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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. 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).
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Encyclopedia
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. 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 Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, 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 ??? (hafa), meaning to cover or shield, i.e. Mount Carmel covers Haifa. Another possible origin of the name is the Arabic word ???? ("haffa") which means "beach", or the word ???? meaning the "suburb" or "side of the city".
In turn some see resemblance to the Hebrew word ???? (hof), also meaning beach, or ???? ????? (hof yafe), meaning beautiful beach. Some Christians believe that the town was named after the high priest Caiaphas, or Saint Peter (Keiphah [in Aramaic]).
History
Early history
A small port city, Tell Abu Hawam, existed in the Haifa region in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE). The geographer Scylax describes a city "between the bay and the Promontory of Zeus" (i.e., the Carmel) which may be a reference to Haifa in the Persian period. The city moved to a new site south of what is now Bat Galim, in Hellenistic times, after the old port became blocked with sand. The city is first mentioned in Talmudic literature around the 3rd century CE, as a small fishing village and the home of Rabbi Avdimos and other Jewish scholars. A Greek 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 making the garments of the high priests in the Temple. The archaeological site of Shikmona lies 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 on this hilltop in Canaanite and early Israelite times
Early Haifa is believed to have been located in an area that 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 Haifa 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 Crusaders 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, and a part of the Principality of Galilee within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1265, it was captured by the Mamluks.
The Carmelites established a church on Mount Carmel in the 12th century. Under Arab rule, the building was turned into a mosque. Later it became 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 of France, as well as the majority of the city's homes in order to prevent the return of European Crusdaders from re-invading. As such, for much of their rule, the city was desolate for much of the Mamluk period of governance between the 13th and 16th centuries. Information from this period is very scarce.
In 1761 Dhaher al-Omar, a Bedouin ruler of Acre and Galilee, demolished the city and rebuilt Haifa in a more suitable 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, except for two brief periods: in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Haifa as part of his unsuccessful campaign to conquer Palestine and Syria, but withdrew in the same year; and between 1831 and 1840, the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali governed, after his son Ibrahim Pasha wrested control from the Ottomans.
In the years following the Egyptian occupation, Haifa grew in population and importance while Acre suffered a decline. The population in 1854 was 2,012 inhabitants; 1,200 Muslims, 870 Christians (400 Greek Catholics, 300 Greek Orthodox, 50 Latins, and 30 Maronites), 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 19 century from Romania. The Central Jewish colonisation society of Romanian Jews purchased over 1000 acres near Haifa. As the Romanian Jewish settlers were unfamiliar with farming they retained the services of the former fellahin tenants.
Haifa became central to the Bahá'í Faith in 1909, when the remains of the Báb were moved to Acre and a shrine was built on Mount Carmel by `Abdu'l-Bahá. Haifa remains an important site of worship, pilgrimage and administration for the members of the religion. 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 important to the Bahá'ís because the founder of the religion, Bahá'u'lláh, was imprisoned there by the Ottomans. The Bahá'í shrine and gardens have become one of Haifa's most visited tourist attractions, and were, in 2008, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
British Mandate transition period and the 1948 War
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 home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants, of which 82% were Muslim Arab, 14% Christian Arab, and 4% Jewish. The number of Jews steadily increased due to immigration, especially from Europe. By 1945 the population had shifted to 33% Muslim, 20% Christian and 47% Jewish. In 1947 some 70,910 Arabs (41,000 Muslims, 29,910 Christians) and 74,230 Jews were living in Haifa. The Christian community was composed mostly of Greek-Melkite Catholic (Arab Greek Catholic).
