Haifa, its district and metropolitan
area's location within Israel
Haifa ( ; ) is the largest
city in northern Israel
, and the
third-largest city in the
country, with a population of over 264,900. Haifa has a
mixed population of Jews and Arabs. The Arab population used to be
predominantly Christian, while some of the
Jewish population arrived from Russia.
It is also
home to the Bahá'í World Centre
, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Haifa,
built on the slopes of Mount Carmel
, 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
Byzantine,
Arabs,
Crusaders,
Ottoman,
Egyptians, and the British. 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 . It is located about 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
.
Etymology
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 of the name is the
Arabic word حفَّ ("haffa") which means
"beach", or the word حيفة meaning the "suburb" or "side of the
city".In turn some see a resemblance to 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).
Early history
A small port city, Tell Abu Hawam, existed in the Haifa region in
the
Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE).
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.
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 is first mentioned
in
Talmudic literature, as a small 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.
Byzantine, Arab and Crusader rule
Under
Byzantine rule, Haifa
continued to flourish, although never assumed major importance. In
the
7th century, the city was conquered
by the
Persians. Later the
Rashidun Caliphate was
established over the
Middle East.
This
brought about developments in the city; in the 9th century under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, Haifa established
trading relations with Egyptian
ports and the city featured several
shipyards. With the Caliphate in control of government and
civil administration,
Arabs and
Jews engaged in trade and maritime commerce, and Haifa
again prospered by the
11th century.
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
Crusader and then conquered after
a fierce battle with its Jewish and
Muslim
inhabitants. Under the Crusaders, Haifa was reduced to a small
fishing and agricultural village. It 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
1187. The Crusaders under
Richard the Lionheart retook
Haifa in 1191. The
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.
Mamluk, Ayyubid, Ottoman and Egyptian rule
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 Crusader 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 scarce.
However, 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.
Modern history
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.
19th and early 20th century
Haifa in 1915
After the Egyptian occupation ended, Haifa grew in population and
importance as Acre suffered a decline. In 1854 the population was
2,012 inhabitants; 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.
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 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 is thus an
important site of worship,
pilgrimage and administration
for members of the faith.
The Bahá'í World Centre (comprising the Shrine of the Báb
, terraced gardens
and administrative buildings
) are all on Mount Carmel's northern slope. Haifa is also important to
the Bahá'ís because the founder of the religion,
Bahá'u'lláh, had been imprisoned there
by the
Ottoman.
The Bahá'í shrine and
gardens are one of Haifa's most visited tourist attractions, and in 2008 were
designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
British Mandate
At the beginning of the 20th century, Haifa emerged as an
industrial port city and growing population center. 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 Catholic.
1948 War of Independence
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
1948 Palestine 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
city was invaded 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.
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, but mainly because of
the shelling of Arab villages and neighborhoods.
Ilan Pappe, writes that the shelling
culminated in an attack on a Palestinian crowd in the old
marketplace using three-inch mortars on April 22, 1948.
Shabtai Levy, the Mayor of the city, and some
other Jewish leaders urged Arabs not to leave, whereas Jewish
loudspeakers could be heard in the city ordering Arab residents to
leave "before it's too late."
Some contemporaneous sources emphasized the Arab leadership as a
motivating factor in the refugees' flight.
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." It
was later established that no specific Arab order to evacuate had
been given.
Establishment of the State of Israel
After the state of Israel declared its independence on May 14,
1948, Haifa became the gateway for Jewish immigration into Israel.
Thousands of immigrants were resettled in Arab houses vacated when
Jewish forces invaded.
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
. The rebels, members of a
social activist group known as
the Black Panthers, claimed 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.
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.
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.
Demographics
Haifa today has a population of 266,300. Ninety percent are defined
as Israeli Jews.
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.
City of
Haifa
Population by year |
| 1800 |
1,000 |
| 1840 |
2,000 |
| 1880 |
6,000 |
| 1914 |
20,000 |
| 1922 |
24,600 |
| 1947 |
145,140 |
| 1961 |
183,021 |
| 1972 |
219,559 |
| 1983 |
225,775 |
| 1995 |
255,914 |
| 2005 |
267,800 |
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.
