[
Town Statistics and Facts
Statistic/Fact
Value
Occupation date April 23rd,1948
Elevation from the sea Elevation varied between 50 meters in the coastal area to 500 meter on Mount Carmel.
Maps Map of Haifa city
Map of Haifa district and neighboring villages
Attacking Israeli force The Zionist forces were made up of 5,000 soldiers mostly organized by Haganah (Carmeli Brigade) and some IZL troops. The attack on Arab Haifa started on the 21st of April and was initiated from Hadara Ha Carmel (Haifa's Jewish neighborhood), which aimed to split the city into three separate and isolated pockets (operation Misbarayim meaning scissor).
The 1st attacking force was directed from Wadi Rashmya towards the Northeastern neighborhoods of Arab Haifa, the 2nd attacking force was directed toward the Arab neighborhood next to the port, and the 3rd attacking was directed toward the commercial district.
Click here, to read more about the battle for for Haifa in Arabic.
City defenders The city was poorly defended with 350-500 Palestinian volunteers and some Arab Liberation Army (ALA). Haifa's defense was headed by Ahmad al-Huneiti (a Jordanian national), who was killed on March 17th, 1948 while supplying the city with a major arms shipment, 12 tons of explosives, from Beirut-Lebanon. This arms shipment was meant to reinforce Haifa's crumbling defenses, and to boost it moral. Based on a tip from a British commander stationed in the area, a Haganah force that was stationed nearby Kiryat Motzkin, a Zionist colony between Haifa and Acre, ambushed and killed Mr. al-Huneiti. The death of Ahmad al-Huneiti had a major demoralizing affect on Haifa's Arab population. On March 27th, 1948, Ameen 'Izz al-Deen took up the responsibility of defending Haifa until its surrender on the April 23rd, 1948.
Just prior to the city's surrender, close to 300 fighters from the al-Tira, a Palestinian village located 7 km southeast of Haifa, attempted to reinforce Haifa's crumbling defenses. As they headed down to Arab Haifa, they were confronted by a British force commanded by General Stockholm, who commanded Haifa's British forces at the time, and they were forced to turned back. The people of al-Tira are a very good example of how a poorly armed, but well determined and stubborn fighters, can stand up to the Zionist might. Despite all the odds, al-Tira withstood a siege and an onslaught for more than three months until its occupation in late July 1948.
It should be noted that close to 700 of Transjordan's Arab Legionnaires (who were give strict orders not intervene by H.M. King Abdullah and their commanding British officer Gloub Pasha) stood by while Haifa was being ethically cleansed and occupied.
Click here, to read more about the battle for for Haifa in Arabic.
Acts of terror On December 30th ,1947, a Zionist terrorist planted a bomb in the Arab neighborhood where Palestinian Arab workers from nearby Palestine Oil Refinery used to live. As a result 6 Palestinians were killed, and 41 others were injured. Next morning, the Arab workers rioted in the Oil Refinery and attacked the Jewish workers to avenge the death of their Arab brothers, which resulted in the killing of 41 Jewish workers. In response, the Haganah and IZL forces retaliated by perpetrating the New Years Eve Massacre at Balad al-Shaykh, which resulted in the killing of close to 60 innocent men, women, and children. It should be noted that the people of Balad al-Shaykh had nothing to do with Oil Refinery riots, and the Haganah made the choice of picking an easy target to avenge the death of the Jewish workers at the Oil Refinery .
On February 29th ,1948, Zionist terrorists rolled downs a barrel of explosives from Haifa's Jewish neighborhood, Hadara Ha Carmel, into al-'Abasyah Arab neighborhood, which resulted in the destruction of most of the neighborhood. The bomb ended up terrorizing the nearby Arab neighborhoods into fleeing soon after that incident.
On March 22nd, 1948, Zionist terrorists disguised as British officers planted a car bomb in Iraq Street that killed and injured 36 people, mostly women and children, plus the destruction of several public buildings.
Ethnic cleansing Based on declassified Israeli documents, the Israeli historian Benny Morris concluded that the Jewish civilian population (especially Haifa's Jewish mayor Shabtai Levy) was at peace with their Palestinian neighbors, but the Haganah and the IZL leadership had a different agenda to ethnically cleansing the city from its Palestinian Arab population. Benny Morris wrote:
"In Haifa, the civilian authorities were saying one thing and the Haganah was doing something else altogether. Moreover, Haganah unites in the field acted inconsistently and in a manner often unintelligible to the Arab population" (Benny Morris, p. 90).
To expedite the ethnic cleansing process, the Haganah broadcasted terror messages, via loudspeakers, to sociologically terrorize the Arab inhabitants into fleeing. (Benny Morris, p. 76)
According to Ben-Gurion's biographer, Micheal Bar-Zohar, the dispatching of Golda Meir to Haifa soon after the city's occupation was nothing but a political and tactical ploy, Zohar wrote:,
"The appeals to the Arabs [of Haifa] to stay, Golda's mission, and other similar gestures were the result of political considerations, but they did not reflect [Ben-Gurion's] basic stand. In internal discussions, in instructions to his people, the 'old man' demonstrated a clear stand: it was better that the smallest possible number of [Palestinian] Arabs remain with in the [Jewish] state." (Simha Falpan, p. 84)
Out of the 61,000 Palestinian Arabs who used to call Haifa home, only 3,566 Palestinians were allowed to stay. The remaining population were in constant fear on their lives and properties, and many of them witnessed the looting of their homes and possessions by the Zionists.
Click here, to read more about the battle for for Haifa in Arabic.
Refugees' migration route The mass majority of Haifa's Palestinian population, numbering at least 35,000, were pushed into the sea. Similarly, Jaffa's population, numbering at least 50,000, suffered the same fate on May 13th,1948. Click here to view a map that illustrates refugees' migration routes.
Via boats, many Palestinian refugees landed in Sour (Tyre), Sayda, and Beirut Lebanon, and some boats managed to land in Acre City. It's very sad that some of the people who landed in Acre were ethnically cleansed again few weeks later.
Ironically, often Zionists accuse the Arabs of plotting to push the Jews into the sea!
[/QUOTE]
