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Tel Aviv-Yafo (Template:Lang-he-n) (commonly Tel Aviv) is the second-largest city in Israel, with a population of 388,700. Tel Aviv is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, covering 51.8 square kilometres (20.0 sq mi). It is the largest and most populous city in the Israeli metropolitan area known as Gush Dan, home to 3.15 million people as of 2007. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Tel Aviv is recognized as a candidate global city with many of the key characteristics of World Cities being present.

Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 on the outskirts of Jaffa (Template:Lang-he-n, Yafo), believed to be the oldest port in the world. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which was largely Arab 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. The "White City" area of what is known as the Old North of Tel Aviv was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003 due to its large collection of Modernist-style buildings, the largest concentration in the world.

Tel Aviv is Israel's economic hub, the home of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and many corporate offices and research and development centers. Its beaches, cafes, upscale shopping and secular lifestyle have made it a magnet for tourism. Tel Aviv is the country's cultural capital, and as such is a center of music, theater and the arts. In the 2007 Mercer cost of living survey, Tel Aviv was ranked as the most expensive city in the Middle East, and 17th most expensive city in the world.

Etymology

The name Tel Aviv (literally "Hill of Spring") was chosen in 1910 out of many suggestions, among them "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 the Book of Ezekiel: "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 name was found fitting as it embraced the idea of the renaissance of the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tel is an archeological site that reveals layers of civilization built one over the other.

Theories vary about the etymology of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. Some theorists 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. The city of Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Jonah.

History

Jaffa

Jaffa has been a fortified port town for at least 4,000 years and is believed to be the oldest port in the world. The city is first mentioned in letters from 1470 BCE that record its conquest by Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. In the Bible, Jaffa is the city where the prophet Jonah set sail for Tarshish and was swallowed by a great fish. In the Book of Joshua Jaffa is described as bordering on the territory of the Tribe of Dan. The city has since changed hands more than 20 times and was destroyed by the Mamelukes in 1345. In the 16th century, Jaffa fell under Ottoman rule and was destroyed by Napoleon in 1799.

During the mid-19th century, the city experienced great prosperity via trade with Europe, especially in silk and Jaffa oranges. Since it was the gateway to Jerusalem, many immigrants passed through the city but most settled in Jerusalem. In 1860, the small Sephardic community in Jaffa was joined by Jews from Morocco and small numbers of European Ashkenazi Jews. In the 1870s, the old city walls were razed to allow for expansion. By 1882 Jaffa’s Jews numbered more than 1,500; meanwhile, the total population of the town grew from 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886.

During the 1880s, Ashkenazi immigration to Jaffa increased with the onset of the First Aliyah. These immigrants were motivated by Zionism more than religion. They came to farm the land and engage in productive labor. In keeping with their pioneer ideology, some chose to settle in the sand dunes north of Jaffa. The neighborhood of Neve Tzedek was founded in 1887, and Neve Shalom, in 1897.

Ahuzat Bayit

The Second Aliyah led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among the residents of Jaffa, banded together to build a new garden suburb on the outskirts of Jaffa. Arthur Ruppin, one of the members of Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "Homestead"), as it was called, defined its goal as building a “Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene”. In 1908, the group purchased 5 hectares (12 acres) of dunes northeast of Jaffa which were divided into 60 plots. Another member of Ahuzat Bayit was Meir Dizengoff, who went on to become head of the Tel Aviv local council in 1911, and later, the city's first mayor. Dizengoff's vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs.

Nahalat Binyamin

Another housing society, Nahalat Binyamin, began to build on April 11, 1909, after holding a lottery to divide up the land. Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha‘am, Judah Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built and a water system installed. 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) had been completed. At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for a new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School, founded in Jaffa in 1906. On May 21 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. Tel Aviv was planned as a European-style garden suburb of Jaffa, with wide streets and boulevards.

By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to include more than 100 hectares (247 acres), including several new neighborhoods. However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa. A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population.

