Tel Aviv or Tel Aviv-Yafo is the most populous city in Israel and its capital, ahead of West Jerusalem, with a population of 414,600. It is located in central-west Israel, within the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, Israel’s largest metropolitan area, containing 42% of Israel’s population. It is also the largest and most populous in Gush Dan, which is collectively home to 3,464,100 residents. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim (singular: Tel Avivi). Tel Aviv is Israel’s de jure capital, de facto it is West Jerusalem, which, however, is only tolerated by the international community, but isn’t recognized as such.
After the Israeli Declaration of Independence by David Ben-Gurion, most countries established their embassies in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv, as the status of Jerusalem in accordance with the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was considered unclear. After Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and had declared in the Jerusalem Law, the “complete and united Jerusalem” as the capital of Israel (which was immediately declared null and void by the UN), the United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 under leadership of the USA called on all states that had their embassies in Jerusalem to close and relocate them. Today, nearly all diplomatic missions are located in and around Tel Aviv.
On May 14, 2018, the Provisional US Embassy was opened in the offices of the US Consulate General in Jerusalem. The building is located in the Arnona neighborhood, centered on the City Line running through Jerusalem as part of the Green Line, and thus partially in the part that was defined as a No man’s land in 1949. Even if it was pure symbolism, especially since the construction of the new embassy building will take years and until then the vast majority of embassy staff will continue to remain in Tel Aviv, while only the ambassador and some personal employees commute. The plain announcement of the embassy move caust massive Palestinian protests, which in turn leads to 58 killed Palestinians (including children) and another 2,500 wounded by the Israelis (New York Times, 14 May 2018: Israelis kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza protesting U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem).
Tel Aviv was founded by the Jewish community on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa in 1909. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa’s, which had a majority Arab population at the time. 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. Today Tel Aviv is known, sometimes ironically, sometimes seriously, as the “Jewish New York City” (as is the case: not everything that lags is a comparison. On the other hand, e.g. Galway in Ireland calls itself “Barcelona in the rain”. With an average of 220 rainy days a year, at least the last part of the statement is true, just as the last word in New York City is true for Tel Aviv) among Israelis due to the architectural mix, but above all because of the large number of countries of origin of the Jews living there and the resulting diverse cultural influences. After the developments in neighboring Lebanon and the decline of Beirut, the former Paris of the Middle East, Tel Aviv is now the last remaining metropolis with the typical Levante lifestyle. The city is the undisputed economic, social, cultural and technological center of the country and therefore attracting the more liberal and cosmopolitan part of the Israeli population. Anyone interested in the different Jewish lifestyles and influences can explore them in a relatively small space and is in good hands here. Some of the districts to the south of the city should be visited with particular caution.
Tel Aviv is a technological and 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. Tel Aviv has been ranked as the twenty-fifth most important financial center in the world. It was built on sand dunes in an area unsuitable for farming. Instead, it developed as a hub of business and scientific research. In 1926, the country’s first shopping arcade, Passage Pensak, was built there. By 1936, as tens of thousands of middle class immigrants arrived from Europe, Tel Aviv was already the largest city in Palestine. A small port was built at the Yarkon estuary, and many cafes, clubs and cinemas opened. Herzl Street became a commercial thoroughfare at this time. The Israeli intelligence service Mossad has its headquarters here. The second official seat of the Prime Minister is located in parts of the former German Colony in Tel Aviv.
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