Jaffa Yafo in Hebrew, Yaffa in Arabic, archaically Joppa, now absorbed into the Israeli coastal metropolis as a southern suburb of Tel Aviv, represents the most ancient city centre and port within the Tel Aviv region. Before the foundation of the new Jewish city of Tel Aviv in 1908 in the sand hills north of Jaffa, Jaffa was the main settlement for Arabs, Jews and the various waves of occupiers Turks, British, etc... alike. Today, it is the main concentration of Arab population in the Tel Aviv area. Like other nearby areas, it is beginning to undergo gentrification from downtown Tel Aviv.
