In 1936, with the outbreak of the Arab revolt, the Arabs closed the port of Jaffa with the intention of halting the rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in Mandatory Palestine. Dizengoff pressured the government to give him permission to open a port in his new city of Tel Aviv, and before his death he managed to dedicate the first pier of Tel Aviv's new port. His dedication began with the words: "Ladies and gentlemen, I can still remember the day when Tel Aviv had no port".