Haifa (Hebrew: חֵיפָה); is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 265,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher. Together these areas form a contiguous urban area home to nearly 600,000 residents which makes up the inner core of the Haifa metropolitan areaHaifa has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs, although Jews make up to 90% majority. The Arab population is predominantly Christian, whereas 28% of the Jewish population (correct for 2009) is made of immigrants from the former Soviet UnionIt is also home to the Bahá'í World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Haifa has a history dating back to Biblical times. The earliest known settlement in the vicinity was Tell Abu Hawam, a small port city established in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE In the 3rd century CE, Haifa was known as a dye-making center. Over the centuries, the city has changed hands: It has been conquered and ruled by the Phoenicians, Hebrews, Persians, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, Egyptians, British, and the Israelis. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the city has been governed by the Haifa Municipality.
Today, the city is a major seaport located on Israel's Mediterranean coastline in the Bay of Haifa covering 63.7 square kilometres (24.6 sq mi). It is located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Tel Aviv and is the major regional center of northern Israel. Two respected academic institutions, the University of Haifa and the Technion, are located in Haifa, and the city plays an important role in Israel's economy. It has several high-tech parks, among them the oldest and largest in the country,an industrial port, and a petroleum refinery. Haifa was formerly the western terminus of an oil pipeline from Iraq via Jordan.[8]
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The origin of the name "Haifa" is unclear. According to historian Alex Carmel, it may come from the Hebrew verb root חפה (hafa), meaning to cover or shield, i.e. Mount Carmel covers Haifa.Another possible origin is the Hebrew word חוֹף (hof), also meaning beach, or חוֹף יָפֶה (hof yafe), meaning beautiful beach.Some Christians believe that the town was named after the high priest Caiaphas, or Saint Peter (Keiphah in Aramaic
A small port city known today as Tell Abu Hawam was established Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE) During the 6th century BCE, Greek geographer Scylax told of a city "between the bay and the Promontory of Zeus" (i.e., the Carmel) which may be a reference to Haifa during the Persian period By Hellenistic times, the city had moved to a new site south of what is now Bat Galim because the port's harbour had become blocked with sand About the 3rd century CE, the city was first mentioned in Talmudic literature, as a Jewish fishing village and the home of Rabbi Avdimos and other Jewish scholars A Greek-speaking population living along the coast at this time was engaged in commerce
Haifa was located near the town of Shikmona, a center for making the traditional Tekhelet dye used in the garments of the high priests in the Temple. The archaeological site of Shikmona is southwest of Bat Galim Mount Carmel and the Kishon River are also mentioned in the Bible A grotto on the top of Mount Carmel is known as the "Cave of Elijah", traditionally linked to the Prophet Elijah and his apprentice, Elisha In Arabic, the highest peak of the Carmel range is called the Muhraka, or "place of burning," harking back to the burnt offerings and sacrifices there in Canaanite and early Israelite times
Early Haifa is believed to have occupied the area which extends from the present-day Rambam Hospital to the Jewish Cemetery on Yafo Street.The inhabitants engaged in fishing and agriculture
[edit] Byzantine, Arab and Crusader rule
Mount Carmel before 1899
Under Byzantine rule, Haifa continued to grow but did not assume major importance] In the 7th century, the city was conquered by the Persians. Under the Rashidun Caliphate, Haifa began to develop. In the 9th century under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, Haifa established trading relations with Egyptian ports and the city featured several shipyards. The inhabitants, Arabs and Jews, engaged in trade and maritime commerce. Glass production and dye-making from marine snails were the city's most lucrative industries
Prosperity ended in 1100, when Haifa was besieged and blockaded by the Crusaders and then conquered after a fierce battle with its Jewish and Muslim inhabitant Under the Crusaders, Haifa was reduced to a small fishing and agricultural villageIt was a part of the Principality of Galilee within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following their victory at the Battle of Hattin, Saladin's Ayyubid army captured Haifa in mid-July 1187The Crusaders under Richard the Lionheart retook Haifa in 1191The Carmelites established a church on Mount Carmel in the 12th century Under Muslim rule, the building was turned into a mosque, later becoming a hospital. In the 19th century, it was restored as a Carmelite monastery over a cave associated with Elijah, the prophet
