
HaShalom (adjacent to
Azrieli Center) and
HaHagana (near the
Tel Aviv Central Bus Station). It is estimated that over a million passengers travel by train to Tel Aviv monthly. The trains do not run on Saturday and holidays.
Roads
The main highway leading to the city is the
Ayalon Highway (Highway 20), which runs along the eastern side of the city from north to south along the Ayalon River riverbed, dividing for the most part Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. Driving south on the Ayalon gives access to
Highway 1, leading to
Ben Gurion International Airport and Jerusalem. Within the city, main routes include
Kaplan Street,
Allenby Street,
Ibn Gabirol Street,
Dizengoff Street,
Rothschild Boulevard, and in Jaffa the main route is Jerusalem Boulevard. Namir Road connects the city to
Highway 2, Israel's main north–south highway, and Begin/Jabotinsky Road, which provides access from the east through Ramat Gan,
Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva. Tel Aviv, accommodating about 500,000 commuter cars daily, suffers from increasing congestion. In 2007, the Sadan Report recommended the introduction of a
congestion charge similar to that of
London in Tel Aviv as well as other Israeli cities. Under this plan, road users traveling into the city would pay a fixed fee.
Tel Aviv Municipality encourages the use of bicycles in the city, with a bicycle sharing system planned to start working in April 2011 to serve of bicycle lanes. The bicycle route network has grown substantially in recent years.
Air
The main airport serving Tel Aviv is
Ben Gurion International Airport (
IATA: TLV). Located in the neighboring city of
Lod, it is the main airport of Israel, handling about 12 million passengers in 2010. The airport serves both international flights and domestic flights, and is the main hub of
El Al,
Arkia Israel Airlines,
Israir Airlines and
Sun D'Or International Airlines. The airport is southeast of Tel Aviv, on
Highway 1 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is often rated as the best airport in the
Middle East. Another airport in the Tel Aviv area,
Sde Dov (
IATA: SDV), in northwestern Tel Aviv, serves mainly domestic flights and may be closed in favor of real-estate development. In the future all services to Sde Dov will transfer to Ben Gurion Airport.
Light rail
The first line of a
light rail system is under construction and scheduled to open in 2016. The Red Line starts at
Petah Tikva's Central Bus Station, east of Tel Aviv and follows the Jabotinsky Road (Route 481) westwards at street level. At the point were Jabotinsky Road and
Highway 4 intersect the line drops into an underground tunnel for through
Bnei Brak,
Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv and emerges again to street level just before
Jaffa, were it turns southwards towards
Bat Yam.
The underground section will include 10 stations, including an interchange with Israel Railways services at Tel Aviv Central Railway Station and the nearby 2000 Terminal. A maintenance depot, connected via a branch line and tunnel to the main section of the line, will be constructed in Kiryat Arye, across from the existing Kiryat Arye suburban railway station. The owner of the first line, MTS, has had financial difficulties that postponed the line's opening. In May 2010, the ministry of finance decided to cancel the agreement with MTS due to the difficulties and the agreement cancelled in August 2010. The first opening target was 2012 and today the target is 2016 after several postponements.
Bicycle
In April 2011 Tel Aviv municipality opened a bike-rental project, in which 150 stations of bicycles for rent have been deployed, serving mainly the city center.
Twin towns — sister cities
Tel Aviv has a partnership with
Los Angeles, and is twinned with:
{|style="width:100%"
|-
| style="width:33.3%;"|
San Salvador, El Salvador
Mexico City, Mexico
Freiburg, Germany
Toulouse, France, since 1962
Philadelphia, United States, since 1967
Cologne, Germany, since 1979
Frankfurt, Germany, since 1980
Bonn, Germany, since 1983
Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 1988
Budapest, Hungary, since 1989
Belgrade, Serbia, since 1990
Warsaw, Poland, since 1992
Essen, Germany, since 1992
| style="width:33.3%;"|
Sofia, Bulgaria, since 1992
Cannes, France, since 1993
Łódź, Poland, since 1994
Milan, Italy, since 1994
Thessaloniki, Greece, since 1994
Beijing, China, since 1995
New York City, United States, since 1996
Barcelona, Spain, since 1998
| style="width:33.3%;"|
İzmir, Turkey, since 1998
Gaza, Palestinian Authority, since 1998 Note: Suspended by Tel Aviv in 2008
Almaty, Kazakhstan, since 1999
Chişinău, Moldova, since 2000
Incheon, South Korea, since 2000
Limassol, Cyprus, since 2000
Moscow, Russia, since 2000
São Paulo, Brazil, since 2004
Vienna, Austria, since 2005
Paris, France since 2010
Ottawa, Canada since 2011
|}
See also
White City (Tel Aviv)
Tel Aviv Port
Jaffa Port
Kiryat Atidim
References
Bibliography
Michael Turner, Catherine Weill-Rochant, Geneviève Blondiau, Silvina Sosnovsky, Philippe Brandeis, Sur les traces du modernisme, Tel-Aviv-Haïfa-Jérusalem, CIVA (ed.), Bruxelles 2004. (Hebrew and French)
Catherine Weill-Rochant, L'Atlas de Tel-Aviv 1908-2008, Paris, CNRS Editions, 2008. (Historical maps and photos, French, soon in Hebrew and English)
Catherine Weill-Rochant, Bauhaus » - Architektur in Tel-Aviv, L’architecture « Bauhaus » à Tel- Aviv, Rita Gans (éd.), Zurich, Yad Yearim, 2008. (German and French)
Catherine Weill-Rochant, 'The Tel-Aviv School : a constrained rationalism', DOCOMOMO journal (Documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the modern movement), April 2009.
