Jaffa Port before Nakba, British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 857

CHAPTER XX.

type and the cargo jetty provides accommodation for two steamers. Two large oil tanker vessels can be accommodated inside the oil dock. Moorings for twelve vessels are provided alongside the breakwater and five moorings for vessels to load and discharge oil outside the harbour. Comprehensive schemes have been drawn up for further extensions to the harbour to meet any probable expansions of trade.

15. The average number of men employed by Government daily in the harbour is approximately 1,400, of which 200 are Jews. The majority of the Arabs are casuals. In addition, there is a large private employment of Jabour in the port.

Jaffa port.

16. Jaffa is one of the oldest ports in the world, but deep draft vessels are still loaded and unloaded by means of lighters. There is no provision for dealing with vessels alongside a quay. The port now consists of two sections, northern and southern. The southern section is the old port and the northern section is the Tel Aviv lighter basin. The old port was considerably improved from 1934 onwards by the construction of a lighter basin and the provision of transit sheds. There are five large transit sheds provided with necessary cranage and road access. There is no railway service to the port. Employment in old Jaffa port has been almost exclusively Arab, since the construction of the lighter basin at the northern (Tel Aviv) section.

17. The lighter basin at Tel Aviv was commenced in 1936/37 when old Jaffa port was closed down owing to an eight months' continuous strike by Arab operatives. The northern section is managed by the Marine Trust Ltd. and was constructed by public contribution from interested Jewish bodies. There are four commodious transit sheds and the usual cranage and other facilities. Normal port dues, such as anchorage, wharfage and storage dues levied at the northern section accrue to Government.

18. During the war Jaffa Port was closed to deep water shipping and has only recently resumed its normal trade.

19. A comparison of the tonnages handled since 1927 in Haifa, Jaffa and other ports together is shown in the following figures which distinguish general tonnage from petroleum tonnage :-

Cargo loaded
Cargo General
Year discharged tonnage Oil tonnage
tons
-----•
1927 219,879 78,840 nil
1989 929,281 545,884 1,811,916
1944 1,580,021 206,998 2,984,645
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