The 1947 UN Partition Plan designated Haifa part of the proposed Jewish state. When the Arab leadership rejected the plan, Haifa did not escape the violence that spread throughout the country. On December 30, 1947, members of the Irgun, the pre-state Jewish underground, threw bombs into a crowd of Palestinian Arabs outside the gates of the Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, killing 6 and injuring 42. In response rioting Arab employees killed 39 Jewish employees in what has become known as the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre. Jewish forces retaliated with a raid on the Arab village of Balad al-Shaykh the following day, where some of the Arab refinery workers lived. They fired into and blew up houses, and pulled out adult males and shot them, they killed 60 of them in what has become known as the Balad al-Shaykh massacre. Control of Haifa was deemed a critical objective in the ensuing 1948 Palestine War, as it was the major industrial and oil refinery port in Palestine. The British withdrew from Haifa on April 21, 1948. The city was captured on April 23, 1948 in Operation Bi'ur Hametz, by the Carmeli Brigade of the Haganah commanded by Moshe Carmel.
The conflict led to a massive displacement of Haifa's Arab population. According to The Economist, reporting on October 2, 1948, of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa, not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Benny Morris and other scholars have shown that Haifa Arabs left due to a combination of Zionist threats and encouragement by Arab leaders, but mostly due to the shelling of Arab villages and neighborhoods. Foreign media coverage at the time emphasized the role of the Arab leadership as a motivating factor in the refugees' flight. The Economist explained its view: "There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit...It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades." On May 3, 1948, Time Magazine interpreted the events thus: "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." However, it was later established that no general Arab order to evacuate was given.
Establishment of the State of Israel
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the city played an important role as the gateway for Jewish immigration. Thousands of immigrants were resettled in Arab houses vacated during the war, and 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, many of them living in “absentee” properties formerly belonging to Haifa Arabs, claimed the state was discriminating against them. Their demand for “bread and work” was directed at the state institutions and what they perceived was an Ashkenazi elite in the Labor Party and the Histadrut.
While Tel Aviv gained in status, Haifa’s suffered a decline in the role as regional capital. The opening of Ashdod as a port exacerbated this trend. Tourism shrunk when the Israeli Ministry of Tourism placed greater emphasis on developing Tiberias as a tourist centre.
By the early 1970s, Haifa's population reached 200,000. Mass immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union boosted the population by 35,000.
Many of Wadi Salib's historic Ottoman buildings have been demolished throughout the course of Israeli rule, and in the 1990s a major section of the Old City was destroyed to make way for the municipal center.
In 2006, Haifa was hit by 93 Hezbollah rockets during the conflict with Lebanon killing eleven civilians in the city, and leading to half of the city's population fleeing after the first week of the war. The oil refinery complex was also struck by a rocket.
Demographics
Today, Haifa has a population of 266,300. Ninety percent of the population 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 exist. A number of Palestinian organizations have been established to fight discrimination in the allocation of resources, protest the displacement of Haifa Arabs whose homes were occupied by Jews and stop 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. Haifa 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, and young families have migrated to bedroom communities in the Haifa vicinity.
Religious communities
The population of Haifa is 82% Jewish, 4% Muslim, and 14% Christian (both Arab and non-Arab). The relatively large Christian population of Haifa is derived from a combination of Arab Christians and immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
In general, as the Jewish residents age and as youth leave the city, the number of Christians and Muslims is growing. In 2006, 27% of the Arab population was age 0-14 compared to 17% in the Jewish and other population groups. This trend continues with 27% of Arabs aged 15-29, and 23% 30-44. The population of Jewish and other groups in these age groups are 22% and 18% respectively. 19% of the city's Jewish and other population is between 45 and 59 compared to 14% in the Arab population. This trend 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 of any kind as they are a product of 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.
Above Hadar, Neve Sha'anan, a neighborhood located on the second tier of Mount Carmel, is home to a largely observant Jewish population as well as a sizable Russian immigrant population. Founded in the 1920s, almost all single-story houses here have been replaced with newer 4-story apartment buildings built starting in the 1950s.
