Editing Haifa (section)

===1947–1948 Civil War in Palestine===
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 20690 The Palmach.jpg|thumb|upright|Haifa July 1947. British soldiers remove injured passenger from [[SS Exodus]]]]{{Further|Battle of Haifa (1948)}}
The [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|1947 UN Partition Plan]] in late November 1947 designated Haifa as part of the proposed [[Jewish state]]. Arab protests over that decision evolved into violence between Jews and Arabs that left several dozen people dead during December.<ref>Palestine Post, many issues December 1947.</ref> The Arab city was in a state of chaos. The local Arab national committee tried to stabilize the situation by organizing garrison, calming the frightened residents and to stop the flight. In a public statement, the national committee called upon the Arab residents to obey orders, be alert, keep calm, and added: "Keep away the cowards who wish to flee. Expell them from your lines. Despise them, because they harm more than the enemy". Despite the efforts, Arab residents abandoned the streets which bordered Jewish neighborhoods and during the days of the general strike instigated by the [[Arab Higher Committee]], some 250 Arab families abandoned the Khalisa neighborhood.<ref>[[Yoav Gelber]], ''Independence Versus Nakba''; Kinneret–Zmora-Bitan–Dvir Publishing, 2004, {{ISBN|978-965-517-190-7}}, pp.136–137</ref>

On 30 December 1947, members of the [[Irgun]], a Jewish underground militia, threw bombs into a crowd of Arabs outside the gates of the [[Consolidated Refineries]] in Haifa, killing six and injuring 42. In response, Arab employees of the company killed 39 Jewish employees in what became known as the [[Haifa Oil Refinery massacre]].<ref>{{Citation |title=The Israel/Palestine Question |author-link=Ilan Pappé |first=Ilan |last=Pappé |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-415-16947-9}}</ref> The Jewish [[Haganah]] militia retaliated with a raid on the Arab village of [[Balad al-Shaykh]], where many of the Arab refinery workers lived, in what became known as the [[Balad al-Shaykh massacre]].<ref>Benny Morris, ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited'', p101.</ref>

[[British Armed Forces|British forces]] in Haifa redeployed on 21 April 1948, withdrawing from most of the city while still maintaining control over the port facilities. According to Ilan Pappé, although the Jewish mayor of the city, [[Shabtai Levy]], urged the Arab residents to stay, in other parts of town loudspeakers could be heard ordering Arabs to leave "before it's too late."<ref>Pappe, Ilan. ''The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'', p. 95</ref>

On 21 April, the downtown, controlled by a combination of local and foreign (ALA) Arab irregulars, was assaulted by [[Yishuv|Jewish]] forces in [[Battle of Haifa (1948)|Operation Bi'ur Hametz]] by the [[Barak Armored Brigade|Carmeli Brigade]] of the Haganah, commanded by [[Moshe Carmel]]. Arab neighborhoods were attacked with mortars and gunfire,<ref name="Eugene Rogan 2012 330">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LILdBDrm-ksC&q=eugene+rogan+history+of+arabs|title=The Arabs: A History – Third Edition|author=Eugene Rogan|page=330|publisher=Penguin|year=2012|isbn=9780718196837 }}</ref> which, according to [[Ilan Pappé]], culminated in an attack on a Palestinian crowd in the old marketplace using three-inch (76&nbsp;mm) mortars on 22 April 1948.<ref>Pappé, Ilan (1992). ''The Making of the Arab Israeli Conflict 1947–1951''. I B Tauris, p.72 {{ISBN|978-1-85043-819-9}}</ref><ref>Morris, Benny (2001). "Revisiting the Palestinian exodus of 1948", in ''The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948'' (pp. 37–59). Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-79476-3}}</ref><ref>Pappe, Ilan. ''The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'', p. 96, citing Zadok Eshel, "The Carmeli Brigade in the War of Independence", p. 147.</ref>

[[Rashid al-Haj Ibrahim]], a Palestinian Arab municipal leader, described attacks "provoking terror among the women and children, who were very influenced by [[w:Deir Yassin massacre|the horrors of Dayr Yasin]]", and provided an eyewitness account of the flight of Haifa's Arab residents:<ref name="Eugene Rogan 2012 330"/>

{{cquote|Thousands of women, children and men hurried to the port district in a state of chaos and terror without precedent in the history of the Arab nation. They fled their houses to the coast, barefoot and naked, to wait for their turn to travel to Lebanon. They left their homeland, their houses, their possessions, their money, their welfare, and their trades, to surrender their dignity and their souls.}}

The operation led to a massive displacement of Haifa's Arab population, and was part of the larger [[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight]]. According to ''The Economist'' at the time, only 5,000–6,000 of the city's 62,000 Arabs remained there by 2 October 1948.<ref name=Refugee>{{cite web |url=http://www.mideastweb.org/refugees1.htm |title=The Palestine Refugee Problem |publisher=Mideastweb.org |access-date=5 May 2009 |archive-date=1 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501153754/http://www.mideastweb.org/refugees1.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Morris quotes British sources as stating that during the battles between 22 and 23 April 100 Arabs were killed and 100 wounded, but he adds that the total may have been higher.<ref>Morris, Benny (1987), ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-33028-2}}. Page 315. Quoting CP v/4/102, Stockwell Report. He comments: "Nor is there any evidence that a "massacre" took place in the town."</ref>

Historian [[Walid Khalidi]] described "the mass exodus of Haifa’s Arab population" as "the spontaneous reaction to the ruthless combination of terror and psychological warfare tactics adopted by the Haganah during the attack."[https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/haifa.pdf]