חיפה עיר רב תרבותית - מתוך דברים שנשאתי באפריל 2009 בכנס בטורונטו
בפני קהל גדול של יהודים, נוצרים ומוסלמים שהתכנסו בבית הכנסת בית צדק בעיר
29.10.2009
My speech at the "Designing of Diversity" evening Panel at Beth Tzedek Shul Toronto, on April, 2, 2009
By Shai Razieli
The transcript of Shai Razieli speech:
Rabbi Frydman-Kohl, Toby and Sol Feldberg, Vivienne Ziner and Glen Cohen, Shoshana Campbell – Haifa Foundation Manager, Mark Persuad – President of the Canadian International Peace Project. Karen Mock University of Haifa Foundation Toronto, Elaham and Jo Farach, Distinguished Guests, Friends, My wife Gwen Razieli, my son Yuval, my fellow members of this Panel, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a privilege and a great honour to speak here this evening.
Haifa is the largest city of Northern Israel – The Capital of the North and the third largest city in the country.
Population of 280,000, while every day another quarter of a million people are coming to Haifa to work and other services. With the suburbs – addition of 300,000 plus the north population, we are talking of about 1.7 million.
Haifa has a mixed divers population of Jews, Arabs, Druze and it is also a home of the Baha'i World Centre – A UNESCO world heritage site, officially announced two weeks ago.
Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Haifa has a history dating back to Biblical time, when The Prophet Elijah set out to live in a cave on Mount Carmel.
The earliest known settlement was a small port city established in the late Bronze Age – 14th century BC. Over the years Haifa changed hands – conquered by the Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, Egyptians and British. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Haifa has been Governed by the Haifa Municipality.
Today the City is a major Seaport, located on The Bay of Haifa – Eastern Mediterranean coast line of Israel, the only bay/ gulf in Israel coast line from the northern border with Lebanon down south to Egypt.
Haifa, 100 KM north of Tel Aviv, 50 KM south of the western Northern border of Israel and 150 KM from the eastern Northern border. 440 KM from the Southern border south to Eilat on the Red Sea.
In Haifa - Two respectable well known Academic Institutions; The University of Haifa and The Technion, an International Institute of Technology and Science, founded in 1912, with one of the best Faculty of Medicine in Israel.
The Haifa University was founded in 1963 by the late Mayor Aba- Chooshi, who became a Member of the Israeli Parliament – The Knesset, in the first elections of Israel. He left his seat in 1951 to become the Mayor of Haifa.
The University of Haifa provides equal education opportunities to all sectors of the society, in particular to encourage mutual understanding and cooperation between the Jewish and the Arab population. But not only, the Campus famous example of this cooperation is Prof Faisel Aziaza, who is a guest from Haifa on this Panel – Head of the Arab Jewish Centre in Haifa U.
This leads to tell you about the diversity and coexistence of all the communities in Haifa; between; Jewish and Arabs, Christians and Muslims – between them; Arabs and Jews of Haifa, to the vast majority of newcomers from the former Soviet union countries, Russian people, especially since 1989 with a big immigration from Ethiopia – people who came to Haifa around those years.
The objective goals of Haifa people were and still are, to absorb these immigrants in the fastest softest way and it is wonderful how things happened there.
Before I will describe how and why Haifa is so special in diversity and cooperation/ coexistence between Arabs and Jews, I would like to add that in Haifa there are some Hi-tech Parks, among them the oldest and largest in the country. Haifa is not only a big Port City with an industrial port; it is also the only petrochemical port and the only petroleum refinery centre of the country, built by the British in the late 20th.
Out of Jews, Arabs, and we call them "Russians" – lives in Haifa people of other religions; Achmadim, Druze and Bahia's. The majority of the Arabs are Christians 14% and Muslims 4%. In 2006, 27% of the Arab population was age 0-14.
The Jewish population is divided (not negatively) into Orthodox and Seculars. With this diversity I would like to tell you how the Haifa people succeeded to live all the last 60 years with harmony and coexistence. First you need for this a good atmosphere, well, the view in Haifa is one of the nicest views I ever saw in my life, and I visited many places around the world.
