Haifa the Forgotten Palestinian City

(Click on Picture for larger view.)

Activists with the small Jewish group Zochrot (Remembering) place a sign on a busy main road in Haifa alerting passersby to the fact that much of the city’s Arab past has been systematically erased by the state. Officers in a police van, just visible on the right side of the picture, keep a wary eye on the proceedings. (November 2004)

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Haifa had emerged as an industrial port city and growing population center. At that time Haifa district was home to approximately 100,000 inhabitants, comprised of 82% Muslim Arab, 14% Christian Arabs, and 4% Jewish residents.

On 30 December, 1947 members of the militant Irgun hurled two bombs into a crowd of Arabs who were waiting for construction jobs outside the gates of the Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, killing 6 and injuring 42, whereupon 2,000 Arab employees rioted and killed 39 Jewish employees in what has become known as the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre. As the major industrial and oil refinery port in the Palestine, Jewish forces deemed control of Haifa, a critical objective in the ensuing 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was captured on April 23rd, 1948 by a force of 5,000 Israeli soldiers led by the Carmeli Brigade. The campaign resulted in Israeli control over the area and the flight of about 80,000 Palestinian Arabs from Haifa District.