The city's Crusader fortress was destroyed in 1187 by Saladin In 1265, the army of Baibars the Mamluk captured Haifa, destroying its fortifications, which had been rebuilt by King Louis IX of France, as well as the majority of the city's homes to prevent the European Crusaders from returning For much of their rule, the city was desolate in the Mamluk period between the 13th and 16th centuries Information from this period is scarceHowever, during Mamluk rule in the 14th century, al-Idrisi wrote that Haifa served as the port for Tiberias and featured a "fine harbor for the anchorage of galleys and other vessels
In 1761 Dhaher al-Omar, a Bedouin ruler of Acre and Galilee, demolished the city and rebuilt Haifa in a new location, fortifying it with a wall This event is marked as the beginning of the town's modern era. After al-Omar's death in 1775, the town remained under Ottoman rule until 1918, with the exception of two brief periods. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Haifa during his unsuccessful campaign to conquer Palestine and Syria, but soon had to withdraw. Between 1831 and 1840, the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali governed Haifa, after his son Ibrahim Pasha had wrested its control from the Ottomans
When the Egyptian occupation ended and Acre declined, the importance of Haifa rose. In 1854, the city had a population of 2,070 Arabs (1,200 Muslims, 870 Christians) and 32 Jews The arrival of the German Templers in 1868, who settled in what is now known as the German Colony of Haifa, was a turning point in Haifa's development.[29] The Templers built and operated a steam-based power station, opened factories and inaugurated carriage service to Acre, Nazareth and Tiberias, playing a key role in modernizing the city
The first European Jews arrived at the end of the 19th century from Romania. The Central Jewish Colonisation Society in Romania purchased over 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) near Haifa. As the Jewish settlers had been city dwellers, they hired the former fellahin tenants to instruct them in agriculture In 1909 Haifa became central to the Bahá'í Faith, when the remains of their prophet, the Báb, were moved to Acre and a shrine built on Mount Carmel by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Haifa was liberated from Ottoman rule in September 1918 by Indian horsemen who overran Turkish positions armed with spears and swords On September 22, British troops were heading to Nazareth when a reconnaissance report was received indicating that the Turks were leaving Haifa. The British made preparations to enter the city and came under fire in the Balad al-Sheikh district (today Nesher). After the British regrouped, an elite unit of Indian horsemen was sent to attack the Turkish positions on the flanks and overrun their artillery guns on Mount Carmel
Under the British Mandate, Haifa became an industrial port city The Hejaz railway and the Technion were built at this time Haifa District was then home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants, 96 percent of them Arabs (82 percent Muslim and 14 percent Christian), and four percent Jews. Over the next few decades the number of Jews increased steadily, due to immigration, especially from Europe. By 1945 the population had shifted to 53 percent Arab (33 percent Muslim, 20 percent Christian) and 47 percent Jewish In 1947 about 70,910 Arabs (41,000 Muslims, 29,910 Christians) and 74,230 Jews were living there The Christian community were mostly Greek-Melkite Catholics.
Haifa Oil Refinery
Further information: History of Haifa, Operation Bi'ur Hametz, and 1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1947 UN Partition Plan designated Haifa as part of the proposed Jewish state. When the Arab leadership rejected the UN's plan, Haifa did not escape the violence that spread throughout the country. On December 30, 1947, members of the Irgun, a Jewish underground militia, threw bombs into a crowd of Arabs outside the gates of the Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, killing six and injuring 42. In response Arab employees of the company killed 39 Jewish employees in what became known as the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre The Jewish Haganah militia retaliated with a raid on the Arab village of Balad al-Shaykh, where many of the Arab refinery workers lived, in what became known as the Balad al-Shaykh massacre Control of Haifa was critical in the ensuing Arab-Israeli war, since it was the major industrial and oil refinery port in British Palestine British forces in Haifa redeployed on April 21, 1948, withdrawing from most of the city while still maintaining control over the port facilities. Two days later the downtown, controlled by a combination of local and foreign (ALA) Arab irregulars was assaulted by Jewish forces in Operation Bi'ur Hametz, by the Carmeli Brigade of the Haganah, commanded by Moshe Carmel The invasion led to a massive displacement of Haifa's Arab population. According to The Economist at the time, only 5,000-6,000 of the city's 62,000 Arabs remained there on October 2, 1948
Contemporaneous sources emphasized the Jewish leadership's attempt to stop the Arab exodus from the city and the Arab leadership as a motivating factor in the refugees' flight. According to the British district superintendent of police, "Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and business open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe Time Magazine wrote on May 3, 1948: "The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by orders of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city ... By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa."
