City Tel Aviv, Israel
Cats in Tel Aviv and Jaffa
A country with an estimated two million street cats and a law that says how to feed them, and the old port town at the south end of the city where the fishermen have been doing it for longer than the law.
Where to find cats in Tel Aviv and Jaffa: Jaffa, the old port at the southern end of Tel Aviv, and the boulevards of the city north of it. When: Morning at the port and the flea market, dusk on the boulevards when the feeders come out. Spring and autumn for the heat. Why here: The one country where feeding street cats is regulated by law, and a city that does it on every block.
The short version
- Where
- Jaffa, the old port at the southern end of Tel Aviv, and the boulevards of the city north of it
- When
- Morning at the port and the flea market, dusk on the boulevards when the feeders come out. Spring and autumn for the heat
- How long
- A day. Jaffa in the morning, the beach promenade north, Rothschild at dusk
- What it costs
- Free. The city has the most expensive coffee in the Middle East and the cats do not charge
- Why here
- The one country where feeding street cats is regulated by law, and a city that does it on every block
What to bring
- Dry food, and a container to take awayThe law: dry food only, in a quiet spot, fixed times, and you clear the dish when they have finished. Locals do exactly this.
- DuskThe feeders come out along the boulevards as the heat goes. Watch the ritual on Rothschild; it is a neighbourhood event.
- Shoes for Jaffa鈥檚 stoneThe old town is stone lanes and steps up the hill from the port, polished by four thousand years of feet.
- A quiet word with the fishermenAt the port they feed the cats the small fish, and have done for longer than anybody has written about it.
Why there are cats everywhere
Israel has around two million street cats, and a law that tells you how to feed them.
The number is an estimate, and a big one: for a country of ten million people it is one of the highest densities of street cats in the world. They came, as they always do, with ports and grain, and Jaffa has been a port since the Bronze Age. What is unusual is not the cats but the rules. Feeding street cats is legal in Israel, explicitly, subject to guidelines from the veterinary services: dry food only, in a spot away from roads and nuisance, at fixed times and places, in the quantity they will eat, and you take the dish away after. Harming or removing a street cat is against the law.
That framework produced a city that feeds its cats on every block. Walk any Tel Aviv boulevard at dusk and you will see it: a resident with a bag and a stack of paper plates, a dozen cats appearing from under cars, ten minutes of eating, and the plates gone. The municipality runs neutering programmes and the cats you meet are mostly ear-tipped.
Jaffa is the old part and the best part for cats. The port at the bottom of the hill is one of the oldest in the world and the fishermen still land here, and the cats wait at the boats the way they do in every fishing port on this list. Above it the old town is stone lanes and galleries; behind it the flea market, Shuk HaPishpeshim, is a maze of stalls and cafes with cats under all of them. Then north along the sea to the city.
The walk
From the port up through old Jaffa to the flea market, then north along the sea into the city and inland to Rothschild Boulevard for the dusk feeding. A day, mostly flat, mostly by the water.
- From Ben Gurion airportTrain to Tel Aviv HaHagana or Savidor, then bus or taxi to Jaffa40 minThe train is fast and cheap. The last leg to Jaffa is a short taxi.
- From Central Tel AvivWalk south along the beach promenade to Jaffa40 minFlat, by the sea, and the way to arrive. Or bus 10 or 18 down to the clock tower.
- From JerusalemTrain to Tel Aviv40 minFast line from Jerusalem Navon. Then as above.
The port
The old harbour at the bottom of the hill, still working. Fishing boats, the fish stalls, and cats at the boats from the morning. The fishermen feed them the small fish; stand back and watch.
At the port. Waiting for the sorting, as ever.Pastor Sam, CC BY 3.0 Old Jaffa
Up the steps from the port into the restored old town: stone lanes, galleries, the church and the mosque on the hill. Cats on the steps and in the courtyards, fed by the shops.
Old Jaffa. Stone, steps, and somebody on every one.Christina Garofalo, CC BY 2.0 The flea market
Down the far side to Shuk HaPishpeshim, the flea market: furniture, junk, cafes, and cats under every stall and in every shop doorway. The best cat density in the city. Eat here.
Flea market cat. There is one per stall.Mary Madigan from Highland Park, NJ and Santa Fe, NM, USA, CC BY 2.0 Rothschild Boulevard
North into the city, to the boulevard with the Bauhaus houses and the kiosks. At dusk the feeders come out along it with plates and bags. Sit on a bench near one and watch the block鈥檚 cats arrive.
City cat. Fed at dusk, by law, by the neighbours.Eugenie Vasilyeff from Perm, Russia, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Middle Eastern street cats, lean and sleek, tabby and ginger and white, ear-tipped from the municipal neutering, and fed by the neighbourhood on a schedule. Confident in Jaffa, confident on the boulevards, and used to a city that takes them seriously.
Port cats
Lean, alert, at the boats.
Fed by the fishermen. Working.
Market cats
Under the stalls at the flea market.
The most photographed cats in the city.
Boulevard cats
Under parked cars until dusk.
Then on the plates. Every block has a feeder and every feeder has a rota.
Everybody says Israel鈥檚 street cats are neglected.
Actually There are too many, and that is a real problem the neutering programmes are chasing. But feeding them is legal, regulated and universal, harming them is illegal, and the cats on a Tel Aviv block are fed on a schedule by people who know their names. The law is the difference.
How not to be the annoying one
- Feed the way the law says: dry food, a quiet spot away from the road, fixed times, only what they will eat, and take the dish away after.
- Do not feed in front of a restaurant or on a doorstep. The nuisance rule is real and the neighbours enforce it.
- Do not move a cat, carry one off, or take a kitten home. That is the part of the law with teeth.
- At the port, the fishermen feed the cats. Watch; do not compete.
- On the boulevards, if a feeder is working, keep your distance. The cats are on a schedule and you are not on it.