Under the British Mandate

Under British administration, the 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, bringing the population of Tel Aviv to 35,000 by 1924. New businesses opened in Tel Aviv, leading to the decline of Jaffa as a commercial center. In 1925, Patrick Geddes drew up a master plan for Tel Aviv that was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff. The focus of this plan was a focus on the idea of a Garden City. The city limits he worked to, the Yarkon River in the North and Ibn Gvirol Street in the East, are still regarded as the real city boundaries of the city although in reality development has spread beyond these.

Tel Aviv continued to grow in 1926 but suffered an economic setback in 1927–30. At the same time, cultural life was given a boost by the establishment of the Ohel Theater and the decision of Habima Theatre to make Tel Aviv its permanent base in 1931. Tel Aviv gained municipal status in 1934.

The population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah when the Nazis came to power in Germany. As the Jews fled Europe, many settled in Tel Aviv, bringing the population in 1937 to 150,000, compared to Jaffa's 69,000 residents. Within two years, it had reached 160,000, which was over a third of the country's total Jewish population. Many new immigrants remained after disembarking in Jaffa, turning the city into a center of urban life. In the wake of the 1936–39 Arab rioting, a local port independent of Jaffa was built in 1938, and Lod Airport (later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport opened between 1937 and 1938.

Tel Aviv's White City, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, emerged in the 1930s. Many of the German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus, the Modernist school of architecture closed by the Nazis in 1933, fled Germany. Some came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus as well as other similar schools, to local conditions, creating the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style in the world.

According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan that proposed 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 was designated as part of the Arab state. The Arabs, however, rejected the partition plan. Between 1947 and 1948, tensions grew on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with Arab snipers firing at Jews from the minaret of the local mosque. The Haganah and Irgun retaliated with a siege on Jaffa. From April 1948, the Arab residents began to leave. When Jaffa was conquered by Israeli forces on May 14, few remained.

After Israeli independence

By the time of Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14 1948, the population of Tel Aviv had risen to more than 200,000. Throughout the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Tel Aviv served as Israel's temporary capital because of the Arab blockade of Jerusalem, which was named the capital in December 1949. Because of the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem, most foreign embassies stayed in or near Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s, 13 more returned there as part of the UN's punitive measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law. Today, all but two of the international embassies to Israel are in Tel Aviv or the surrounding district. In April 1949, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were united in the single municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, and the lands of neighboring villages such as al-Shaykh Muwannis, Jammasin and Sumail, which had been depopulated during the war, were incorporated into the municipality. Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 square kilometers (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular, liberal-minded city with a vibrant nightlife and café culture.

In the 1960's, some of the city's Modernist buildings were demolished, whilst others were neglected to disrepair as new tower blocks were constructed in the city, including the Shalom Meir Tower, Israel's tallest building until 1999. This trend started to be reversed in the 1980s, when gentrification started taking place in the poorer southern neighbourhoods and the old port area in the north was renewed. New laws were introduced later to protect the Modernist buildings, and their preservation was further helped by their gaining of UNESCO status. The 1990's also saw the emergence of Tel Aviv as a high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and hi-tech office buildings followed, as Tel Aviv moved into a new phase in its development.

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.

Tel Aviv has suffered from violence by Palestinian militant groups since the post-First Intifada period. The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on October 19, 1994, on the Line 5 bus, when a bomber killed himself and 21 civilians as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. The most deadly attack occurred on June 1, 2001, during the Second Intifada, when a suicide bomb exploded inside a nightclub called the Dolphi Disco, and 21 were killed and more than 100 were injured. The most recent attack in the city occurred on April 17, 2006, when 10 people, many of them foreign laborers, were killed and dozens wounded in another suicide attack in the same location. However, lately things have calmed down and the city has started again hosting many tourists and even more annual events.

Geography

Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N 34°48′E / 32.083°N 34.800°E / 32.083; 34.800 on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv is 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 60 kilometers (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 kilometers (56 mi) south of the northern port city of Haifa. Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya Pituah to the north, Herzliya and Ramat HaSharon to the northeast, Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south.