The green Carmel, the Bay, the sandy beach and the deep blue sea, the old city and the modern Carmel residential area with red roofs, are the best background for this. The city is always clean and the flowers and tries are always blossom.
The coexistence started by an Arab person long before the founding of the country. He was the mayor of Haifa 1927 – 1940. The late Hassan Shukri decided to nominate a Jewish deputy, although at that time the Jews were a minority. He insisted the Jews will participate in the city life. It was not easy for him; after all he was one of the Arab leaders of the entire country ruled by the British.
Hassan Shukri told his Arab opponents, criticized his step;" it is nothing to do with national politics, these people are part of the inhabitants of Haifa – they must be represent in the City Council. He then nominated Shabtai Levi to be his deputy and two more Jews were elected to the City Council.
Hassan Shukri died in 1940, his deputy was elected to be the first Jewish mayor of Haifa and was elected also by Arab voters; his deputy was an Arab.
It was clear since that day in Haifa that no matter what will be the National political mode, in Haifa; both communities will live in full coexistence. The main street at the centre of Haifa is named after this brave Hassan Shukri, Mayor of Haifa the founder of the coexistence in the City.
Since then and most of the years to come until today, the deputy mayor of Haifa is coming from the Arab community. Only a week ago, following the latest elections, the Mayor of Haifa Yona Yahav, chose to nominate an Arab member of the City Council although he could do it without him with Yahaves wide coalition in the City.
The same goes to other communities, the Mayor of Haifa has 5 deputies, each one of them coming from a different community. In the election Arabs vote for Jews and vice versa.
In Israel, by law, there is no public transportation on Saturdays (Shabat) the Jewish holy resting day, however, only in Haifa busses are running on Saturdays since more then 80 years, this because the people of this city say, no one can force the Shabat on Non Jewish population – this is a part of the status-quo with the coexistence. Same goes to shops and even the market in the Arab Quarter. In the same time the busses are stopped, so are the shops in the entire country.
It is a tradition, the Orthodox Jews are moderate and don't impose their religious strictness on others. like not to use public transportation in Saturdays as it in other cities in Israel.
The top of the coexistence is how Arab Christians, Jews and Arab Muslims celebrate together the "Festival of the Holidays", every December, Christmas, Chanukah and the Muslim festival, in the old city "Vadi Nisnus". There is not only a respect from each community to the other one. There is a completely acknowledge, Good example is on The Jewish New Year and in Yom Kipour, The Arabs will close all their shops to honour the Jewish High Holidays. Some streets will be closed by Police in Christian Holidays when they march in a parade through many streets to the main Church.
Two weeks ago right after a terror group failed to blow up a car full of explosives in a mall parking lot full of people. Many Arab people of Haifa protested against this attempt to kill so many innocents. The Arabs called Radio and TV's stations and criticized this attempt in Newspapers. They said to the Terrorists: Don’t come to blow up our public places. Not because also Arabs goes to malls and Cinemas, also we are against violence that could hurt our Jewish neighbours and kill the coexistence we all built over many years.
To show how this coexistence is working, I want to tell you a personal story:
In December 1992, my oldest son Ronen was severely wounded, in an action as a special police officer warrior counter terror squad unit. Ronen was badly wounded while storming a house where a terrorist held hostages. The terrorist shoot 360 with a machine gun. A bullet hit Ronen's head and entered his brain. He was air lifted to a Tel Aviv Hospital unconscious.
Ronen was unconscious for 6 months and remains disabled on a wheelchair.
Any how, a few days after it happened, I and my family near the intensive care never gone home, I was sitting at the hospital corridor. I saw two familiar men from Haifa; they own a restaurant I use to eat there. Both Arabs. I asked them, has anyone been hurt?, why you here? They replied: "we came to visit your son and you and to give you strength, we heard of what happened.” These two guys, Sharbel and Tony Matar, Arabs from Haifa, traveled 100 km, left their busy restaurant in the middle of the day just to visit my son who is a special wounded police officer? This means the friendship and peace is above all in Haifa. By the way their restaurant "Maxim" were destroyed 11 years later with unfortunately 21 killed in a suicide bomb attack and not because they came to visit me in that hospital.
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