Below, on the edges of Haifa from the port, westward, are the predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of Bat Galim, Shikmona Beach, and Kiryat Eliezer. To the west and east of Hadar are the Arab neighborhoods of Abbas and Khalisa respectively, 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 and to the west of Neve Sha'anan, are the affluent, predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of the Carmel, situated along the drainage divide of Mount Carmel. These include Carmel Tzarfati (French Carmel), Merkaz HaCarmel, Romema, Carmeliya, Vardiya, Ramat Golda and Denya among others. 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 (Center of the Carmel) and overlooking the coast.
Development plans
Recently, residential construction has been concentrated around Kiryat Hayyim and Kiryat Shmuel, with 75,000 sq m. of new residential construction between 2002-2004, the Carmel, with 70,000 sq m, and Ramot Neve Sha'anan with approximately 70,000 sq m. 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.
In Wadi Salib today, the original interiors of the Palace of the Pasha, a Turkish bathhouse, and a Middle Eastern music and dance club have been largely gutted and are now in use as dance clubs, theaters, and offices. The Haifa Economic Corporation Ltd. is implementing plans to develop two 1,000 square meter lots for office and commercial use which will include Turkish and Arab "construction elements," and service a new government center planned for downtown Haifa. Another government center built in the same area in the early 1990s failed to boost the economy as expected. The current project is controversial due to the eviction of families from the neighborhood, and the planned demolition of more historic buildings, including the former home of Palestinian intellectual Emil Touma.
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 has many malls and shopping centers, among them 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 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.
Sports
The city's two main football clubs are Maccabi Haifa (currently in the Israeli Premier League) and Hapoel Haifa (Liga Leumit), both of whom play at the Kiryat Eliezer Stadium. Maccabi has won ten 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 fifth tier) and Hapoel Spartak Haifa and Maccabi Neve Sha'anan in Liga Gimel (the sixth 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 Ligat HaAl, 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.
Government
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
- Najib Effendi al-Yasin (1873–77)
- Ahmad Effendi Jalabi (1878–81)
- Mustafa Bey al-Salih (1881–84)
- Mustafa Pasha al-Khalil (1885–1903)
- Jamil Sadiq (1904–10)
- Rif'at al-Salah (1910–11)
- Ibrahim al-Khalil (1911–13)
- Abd al-Rahman al-Haj (1920–27)
- Hasan Bey Shukri (1914–20, 1927–40)
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Medical facilities
Haifa medical facilities have a total of 4,000 hospital beds. The largest hospital is the government-operated Rambam Medical Center 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 has good intracity and intercity public transportation. Buses and service taxis run throughout the city, and Haifa is home to six railway stations and to 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. All Israel Railways stations can be accessed from Haifa by means of transfer stations such as Binyamina and Tel Aviv.
In the future, there are plans for Haifa to be connected to Afula, Beit She'an and Amman in Jordan by the reconstructed Jezreel Valley railway, with a possible extension to Nazareth. Proposals have also been made for a light rail between Haifa and Nazareth although it is unclear if these will ever materialise. The light rail is supposed to connect the Merkazit HaMifratz bus terminal with the Nazareth city center via Kiryat Ata, Shefa-'Amr and Nazareth Illit, and is planned to have 18 stations, 10 of which are within Nazareth Illit and Nazareth.
Haifa's intercity bus connections are operated almost exclusively by the Egged bus company, although Nazareth, Nazareth Illit and some of the intermediate communities, including Migdal HaEmek, are served by Nazareth Transport and Tourism and G. B. Tours. Egged's intercity lines use two terminals depending on the destination:
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 direcly 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.
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 Cyrpus.
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.
Sister cities
Haifa has sister city agreements with the following cities:
See also
Bibliography
Further reading
- (in Hebrew)
- (in Hebrew)
- Benny Morris, Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
- Seth J. Frantzman The Strength of Weakness: The Arab Christians in Mandatory Palestine, unpublished M.A. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
External links
City and universities
Bahá'í
Christian sites
Travel
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