Climate

Tel Aviv has a Mediterranean climate with hot summers, pleasant springs and autumns, and cool, wet winters (Köppen climate classification Csa). Humidity tends to be high year-round due to the city's proximity to the sea. In winter, temperatures seldom drop below 5 °C (41 °F) and are usually between 10 °C (50 °F) and 15 °C (59 °F); the city has not seen proper snow since 1950. In summer the average is 26 °C (79 °F), and often daytime temperatures exceed 32 °C (90 °F). Despite the high humidity, precipitation during summertime is rare. The average annual rainfall is 530 millimeters (20.9 in), nearly all occurring between October and April. Tel Aviv experiences on average more than 300 sunny days a year.

Districts

Tel Aviv is made up of nine districts that have formed naturally over the city's short history. The most notable 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 population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city largely made up of luxury apartments, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning.

Historically, there has been a demographic split between the Ashkenazi and Europeans north of the city, including the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, and the southern, more Sephardi and Mizrahi neighborhoods including Neve Tzedek and Florentin.

Since the 1980s, however, restoration and gentrification has taken place on a large scale in the southern neighbourhoods, making them some of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods for the more prosperous north Tel Avivis. In north Tel Aviv, the old port area, which had become run-down since the port was decommissioned in 1965, also saw an urban revival, becoming an upmarket area with shops and restaurants.

Architecture

The early architecture of Tel Aviv consisted largely of Eastern European style town houses with red roof tiles, representing the native styles of many of the city's first inhabitants. As the city developed however, so did the architecture, and by the 1920s the main architectural style in the city had evolved into what has come to be known as the Eclectic or Orientalist style, combining both European and Middle Eastern architectural features such as arches, domes and ornamental tiles. Meanwhile, municipal areas at this time were constructed in the style of the Garden City following the Geddes master plan. Two and three story buildings were interspersed with boulevards and public parks. Later in the 1920's however, the city started to see construction of buildings for which it has now become internationally known. The White City, which covers an area in the north of the city and contains over 5,000 Modernist-style buildings – the largest concentration in the world – designed by German immigrants to the city built in the styles of Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and Erich Mendelsohn. Now declared protected landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, construction of these buildings continued until the 1950s in the area around Rothschild Boulevard. 3,000 buildings were built in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.

The 1960's saw an end to this architecture, however, as new tower blocks and a chain of waterfront hotels and commercial skyscrapers effectively cut off the coastal promenade from the city. Some of the city's most prominent Modernist buildings were demolished, whilst many others buildings were neglected to the point of ruin, with some, before the relatively recent passing of preservation legislation, even being demolished. More recently, however, many have been refurbished to their original condition.

More recently, Tel Aviv has become a hub of modern high-rise architecture due to the soaring price of real-estate in the city. 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 Neve Tzedek Tower, is located in Tel Aviv. New neighborhoods such as the Park Tzameret are being constructed to house luxury apartment towers, whilst zones such as The Kirya are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the Bank Discount Tower, First International Bank Tower, and YOO Tel Aviv towers designed by Phillipe Stark, whilst the proposed Egged Tower will, when constructed, be Israel's tallest building.

Demographics

The city has a population of 388,700 spread over an area of 51,788 dunams (51.8 km) (19.5 mi²), yielding a population density of 7,445 people per square kilometer (2,875 per square mile). According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of June 2006 Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.9%. It consists of 91.8% Jews, 4.2% Arabs and 4.0% others (Christians, Buddhists). The city is relatively multicultural, and languages such as Tagalog, Thai, Russian, Arabic, French and English are often spoken aside Hebrew. According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered Asian foreign workers live in the city. Compared with other Westernised cities, crime in Tel Aviv is relatively low.