And:
Catherine Weill-Rochant, Le travail de Patrick Geddes à Tel-Aviv, un plan d'ombre et de lumière, Saarbrücken, Éditions Universitaires Européennes, May 2010.
External links
Boutique Hotels in tel Aviv
The official Tel Aviv municipality website
The official Tel Aviv municipality website
The official Tel Aviv municipality website
The History of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv official tourism website
The Tel Aviv Foundation
The Gay Guide to Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv beach guide
8 days forecast in Tel Aviv
Category:Jewish villages in the Ottoman Empire
![Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Forty percent of national employment in finance and 25 percent of national employment in business services is in the city.[44] Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/29/f1/2e0efa6f84c44037b6782947354c_grande.jpg "Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Forty percent of national employment in finance and 25 percent of national employment in business services is in the city.[44] Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod.")
![Hacarmel market, Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/f1/c9/6a2a9fd131fe076085cb713db72c_grande.jpg "Hacarmel market, Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.")
![Tel Aviv Courthouse. Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[140] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/6f/71/2a8d3b8a21171f267d05ea9763db_grande.jpg "Tel Aviv Courthouse. Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[140] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections.")
![Tel Aviv Courthouse Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[135] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/a1/d5/3253a80c8ce7352ed03bd13ff5ad_grande.jpg "Tel Aviv Courthouse Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[135] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections")
![Yedioth Ahronoth headquarters. The three largest newspaper companies in Israel - Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz - are headquartered in Tel Aviv.[157] Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/53/52762b58b1e596e22ab1d5f64c0d_grande.jpg "Yedioth Ahronoth headquarters. The three largest newspaper companies in Israel - Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz - are headquartered in Tel Aviv.[157] Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.")
![G Cinema City in Rishon LeZion, The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/43/10/34439017bd9ccfce9fb459d0b385_grande.jpg "G Cinema City in Rishon LeZion, The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.")
![Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Forty percent of national employment in finance and 25 percent of national employment in business services is in the city.[44] Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/29/f1/2e0efa6f84c44037b6782947354c_thumb.jpg "Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Forty percent of national employment in finance and 25 percent of national employment in business services is in the city.[44] Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod.")
![Hacarmel market, Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/f1/c9/6a2a9fd131fe076085cb713db72c_thumb.jpg "Hacarmel market, Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.")
![Tel Aviv Courthouse. Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[140] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/6f/71/2a8d3b8a21171f267d05ea9763db_thumb.jpg "Tel Aviv Courthouse. Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[140] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections.")
![Tel Aviv Courthouse Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[135] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/a1/d5/3253a80c8ce7352ed03bd13ff5ad_thumb.jpg "Tel Aviv Courthouse Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections.[135] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections")
![Yedioth Ahronoth headquarters. The three largest newspaper companies in Israel - Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz - are headquartered in Tel Aviv.[157] Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/53/52762b58b1e596e22ab1d5f64c0d_thumb.jpg "Yedioth Ahronoth headquarters. The three largest newspaper companies in Israel - Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv and Haaretz - are headquartered in Tel Aviv.[157] Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.")
![G Cinema City in Rishon LeZion, The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110711152202im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/43/10/34439017bd9ccfce9fb459d0b385_thumb.jpg "G Cinema City in Rishon LeZion, The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area[1] (Hebrew: מטרופולין תל אביב), or Gush Dan (Hebrew: גוש דן), is a metropolitan area including areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel.")
