The Arab Landmarks of Haifa are a testimony to Palestine's history of culture and struggle

Mohammed Mohsen Wedd-Haifa

After 71 years of its fall, the remaining Arab landmarks in the city of Haifa still bear witness to the history of Palestine. On April 22, 1948, the city of Haifa fell at the hands of the Zionist gangs led by the Haganah and others who considered the success of its project linked to the expropriation of Jaffa and Haifa.

And changed the features of Haifa, which was the port of Palestine and its maritime link in the world. Since then, the Palestinian city has undergone a radical change after being invaded and colonized by new residents, with the support and guidance of the various branches of the Israeli establishment that changed the buildings and monuments of history and civilization.

We are here

The city has lost its urban landmarks after the demolition, obliteration, Judaization, closure of hundreds of buildings and the construction of roads and streets that penetrated the Arab neighborhoods of the city to obliterate its Arabism. However, the rest of these landmarks are a sign that the Arab city is still a pulse. Is the basis for realizing the dream of return, while the sights on various scenes say "we are here".

In his book "Haifa, The Word That Became a City", historian and researcher Johnny Mansour reviews the social and cultural history of the city and the history of Palestinian architecture that witnessed the growth and prosperity of Haifa in the Ottoman era And the period of the British Mandate, pointing out that the city has succeeded in absorbing several models of the architectural arts in Palestine.

Blur features

"The features of Haifa have changed over the past seven decades, since they came under Israeli occupation," said Mansur, who was born in Haifa. "The Zionist machine sought to change its features and features through a series of changes that included changing names to Hebrew, Zionism, And to the demolition of landmarks of landmarks and Arab sites built and built by the owners of the city and its original inhabitants over time.

The historian Mansour - al-Jazeera Net - that the Zionist project and the municipality of Haifa in an attempt to obliterate Arab landmarks and hide, while seeking to highlight the Israeli and Jewish form of the city.

He stressed that the municipality in Haifa has worked to change the Arabic names carried by the streets, alleyways, roads and neighborhoods into Hebrew, Jewish and Zionist names. This is part of the plan to exterminate the cultural scene through the process of obliterating Arab cultural and intellectual landmarks that characterized Haifa before its fall.

City of struggle and culture

During the British Mandate period, Haifa lived scenes of political life and national, cultural and partisan activity, which was mainly concerned with the Palestinian cause and the ways to confront the plans of the Zionist movement. The city was formed by the Palestinian armed struggle against the British, founded by the martyr Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Which is still a witness to the history of the revolutionaries, despite an attempt to obliterate the towers and tall buildings.

Despite its colonization, Haifa, home to 150,000 people, including 70,000 Palestinians, 60,000 Syrians, Lebanese and twenty thousand Palestinians, was characterized by intellectual, cultural and literary life. It was the front of a large group of writers, poets, journalists, teachers and great artists.

In a look at the port of Haifa on the seashore of the sea, which was considered Palestine's maritime gateway to the world, Rafda revived the city economically, commercially and economically. The industrial zone, which includes oil refineries and Hijaz, which was established by the Ottoman Empire in 1900, linked Haifa with the cities of Levant, And Jordan.

The story of the city and the struggle of existence

The scenes of Haifa describe the story of the city, its history and the civilizations and cultures it experienced in scenes that prove the existence of the Palestinian people despite the fall of the city on 22 April 1948, a few weeks before the Nakba, and reflect the Palestinian conflict with the Zionist movement on the existence of all historic Palestine.

Palestine's Resolution 181 of 1947 was a catalyst for the Jewish gangs to occupy Haifa, which was signed under this resolution within the borders of the Jewish state. The Jewish armed gangs carried out a series of terrorist attacks in Arab neighborhoods. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed as a result of these operations. , British forces did not move, did not protect the Arabs, and gave the Jews the green light to occupy Haifa and turn it into a Jewish city.

The city was ethnically cleansed of its original Arab population. About 3,000 of the 70,000 Palestinians remained in the Wadi al-Nisnas neighborhood and were subjected to military rule as enemies. This rule did not end until two years after the Nakba. Four thousand Arabs, including forty thousand Arabs, live in neighborhoods, Kababir, Halisa, Wadi Nisnas, Wadi Jamal, Abbas and Karma, knowing that in the refugee camps and diaspora there are nearly one million Haifaians.

Various religious landmarks
Haifa is home to the religious sites of various sects and sects. There are still many mosques in the city's neighborhoods, despite the projects of obliteration and Judaization. The most prominent of these is the Grand Mosque of Nasr, also known as the Mosque of Al-Jaraina, which is located on the eastern side of the city. The entrance to the Clock Tower in honor of the memory of the sitting of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II on the throne.

Located in the same area is the small mosque built by Sheikh Zaher al-Omar al-Zaidani and the Istiqlal Mosque, built by Sheikh Zaher in 1925. It is located outside the walls of Haifa built by Sheikh Zaher, in addition to the mosque of Haj Abdullah Abu Yunis, built in the 1930s In the neighborhood of Halisah, and the mosque of Sidna Mahmud of the Ahmadiyya group (Rifaiya) in the Kababir neighborhood.

In addition, the churches and monasteries of Haifa witness the Arab presence of Christians in the city, through the Church of the Roman Catholic Lady built in 1862, and the Church of the Virgin Mary of Latina, located next to the courtyard of the Hanatir.

The Maronite Church at the end of the 19th century, the Mar Elias Roman Catholic Church, the St. John the Evangelical Church in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, the St. Luke Church, the Latin Church of St. Joseph and the Angel Church of Gabriel in the Carmel station neighborhood were also built next to the courtyard.

The Bahá'í community is the "Abbas Temple" at the foot of Mount Carmel in the German Quarter and the surrounding gardens. The community has taken Haifa as its global headquarters. In 2008, the 19th Bahá'í Gardens were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List Education, culture and science.