According to Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the average income in the city is about 20% above the national average, and the unemployment rate is 6.9%. The city maintains education standards above the national average; of its 12th-grade students, 64.4% are eligible for matriculation certificates, the qualification received by those finishing high school. In the city, the age profile of the population is relatively evenly spread, with 22.2% aged under 20, 18.5% aged 20–29, 24% aged 30–44, 16.2% aged between 45 and 59, and 19.1% older than 60.

Tel Aviv's population is young and growing. In 2006, 22,000 people moved to the city, while only 18,500 left, and many of the new families had young children. The population of Tel Aviv is expected to reach 450,000 by 2025; meanwhile, the average age of residents in the city fell from 35.8 in 1983 to 34 in 2008. The population over age 65 stands at 14.6% compared with 19% in 1983.

Religion

Despite its image as a secular city, Tel Aviv has some 500 synagogues, including historic buildings such as the Great Synagogue, established in the 1930s. One of Tel Aviv's famous landmarks is the Hassan Bek Mosque, located on the beachfront. Jaffa is home to a sizable Muslim and Christian population. The number of churches has grown in recent years to accommodate the religious needs of diplomats and foreign workers.

Economy

Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod. Instead, the city gradually developed as a center for scientific and technical research. In 1974, Intel opened its first overseas research and development operation in the city, and Tel Aviv emerged as a high-tech center in the 1990s.

The economy of Tel Aviv has developed dramatically over the past decades. The city has been described as a flourishing technological center by Newsweek and a "miniature Los Angeles" by The Economist. Many computer scientists, their numbers increased by immigration from the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s, live and work in Tel Aviv. 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 developed even more. The Tel Aviv metropolitan area (including satellite cities such as Herzliya and Petah Tikva) is Israel's center of high-tech, and is sometimes referred to as Silicon Wadi. Tel Aviv is home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Israel's only stock exchange, which has reached record heights since the 1990s. 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. The city's nightlife, cultural attractions and architecture attract tourists whose spending is beneficial to the local economy.

The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University has constructed an inventory of world cities based on their level of advanced producer services. The inventory lists Tel Aviv as having "strong evidence" of world city formation—the highest ranking for a Middle Eastern city with the exception of partly European Istanbul.

Nine of the fifteen Israeli billionaires live in Israel; four live in Tel Aviv or its suburbs (according to Forbes). According to Mercer, a human resources consulting firm based in New York, as of 2007 Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 17th most expensive in the world. It falls just behind New York City and Dublin and just ahead of Rome and Vienna in this respect.

Culture

Tourism and recreation

As a Mediterranean city, Tel Aviv attracts a variety of tourists from across the world, travelling here for different reasons. It has many museums, cultural sites, beaches, and streets and districts, and according to the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, it has 44 hotels with more than 5,800 rooms. A memorable slogan attributed to the city is "the city that never sleeps" because of its nightlife and 24-hour culture.

Of its public parks and gardens, the largest is Yarkon Park. Gan Meir, named after the first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, is on King George Street. Seventeen percent of the city is covered in plants. The city has many malls, such as the Dizengoff Center (Israel's first mall) and the Azrieli Center, as well as many hotels including the Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Dan, Isrotel and Hilton. It is home to many museums, architectural and cultural sites, and offers tours in different languages. A bus tour of the city was made available in 2007, and the city also has architectural tours and Segway tours as well as walking tours of many varieties. Tel Aviv is known for its openness, thriving night life, and around-the-clock culture. The nightlife is particularly active around the beachfront promenades because of its many nightclubs and bars. The city is known in Israel as "The city that never sleeps". The city also has a wide variety of restaurants offering both traditional Israeli food, and international style-food, many of which are world class. There are, for example, over 100 sushi restaurants, the third highest concentration in the world, and an Italian restaurant in the city was deemed the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

Arts and theater

Tel Aviv is the cultural capital of Israel. Eighteen of Israel's 35 major centers for the performing arts are there. 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 3,000 seats, the Fredric R. Mann Auditorium (Heichal Hatarbut) 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. Other theaters in Tel Aviv are the Gesher Theater and Beit Lessin Theater; Tzavta and Tmuna are smaller theaters that host musical performances and fringe productions. In Jaffa, the Simta and Notzar theaters specialize in fringe.