Religious communities
The population of Haifa today is 82%
Jewish, 4%
Muslim, and 14%
Christian (both
Arab and
non-Arab). The relatively large Christian population of Haifa is a
combination of
Arab Christians and
Christian immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
As the Jewish residents age and as 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.
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.
Geography
Haifa is situated on the
Israeli
Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the
historic
land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Located on Mount Carmel 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 north of the city of Tel Aviv, and has a large number of beaches on the Mediterranean
.
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 and in winter, . Snow is rare in Haifa,
but temperatures around can sometimes occur, usually in the early
morning. Humidity tends to be high all year round, and rain usually
occurs between October and April. Annual precipitation is
approximately .
Neighborhoods
Haifa has developed in tiers, from the lower to the upper city on
the Carmel.
The oldest neighborhood is Wadi Salib, the Old City center near the port, which has been
bisected by a major road and razed in part to make way for government
buildings
. Wadi Salib stretches across to Wadi Nisnas, the center of Arab life in Haifa today.
In the
19th century, under Ottoman rule, the German
Colony was built, providing the first model of urban planning in Haifa. Some of the
buildings have been restored and the colony has turned into a
center of Haifa nightlife.
The first
buildings in Hadar were
constructed at the start of the 20th century. Hadar was
Haifa's cultural center and marketplace throughout the 1920s and
into the 1980s, nestled above and around the Haifa's Arab
neighborhoods. Today Hadar stretches from the port area near the
bay, approximately halfway up Mount Carmel, around the German
Colony, Wadi Nisnas and Wadi Salib. Hadar houses two commercial
centers (one in the port area, and one midway up the mountain)
surrounded by some of the city's older neighborhoods.
Neve
Sha'anan
, a neighborhood located on the second tier of Mount
Carmel, was founded in the 1920s. West of the port are
the neighborhoods of Bat
Galim, Shikmona Beach, and Kiryat
Eliezer. To the west and east of Hadar are the Arab
neighborhoods of Abbas and Khalisa, built in the 1960s and 70s. To
the south of Mount Carmel's headland, along the road to Tel Aviv,
are the neighborhoods of Ein HaYam, Shaar HaAliya, Kiryat Sprinzak
and Neve David.
Above
Hadar are affluent neighborhoods such as the Carmel Tzarfati
(French Carmel), Merkaz HaCarmel, Romema
, Carmeliya, Vardiya
, Ramat
Golda
, Ramat Alon and
Denya. While there are general divisions between Arab and
Jewish neighborhoods, there is an increasing trend for wealthy
Arabs to move into affluent Jewish neighborhoods.
Another of the Carmel
neighborhoods is Kababir
, home to the National Headquarters of Israel's
Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community; located near Merkaz HaCarmel and overlooking the
coast.
Development plans
Recently,
residential construction has been concentrated around Kiryat Hayyim
and Kiryat Shmuel, with 75,000 m². of new
residential construction between 2002-2004, the Carmel, with 70,000
m², and Ramot Neve Sha'anan with approximately 70,000 m².
Non-residential construction was highest in
the Lower
Town
, (90,000 sq m), Haifa Bay (72,000 sq m)) and Ramot
Neve Sha'anan (54,000 sq m). In 2004, 80% of construction in
the city was private.
The Palace of the Pasha, a
Turkish
bathhouse, and a
Middle Eastern
music and
dance club in Wadi Salib
have been converted into dance clubs, theaters, and offices. The
Haifa Economic Corporation Ltd. is developing two 1,000
square meter lots for office and commercial
use.
Economy
The phrase "Haifa works, Jerusalem prays, and Tel Aviv plays"
refers to Haifa's reputation as a city of workers.
The industrial region
of Haifa is in the eastern part of the city, around the Kishon River. Haifa is home to one of the two oil refineries in Israel (the other located in
Ashdod). The
Haifa refinery processes 9 million tons (66 million
barrels) of
crude oil a year. Its twin
80-meter high
cooling towers, built in
the 1930s, were the tallest buildings built in the British Mandate
period.