Benny Morris and other scholars have said Haifa's Arabs left due to of a combination of Zionist threats and encouragement to do so by Arab leaders. Ilan Pappé writes that the shelling culminated in an attack on a Palestinian crowd in the old marketplace using three-inch (76 mm) mortars on April 22, 1948 ] Shabtai Levy, the Mayor of the city, and some other Jewish leaders urged Arabs not to leave. According to Ilan Pappé, Jewish loudspeakers could be heard in the city ordering Arab residents to leave "before it's too late Morris quotes British sources as stating that between 22 and 23 April 100 Arabs were killed and 100 wounded, but he adds that the total may have been higher: "perhaps reaching 200-300 dead irregulars and civilians."[46]
After the state of Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, Haifa became the gateway for Jewish immigration into Israel. During the Israeli War of Independence, the neighborhoods of Haifa were sometimes contested. After the war, Jewish immigrants were resettled in Arab houses vacated by the conflict. New neighborhoods, among them Kiryat Hayim, Ramot Remez, Ramat Shaul, Kiryat Sprinzak, and Kiryat Eliezer, were built to accommodate them. Bnei Zion Hospital (formerly Rothschild Hospital) and the Central Synagogue in Hadar Hacarmel date from this period. In 1953, a master plan was created for transportation and the future architectural layout
In 1959, a group of Mizrahi Jews, mostly Moroccans, rioted in Wadi Salib, claiming the state was discriminating against them Their demand for “bread and work” was directed at the state institutions and what they viewed as an Ashkenazi elite in the Labor Party and the Histadrut
Tel Aviv gained in status, while Haifa suffered a decline in the role as regional capital. The opening of Ashdod as a port exacerbated this. Tourism shrank when the Israeli Ministry of Tourism placed emphasis on developing Tiberias as a tourist centre
Nevertheless, by the early 1970s, Haifa's population had reached 200,000. Mass immigration from the former Soviet Union boosted the population by 35,000.[29]
Many of Wadi Salib's historic Ottoman buildings have now been demolished, and in the 1990s a major section of the Old City was razed to make way for the municipal center.
From 1999 to 2003, several suicide attacks took place in Haifa (Maxim and Matza restaurants, bus 37, etc.), resulting in 68 killings.
In 2006, Haifa was hit by 93 Hezbollah rockets during the conflict with Lebanon, killing eleven civilians and leading to half of the city's population fleeing at the end of the first week of the war The oil refinery complex was also struck by a rocket
Haifa today has a population of 266,300. Eighty percent are defined as Israeli Jews.[citation needed] Immigrants from the former Soviet Union constitute 25% of Haifa's population According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Arab citizens of Israel constitute 9% of Haifa's population, the majority living in Wadi Nisnas, Abbas and Halissa neighborhoods
Haifa is commonly portrayed as a model of co-existence between Arabs and Jews in Israel, although tensions and hostility do still exist Several Palestinian organizations have been established to fight perceived discrimination in the allocation of resources, to protest the displacement of the Haifa Arabs whose homes were occupied by Jews, and to halt the destruction of Arab cultural property in the Haifa region
Haifa is Israel's third-largest city, consisting of 103,000 households The city has an aging population compared to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as young people have moved to the center of the country for schooling and jobs, while young families have migrated to bedroom communities in the suburbs
[edit] Religious and ethnic communities
Beit Hecht, a restored Templer building
The population of Haifa today is 80% Jewish, 4% Muslim, 6% Christian Arab, and 10% members of other faiths or nonreligious (the vast majority being immigrants from the former Soviet Union). As the Jewish residents age and youth leave the city, the proportion of Christians and Muslims is growing In 2006, 27% of the Arab population was aged 14 and under, compared to 17% of the Jewish and other population groups. The trend continues in the age 15-29 group, in which 27% of the Arab population is found, and the age 30-44 group (23%). The population of Jews and others in these age groups are 22% and 18% respectively. Nineteen percent of the city's Jewish and other population is between 45 and 59, compared to 14% of the Arab population. This continues with 14% of Jews and others aged 60–74 and 10% over age 75, in comparison to 7% and just 2% respectively in the Arab population
By national standards, Haifa's Jewish population is relatively secular. In 2006, 2.9% of the Jews in the city were Haredi, compared to 7.5% on a national scale.[55] 66.6% were secular, compared to a national average of 43.7%. A small portion of the immigrants from the former Soviet Union lack official religious-ethnic classification as they are from mixed-marriage families of Jewish origin.[52] In 2008, roughly a quarter of the city's residents were Russian-speaking immigrants.
Haifa is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia.[58] Located on the northern slopes of Mount Carmel and around Haifa Bay, the city is split over three tiers The lowest is the center of commerce and industry including the Port of Haifa The middle level is on the slopes of Mount Carmel and consists of older residential neighborhoods, while the upper level consists of modern neighborhoods looking over the lower tiers From here views can be had across the Western Galilee region of Israel towards Rosh HaNikra and the Lebanese border Haifa is about 90 kilometers (55.9 mi) north of the city of Tel Aviv, and has a large number of beaches on the Mediterranean
The Carmel Mountain has three main wadis: Lotem, Amik and Si’ach. For the most part these valleys are undeveloped natural corridors that run up through the city from the coast to the top of the mountain. Marked hiking paths traverse these areas and they provide habitat for wildlife such as wild boar, golden jackals, Egyptian mongoose and chameleons.
Climate
Haifa has a mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters (Köppen climate classification Csa ] Spring arrives in March when temperatures begin to increase. By late May, the temperature has warmed up considerably to herald warm summer days. The average temperature in summer is 26 °C (79 °F) and in winter, 12 °C (54 °F). Snow is rare in Haifa, but temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F) can sometimes occur, usually in the early morning. Humidity tends to be high all year round, and rain usually occurs between September and May. Annual precipitation is approximately 629 millimeters (25 in).