Tel Aviv is home to a number of dance centers and companies. The Batsheva Dance Company, a contemporary dance troupe, as well as Bat Dor and the Israel Ballet are also headquartered in Tel Aviv.

Opera and classical music performances are held in Tel Aviv on a daily basis. Many of the world's leading classical conductors and soloists have performed to crowds in the city. Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Lorin Maazel and Pinchas Zukerman (born in Tel Aviv) have all appeared on Tel Aviv stages.

The Tel Aviv Cinemathèque screens art movies, premieres of short and full-length Israeli films, and hosts a variety of film festivals, among them the Festival of Animation, Comics and Caricatures, the Student Film Festival, the Jazz, Film and Videotape Festival and Salute to Israeli Cinema. The city has several multiplex cinemas.

Museums

Israel is claimed to have the highest number of museums per capita of any country, three of the largest of which are in Tel Aviv. Among the most notable are the Eretz Israel Museum, known for its rich collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, one of the major art museums in Israel. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University is the Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora. Containing both historical documents and art, the museum tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile. Batey Haosef Museum is a showcase of the Israel Defense Forces' military history, containing rare exhibits and authentic pieces from Israel's history as well as a wide variety of firearms and pictures. The Palmach Museum near Tel Aviv University gives visitors a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach as well as vast archives depicting the lives of young self-trained Jewish soldiers who became Israel's first defenders. Near Charles Clore's garden in north Jaffa is a small museum of the Etzel Jewish militant organization, one of the achievements of which was conquering Jaffa for Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Tel Aviv Exhibition Center in the northern part of the city hosts more than 60 major events every year. Many offbeat museums and galleries are in the city's artsy southern areas, including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art gallery.

Sports

Tel Aviv is home to some of the top sports teams in Israel, including a world-class basketball team. It is the only city with three teams in Ligat ha'Al, the country's top football league. Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1906 and competes in more than 10 sports. Its Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club holds 47 Israeli titles, has won 36 editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships, and its Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. holds 18 Israeli league titles and has won 22 editions of the Israel cup, two Israel Toto cups and two Asia cups. Yael Arad, an athlete in Maccabi's judo club, won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic Games.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1923 and has included more than 11 sports clubs including the Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (13 Israeli championships, 11 Israeli cups, one Toto cup and one Asia champion), a kayaking club, and a women's basketball club.

Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv's football club (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.

Other football clubs in the top division were Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv, which has merged into one team, Beitar/Shimshon Tel Aviv, in the third division, Liga Artzit. Another former first division team, Maccabi Jaffa, played in the lower divisions in the 2007–08 season.

Two rowing clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, established as early as 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.

Government

Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a four-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 is the current mayor of Tel Aviv, having held that office since 1998. The longest serving mayor of the city was Shlomo Lahat who was in office for 19 years, whilst the shortest serving, David Bloch was in office for just two years between 1925 and 1927. The importance of Tel Aviv is further enhanced by the fact that due to the non-recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel by the international community, most foreign countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. Furthermore, the Israeli Ministry of Defense is located in Tel Aviv. The demographic split between the north and south of the city have also traditionally created political divisions with the north a bastion of the Labor Party, whilst in the south, support for Likud and other right-wing and religious parties is stronger.