Matam (short for Merkaz
Ta'asiyot Mada - Scientific Industries Center), the largest
and oldest business park in Israel, is
at the southern entrance to the city, hosting manufacturing and
R&D facilities for a
large number of Israeli and international hi-tech companies, such as Intel
, IBM,
Microsoft, Motorola, Google, Yahoo!, Elbit, Zoran, Philips, and
Amdocs. The campus of the
University of
Haifa is also home to IBM Haifa Labs.
The
Port of
Haifa is the leader in passenger traffic among Israeli ports, and
is also a major cargo harbor, although
deregulation has seen its dominance challenged by the port of
Ashdod
.
Haifa
malls and shopping centers include
Hutsot Hamifratz, Horev Center Mall, Panorama Center, Castra
Center, Colony Center (Lev HaMoshava), Hanevi'im Tower Mall, Kanyon
Haifa, Lev
Hamifratz Mall
and Grand Kanyon
.
Tourism
In 2005, Haifa had 13 hotels with a total of 1,462 rooms. The city
has of beaches, .
Haifa's main tourist attraction is the
Bahá'í World
Centre, with the golden-domed Shrine of
the Báb and the surrounding gardens. Between 2005
and 2006, 86,037 visited the shrine.
The restored German
Colony, founded by the Templers, Stella
Maris
and Elijah's Cave also draw many
tourists.
Located
in the Haifa district are the Ein Hod
artists' colony, where over 90 artists and
craftsmen have studios and exhibitions, and the Mount Carmel national park, with
caves where Neanderthal and early
Homo Sapiens remains were found.
A 2007
report commissioned by the Haifa Municipality calls for the
construction of more hotels, a ferry line between Haifa, Acre and Caesarea
, development of the western anchorage of the port
as a recreation and entertainment area, and an expansion of the
local airport and port to accommodate international travel and
cruise ships.
Arts and culture
Despite its image as a port and industrial city, Haifa is the
cultural hub of northern Israel. During the 1950s, mayor
Abba Hushi made a special effort to encourage
authors and poets to move to the city, and founded the
Haifa Theatre, a
repertory theater, the first municipal
theater founded in the country. The principal Arabic theater
servicing the northern Arab population is the al-Midan Theater.
Other theaters in the city include the Krieger Centre for the
Performing Arts and the Rappaport
Art and Culture Center. The Congress Center hosts exhibitions,
concerts and special events.
The New Haifa Symphony Orchestra, established in 1950, has more
than 5,000 subscribers. In 2004, 49,000 people attended its
concerts. The Haifa Cinematheque, founded in 1975, hosts the annual
Haifa International
Film Festival during the intermediate days of the
Sukkot holiday. Haifa has 29
movie theaters. The city publishes a local
newspaper, Yediot Haifa, and has its own
radio station,
Radio
Haifa.
Museums
Haifa has over a dozen museums.
The most popular museum is the Israel National Museum of Science,
Technology, and Space
, which recorded almost 150,000 visitors in
2004. The museum is located in the historic Technion
building in the Hadar neighborhood.
The Haifa Museum of Art
houses a collection of modern and classical art, as
well as displays on the history of Haifa. The Tikotin
Museum of Japanese Art
is the only museum in the Middle East dedicated solely to Japanese art. Other museums in
Haifa include the Museum of Prehistory, the National Maritime
Museum and Haifa City Museum, the Hecht Museum, the Dagon
Archeological Museum, the Railway Museum
, the Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum, the
Israeli Oil Industry Museum, and
Chagall Artists' House. As part of his campaign to bring
culture to Haifa, Mayor Abba Hushi provided the artist
Mane-Katz with a building on Mount Carmel to house
his collection of
Judaica, which is now a
museum.
Government
The Courts Hall of Haifa
As an industrial port city, Haifa has traditionally been a
Labor party stronghold. The strong
presence of dock workers and
trade
unions earned it the nickname 'Red Haifa.' In addition, many
prominent Arabs in the
Israeli
Communist Party, among them
Tawfik
Toubi,
Emile Habibi, Zahi Karkabi,
Bulus Farah and
Emile Toma, were from Haifa. In recent years,
there has been a drift toward the center. This was best signified
by, in
the 2006
legislative elections, the
Kadima party
receiving about 28.9% of the votes in Haifa, and Labor lagging
behind with 16.9%.
