Haifa

In reading and looking at detailed maps of the city, and hearing multiple stories - I am slowly piecing together parts of the history of Haifa - a port town on the northern part of the state of Israel. In the year of 1947 - 1948 there were a series of terrorist attacks carried out by zionist militias on the arab quarters of Haifa - everything from barrels of explosives being rolled down the stairs in to al-Abasyah neighborhood, to car bombs, the New Years Eve massacre where 60 people were killed, to also broadcasting messages in the neighborhoods of the violence that will ensue if the arabs don't choose to pack up and leave. The history of Haifa is sad - even a right wing historian like Benni Morris will say that prior to the Zionist aspirations for the colonization of Palestine Jews and Arabs lived together within Haifa for generations. It was not the dealings of those Jews who lived in Haifa for generations, but rather of those who claimed to speak on behalf of all Jews (and still do) in the project of forcing an exclusive Jewish state in the land of Palestine.

Closely following the massacres in the village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948 where over 120 civilians were killed by the zionist militias called the Irgun (later to become the Likud party and the youth wing of Betar Tegar) and the Stern Gang (co-founded by Yitzhak Shamir who later became president of Israel) - the Haganah attacked Safed on April 17th, and the residents of Haifa were being told to leave and prepare for the worst. On April 21st the Haganah attacked Haifa. The city was forced to surrender on April 23rd - over 50 000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes. Most people left by boats (literally pushed in to the sea) and the rest to more northern towns and villages like Akka that were also later ethnically cleansed. Palestinians from Haifa can be found all over the world - many in the West Bank which is really not that far away in real terms - but they can't return and they can't even visit the ocean. Just under 4 000 Palestinians remained in Haifa, and today make up a larger part of the population of the city, which makes Haifa an interesting place for the contradictions of the state of Israel.


We walked around Haifa - visited some of the Palestinian neighborhoods, visited many homes that are sitting empty (such as Leila Khaled's family home) or have been bulldozed to the ground. Statues celebrating the 'liberation of Haifa' with emblems of the Haganah, street names that have been changed to intersections of 'Hertzl Ave and Balfour St.', or even better 'Jabotinsky Sq' - heroes of the colonizer. Along the beach there are a series of really beautiful old homes that are boarded up and sitting empty. One of these homes had a 'For-Sale' sign hanging on it so we called the number - the man proceeded to tell us that yes this property is older than 60years and is 'Arab architecture' (i.e Palestinian owned), that this property was being sold for commercial use but that he has many other beach front properties if we were interested - but first, 'Are you Jewish?'. This is a common question in 1948 Palestine - some property is held by the JNF for exclusive Jewish Only use, while other properties are sold off by racist landowners who will only sell or rent to people who are Jewish. We didn't get to find out how Erez was able to acquire this property - but one could only assume that it had been confiscated in the 'absentee law' after 1948 and sold to the most Jewish bidder.


Further down along the beach is the Haifa port which I believe is Haifa's largest import-export terminal. All along the port you will see Zim and Maersk containers shipping out Israeli goods (such as Carmel-Agrexco fruits, vegetables and flowers grown on stolen land) to Europe, New York, and Toronto and Montreal. Also there is an Israeli military navel base - with war ships being sent off to patrol the coastline along Gaza.


There is lots to write and say about Haifa..but i will end with saying that we visited the ocean (which I know is based so much on our privilege to be able to do so) - and it is so beautiful - tall hills and mountains leading to long beaches and bright blue water...The next time that I visit the ocean here I only hope that it will be when everyone who is Palestinian can dip their feet in the water in a free Palestine.