Yafa- يافا

Ahh Yafa 🍊

The city of Yafa (Jaffa) was the cultural and economic heart of Palestine. From the late 19th century until 1970, Yafa was one of the largest ports of orange export in the world. Our elders would swear up and down that they would know whether an orange was from Yafa because it had its own sweetness that no other orange could ever. 

 For Palestinians, Yafa oranges is a strong symbol of Palestinian nationalism and land. in the late 1920’s, the Palestinian press conducted a survey to determine what flag the Palestinians wanted to adopt following their independence . An attachment to Yafa’s oranges was heavily highlighted, many felt that the green and orange colorings of citrus fruit represented Palestine best. After the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Yafa, the orange now symbolizes the lost ancestral land. 

Old pictures of Yafa are mesmerizing. According to survivor Ghalib al Qalaily, Every inch of Yafa was beautiful, and many Palestinians (as well as pilgrims andtourists) took trips to Yafa for fun. Yafa has a beautiful beach BUT Ghalib says that Yarkoon river “nahar al Yarkoon” (also called greeshi) was incredible, even tho it was quite small, it was incomparable to the beach in beauty. Many locals would bring home made food and grab canoes/boats to enjoy nahar al Yarkoon. 

Nakba Survivor Walid al bibi said that coming to Yafa was easy, there were 4 to 5 different bus companies that could take you and back to Yafa from different Palestinians cities including Gaza, Nablus, Ramleh etc. there was also a train, the first train track connected Yafa to Jerusalem. 

In March 1948, zionist militias entered Yafa, forcibly expelling Palestinians from the city. And they committed the largest armed robbery in the 20th century, the zionist entity passed a law called “Absentee Property Law (1950)”, where zionists seized houses, factories, historical artifacts from Palestinians and declared it “legally” theirs. 

You can read more about it here