Background
The city of Haifa, on the Mediterranean coast at the north-western edge of the Sharon plain, was a strategic location in Palestine. In 1948, Haifa was a mixed city with a population of 135,000, split between Palestinian Jews (70,000) and Palestinian Arabs (65,000). The Arab proportion of the population had, since early 1948 started to dwindle. The main Palestinian Jewish areas of the city were Hadar HaCarmel and Neve Sha'anan; with, Khalisa and Wadi Nisnas being predominantly Palestinian Arab. Haifa was the country's largest deep water port, The head of the spur line to the Hejaz railway, was the oil terminal for the Mosul/Haifa pipe line (which the Iraqi Government had closed in April) and home to the Consolidated Refineries oil refinery. With the capture of the port of Haifa it would be possible for the Haganah to receive supplies and armaments during the impending Arab Israeli conflict. The leadership of the Provisional government of Israel therefore considered it vital for the welfare of the new state. Moreover, Haifa was within the area allocated to a Jewish state under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. The civil war in Palestine escalated with the final stages of the British Mandate. British firms such as Iraq Petroleum Company and Steel Brothers, transferred their offices and employees to the Lebanon. In Jerusalem by January 1947 the British had evacuated 2,000 subjects for their own safety. In the wake of the British civil evacuation the families of well to do Arabs and many of the Arab civic leaders also decamped. It is claimed that the Arab leaders encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave by running away themselves; then so frightened the leaderless mass, who had stayed behind, with atrocity propaganda that it fled as well and finally, it is claimed that they prevented a truce settlement in Haifa. The refusal of the “Arab League“ to intervene had been a cause of widespread demoralisation of the Palestinian Arab population. By mid March 25,000 to 30,000 Palestinian Arabs had already evacuated from Haifa. The Haganah April offensive appeared to take the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) by surprise.
The Haifa Arab National Committee (NC) in communique number 7, 22 February, demanded of the Palestinian Arab inhabitants that they cease all shooting and return to regular work. The Palestinian Arab half of Haifa was remote from other Major Palestinian Arab centres and that contact had been cut off by the Palestinian Jewish villages along the approach roads to Haifa. The Businesses and workshops had closed with no prospect of continued employment in the Jewish areas. The unemployment was rife and the cost of food had escalated.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Haifa (1948)
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