Before 1948, Haifa's Municipality was fairly unique as it developed
cooperation between the mixed Arab and
Jewish
community in the city, with representatives of both groups
involved in the city's management. Under mayor al-Haj, between 1920
and 1927, the
city council had six Arab
and two Jewish representatives, with the city run as a mixed
municipality with overall Arab control. The city changed towards
more of a mixed society under mayor
Hasan Bey Shukri's second term (1927–40) in
which cooperation between Jews and Arabs in the running of the city
was encouraged. Whilst the two groups were treated differently in
terms of needs, with Arabs coming before Jews, greater coexistence
was fostered. The major change in the leadership of the city
occurred in 1940, when the first Jewish mayor of the city,
Shabtai Levy, was elected. Instantly, the Jews
in the city were no longer treated behind the Arabs. Levy's two
deputies were Arab (one Muslim, the other Christian), with the
remainder of the council made up of four Jews and six Arabs.
Today, Haifa is governed by its 12th city council, headed by the
mayor
Yona Yahav.
The results of
municipal elections decide on the makeup of the council, similarly
to the Knesset
elections. The city council is the
legislative council in the city, and has the authority to pass
auxiliary laws. The 12th council, which was elected in 2003, has 31
members, with the liberal
Shinui-
Greens ticket holding the most seats
(6), and
Likud coming second with 5. Many of
the decisions passed by the city council are results of
recommendation made by the various municipal committees, which are
committees where non-municipal organs meet with representatives
from the city council. Some committees are spontaneous, but some
are mandatory, such as the security committee, tender committee and
financial committee.
Mayors of Haifa
Haifa mayor Abba Hushi
(1951-1969)
Medical facilities
The Rambam Medical Center, Haifa
Haifa medical facilities have a total of 4,000 hospital beds.
The
largest hospital is the government-operated Rambam
Hospital
with 900
beds and 78,000 admissions in 2004. Bnai Zion Hospital and
Carmel Hospital each have 400 beds. Other hospitals in the city
include the Italian Hospital, Elisha Hospital (100 beds), Horev
Medical Center (36 beds) and Ramat Marpe (18 beds). Haifa has 20
family health centers. In 2004, there were a total of 177,478
hospital admissions.
Rambam Medical Center was in the direct line of fire during the
Second Lebanon War in 2006 and was
forced to take special precautions to protect its patients. Whole
wings of the hospital were moved to large underground
shelters.
Education
Haifa is home to two internationally acclaimed universities and
several colleges.
The University of Haifa, founded in 1963, is at the top of Mt.
Carmel.
The campus was designed by the architect of
Brasilia
and United Nations Headquarters
in New
York
, Oscar
Niemeyer. The top floor of the 30-story Eshkol Tower
provides a panoramic view of northern Israel.
The Hecht Museum
, with important archeology and art collections, is
on the campus of Haifa University. The Technion - Israel Institute of
Technology, described as Israel's MIT
, was founded in 1924. It has 18 faculties
and 42
research institutes. The
original building now houses Haifa's
science museum. The first technological high
school in Israel, Basmat, was established in Haifa in 1933.
Other
academic institutions in Haifa are the Gordon
College of Education
and Sha'anan Religious Teachers' College, the
WIZO Design
Academy and Tiltan College of Design. The Michlala Leminhal
College of Management and the Open University of Israel
have branches in Haifa. The city also
has a nursing college and the P.E.T Practical Engineering
School.
As of 2006–07, Haifa had 70
elementary
schools, 23
middle schools, 28
academic
high schools and 8 vocational
high schools. There were 5,133 pupils in municipal kindergartens,
20,081 in elementary schools, 7,911 in middle schools, 8,072 in
academic high schools, 2,646 in vocational high schools, and 2,068
in comprehensive district high schools. 86% of the students
attended Hebrew-speaking schools and 14% attended Arab schools. 5%
were in
special education. In
2004, Haifa had 16 municipal libraries stocking 367,323
books.
Transportation
Public transportation
Haifa is served by six
railway
stations and the
Carmelit, Israel's only
subway system.
The
Nahariya
–Tel
Aviv main line of Israel
Railways runs along the coast of the Gulf of Haifa and has six stations within the city.
