History of Haifa - 20th Century

20th Century

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 established at that time. The Haifa District was home to approximately 20,000 inhabitants, 96 percent Arab (82 percent Muslim and 14 percent Christian), and four percent Jewish. As aliyah increased, the balance shifted. By 1945 the population was 53 percent Arab (33 percent Muslim and 20 percent Christian) and 47 percent Jewish. In 1947, the population comprised 70,910 Arabs (41,000 Muslims and 29,910 Christians) and 74,230 Jews. The Christians belong mostly to the Greek Orthodox Church (Arab Orthodox). Haifa was designated as part of the Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan that proposed dividing Mandate Palestine into two states. In December 1947 the Jewish militant group Irgun hurled two bombs at a group of Arabs waiting for construction jobs outside the Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, killing 6 and injuring 42. Rioting erupted in which 2,000 Arab employees killed 39 of their Jewish colleagues in what has become known as the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre. Jewish forces retaliated by raiding the Arab village of Balad al-Shaykh on December 31, 1947. Control of Haifa was a critical objective in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, as it was the country's major industrial port.

The British in Haifa redeployed on April 21, 1948, withdrawing from most of the city while still maintaining control over the port facilities. The city was captured on April 23, 1948 by the Carmeli Brigade of the Haganah who were ordered into action by Mordechai Maklef at 10:30 am on 21 April following three months of unsuccessful attacks by Arab forces. Most of the Muslim population fled through the British-controlled port. However as many as 2,000 Christians and 1,300 Muslims were still living in the city by June 1948. By the end of June the remaining British forces left Haifa.

Today, Haifa has a population of about 266,300 people. 90% of the population are predominantly Israeli-Jews. The latter group consists of Israelis without religious classification, mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union, from mixed-marriage families of Jewish origin. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Israeli-Arabs constitute 9% of Haifa's population, the majority living in Wadi Nisnas, Abbas and Halisa neighborhoods.