Mayors

• Meir Dizengoff (1921–25)
• David Bloch (1925–27)
• Meir Dizengoff (1928–36)
• Israel Rokach (1936–52)
• Haim Levanon (1953–59)
• Mordechai Namir (1959–69)
• Yehoshua Rabinowitz (1969–74)
• Shlomo Lahat ("Chich") (1974–93)
• Roni Milo (1993–98)
• Ron Huldai (1998–)

Education

Tel Aviv is home to a large number of schools, colleges, and universities. As of 2006, 51,359 children were in education in Tel Aviv, of whom 8,977 are in municipal kindergartens, 23,573 in municipal elementary schools, and 18,809 in high schools. 64.4% of students in the city are entitled to matriculation, over 5% higher than the national average. 4,000 children are currently in first grade at schools in the city, although due to the increase in population size and increasing birth rate in the city, by 2012, this number is expected to reach 6,000. As a result, 20 additional kindergarten classes will open in the next school year (2008-09) in the city, while additional classes will be added at schools in north Tel Aviv, and plans are being developed for a new elementary school in the area north of Sde Dov, as well as a new high school in north Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv's major institution for higher education is Tel Aviv University. Together with Bar-Ilan University in neighboring Ramat Gan, the student population is over 50,000, with a sizeable number of international students. Tel Aviv University, founded in 1953, is now the largest university in Israel, internationally known for its physics, computer science, chemistry and linguistics departments. The campus is located in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood.

Transport

Many major routes of the national road network pass through or end in Tel Aviv, a transportation hub. The main road access route to Tel Aviv 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, the main routes are King George 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 is trying to encourage the use of bicycles in the city, aiming to open 100 bicycle-rental stations to serve 74 kilometers (46.0 mi) of bicycle paths. Plans call for expansion of the paths to 100 kilometers (62.1 mi) by 2009.

Tel Aviv has four train stations along the Ayalon Highway. The stops are from north to south: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Merkaz, Tel Aviv Hashalom (near Azrieli Center shopping mall) and Tel Aviv Hahaganah (near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station). It is estimated that more than a million people travel by train from the surrounding cities to Tel Aviv each month.

Tel Aviv has two central bus stations: 'The Old Central Bus Station' and 'The New Central Bus Station'. The new Tel Aviv Central Bus Station is in the south of the city. The main bus network in Tel Aviv is operated by Dan Bus Company; the Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.

Tel Aviv's domestic airport is Sde Dov in the northwestern part of the city. Sde Dov is slated to close because it occupies prime coastal real estate near the upscale Ramat Aviv neighborhood. In the near future all services to Sde Dov will transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel's main international airport, close to the city of Lod and 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. Because it is close to Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport is often referred to as Tel Aviv International Airport even though it is not part of any municipal jurisdiction.

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. Furthermore, battery replacement points will be located at the city's entrances.

Media

The three largest newspapers in Israel are published in Tel Aviv. Tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth has been Israel's most widely circulated newspaper since the 1970s and is headquartered on Begin Road. Maariv, Israel's second most popular tabloid, is also published in the city, while Haaretz, Israel's most popular broadsheet, is based in the city. Tel Aviv also acts as the base for other national press, including the evening financial newspaper Globes, the weekly newspaper HaTzofe, and the daily newspaper Makor Rishon. Iton Tel Aviv and the weekly Zman Tel Aviv report local news. More recently, the free daily Israel Post and Israeli have been produced in the city. Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.

Sister cities

Tel Aviv is twinned with 27 cities and has a partnership with Los Angeles, California, USA:

References

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External links

• The unnofficial guide to Tel Aviv
• Tel Aviv official tourism website
• Get to know Tel Aviv by HD virtual tours
• Tel-Aviv - city without a break Photography by Lev Borodulin
• Tel Aviv Foundation

32°5′0″N 34°48′0″E / 32.08333°N 34.80000°E / 32.08333; 34.80000

v t e Tel Aviv District
Cities	Bat Yam Bnei Brak Givatayim Herzliya Holon Kiryat Ono Or Yehuda Ramat Gan Ramat HaSharon Tel Aviv-Yafo
Local councils	Azor Kfar Shmaryahu
Other sub-divisions: Center District Haifa District Jerusalem District Judea and Samaria Area Northern District Southern District

• Tel Aviv District
• Tel Aviv
• Planned cities
• Former national capitals
• Port cities in Israel
• Port cities of the Mediterranean Sea
• Settlements established in 1909