From
south-west to north-east, these stations are: Haifa Hof
HaCarmel
, Haifa Bat Galim
, Haifa Merkaz HaShmona
, Lev HaMifratz
, Hutzot HaMifratz
and Kiryat Haim
. Together with the Kiryat
Motzkin Railway Station
in the northern suburb Kiryat Motzkin
, they form the Haifa - Krayot suburban line
("Parvarit"). There are direct trains from Haifa to
Tel
Aviv, Ben Gurion International
Airport
, Nahariya, Akko, Kiryat
Motzkin, Binyamina
, Lod
, Kiryat Gat
, Beer
Sheva
and other locations.
Haifa's
intercity bus connections are operated
almost exclusively by the
Egged bus company,
which operates two terminals:
Lines to
the North of the country use HaMifratz
Central Bus Station
and their coverage includes most towns in the North
of Israel. Lines heading south use Haifa Hof
HaCarmel Central Bus Station
. Destinations directly reachable from Hof
HaCarmel CBS include Tel
Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat
, Raanana
, Netanya
, Hadera
, Zikhron
Ya'akov
, Atlit
, Tirat Carmel
, Ben Gurion International
Airport and intermediate communities. There are also three
Egged lines that have their terminus in the
Ramat Vizhnitz neighborhood and run
to Jerusalem, Bnei
Brak
and Ashdod.
These are
mehadrin
lines.
All urban lines are run by
Egged. There are
also
service taxis that run along some
bus routes but do not have an official schedule. In 2006, Haifa
implemented a trial network of neighborhood mini-buses – named
"Shkhunatit" and run by
Egged.
In the future, Haifa
and the Krayot
suburbs
will be linked by the Metronit, a Phileas concept bus rapid transit system.
Meanwhile, some sections of the Metronit have already been opened
and are served by regular Egged buses.
Haifa is one of the few
cities
in Israel where buses operate on
Shabbat.
Bus lines operate throughout the city on a
reduced schedule from late Saturday morning onwards, and also
connect Haifa with Nesher
, Tirat Karmel, Yokneam
, Nazareth, Nazareth
Illit
and intermediate communities. Since the summer of
2008, night buses are operated by Egged in Haifa (line 200) and the
Krayot suburbs
(line 210). During the summer of 2008 these lines operated 7
nights a week. During the winter their schedule is limited to
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, making them the only buses in
Israel to operate on Friday night. Haifa is also the only city in
Israel to operate a Saturday bus service to the beaches during
summer time.
Egged lines run during Saturday mornings
from many neighborhoods to the Dado and
Bat
Galim beaches, and back in the afternoon.
The Haifa underground railway system is called
Carmelit.
It is a subterranean funicular on rails, running from downtown Paris
Square to Gan HaEm (Mother's Park) on Mount Carmel. With a single track, six stations and two
trains, it is listed in the
Guinness World Records as the world's
shortest metro line. Haifa also has a touristic
cable car. The Stella Maris
gondola lift cable car consists of six cabins
and connects Bat Galim on the coast to the Stella Maris
observation deck and monastery atop Mount
Carmel; although mainly for tourism purposes.
The
Haifa Cable Car serves mainly
tourists, running from Bat
Galim to the top of Mount Carmel however there are currently plans to expand this,
to become an integrated part of Haifa's public transport system running from Check
point junction at the foot of Mount Carmel to the Technion, and then onto the University of Haifa.
Air and sea transport
Haifa Airport
serves domestic flights to Tel Aviv and Eilat as well as
international charters to Cyprus
.
There are currently plans to expand services from Haifa.
Cruise
ships previously operated from Haifa port to Greece and Cyprus.
Roads
Travel between Haifa and the center of the country is possible by
road with
Highway 2, the main
highway along the coastal plain, beginning at Tel Aviv and ending
at Haifa. Furthermore,
Highway 4
runs along the coast to the north of Haifa, as well as south,
inland from Highway 2.
In the past, traffic travelling along
Highway 2 to the north of Haifa would have to pass through the
downtown area of the city, however, the Carmel Tunnels
, currently under construction will re-route this
traffic through tunnels under Mount Carmel, cutting down on
congestion in the down-town area of the city.
Jaffa Road, Haifa, 2001.
Sports
The
city's two main football clubs are
Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Haifa who both currently play in
the Israeli Premier League
and share the Kiryat Eliezer Stadium
as their home pitch. Maccabi has won
eleven Israeli titles, whilst Hapoel has won one.
The city has several clubs in the regional leagues, including
Beitar Haifa and Hapoel Ahva Haifa
in
Liga Bet (the fourth tier) and Hapoel
Spartak Haifa and
Maccabi Neve Sha'anan Eldad
in
Liga Gimel (the fifth tier).
In 1996, the city hosted the
World
Windsurfing Championship. The
Haifa Tennis Club, near the southwest
entrance to the city, is one of the largest in Israel.
Haifa has a
professional basketball club,
Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Haifa was
recently promoted to
Israeli Basketball Super
League, the top division. The team plays at Romema Basketball
Arena, which seats 3,000.
The main
stadiums in Haifa are the 14,000-seat Kiryat Eliezer Stadium and
Thomas
D'Alesandro Stadium
. Neve Sha'anan Athletic Stadium seats
1,000. A
UEFA-approved stadium to seat 30,000
is planned for south-west Haifa, due to be completed in 2009.
International relations
Twin towns - Sister cities
Haifa is
twinned or has sister city
agreements with the following cities:
See also
References
- Many Hebrew speakers, however, refer to the city by its Arab
pronunciation.
- Haifa, The Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved June
20, 2009.
- Encyclopedia Judaica, Haifa,
Keter Publishing, Jerusalem, 1972, vol. 7, pp. 1134-1139
- (translated from Hebrew)
- Haifa, The Guide to Israel, Zev Vilnay, Jerusalem,
1970, p.382
- The City of Haifa: Historical Perspective The
Haifa Foundation.
- Lane-Poole, 1906, p.219.
- Lane-Poole, 1906, p.309.
- *
- Haifa in the Late Ottoman Period, 1864-1914: A Muslim Town in
Transition By Mahmud Yazbak BRILL, 1998 ISBN 9004110518 p 14
- Rogers, 1865, p. 102.
- Oliphant, Laurence. (1886) Haifa, or Life in Modern Palestine
Adamant Media Corporation pp 11-12
- Supplement to a Survey of Palestine (p. 12–13) which was
prepared by the British Mandate for the United Nations in
1946–47.
- Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
Revisted, p101.
- Pappé, Ilan (1992). The Making of the Arab Israeli Conflict
1947-1951. I B Tauris, p.72 ISBN 1-85043-819-6
- Morris, Benny (2001). "Revisiting the Palestinian
exodus of 1948," in The War for Palestine: Rewriting the
History of 1948 (pp. 37-59). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN
0-521-79476-5
- Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p. 96,
citing Zadok Eshel, "The Carmeli Brigade in the War of
Independence", p. 147.
- Spectator Correspondence Erskine Childers,
Walidi Khlid, Jon
Kimche, Hedley V Cooke, Edward Atiyah, David Cairns,
- Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p.
95
- So much for the melting pot, Tom Segev
- Kellerman, Aharon (1993) Society and Settlement: Jewish
Land of
Israel in the Twentieth Century SUNY Press, ISBN 0791412954 p
236
- Faier, Elizabeth (2005) Organizations, Gender, and the
Culture of Palestinian Activism in Haifa, Israel: fieldwork and
Palestinians in Israel New venues : nongovernmental organizations
and social change Activism : support, conflict, and ideas Two tales
of a city : history, space, and identity Honor, land, and protest
... Routledge, ISBN 0415949513
- Ittijah network listing of NGOs, many of them Haifa-based (in
Arabic)
- Data based on Be-Arieh “Population of the Towns”, as reproduced
in Ben-Arieh Jerusalem page 466
- Haifa Economic Corporation Ltd: About
- Haifa Economic Corporation Ltd: Wadi Salib
- Data as of 2004
- Portsmouth City Council. Twinning. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
Bibliography
External links
_-_Facade.jpg/180px-The_National_Museum_of_Science,_Technology_and_Space_(Haifa,_Israel)_-_Facade.jpg)
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