Haifa Before & After 1948 Narratives of a Mixed City

Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation Series, 6 (History of International Relations Library, 27) Haifa Before & After 1948, Narratives of a Mixed City is a voyage that 14 scholars and experts undertake through the cultural, political and social history of Haifa before and after the 1948 War. This volume, co-authored by Palestinians and Israelis - Arabs and Jews, mostly Israeli citizens, covers Haifa's architecture and its social and cultural life during the Mandate period, the Arab-Israeli competition in the oil and soap industries, the history of Arab-Jewish inter-communal relations and cohabitation, commemoration in the German Colony of Haifa, the story of two houses that represent the narrative of Palestinians in Haifa and remembrances displayed through personal accounts of the cold winter in 1950. In this remarkable project, Jews and Palestinians, write together the history and memory of the city of Haifa. Rather than presenting incommensurable national narratives, they offer a fresh and inspiring alternative: each article is co-authored by Arabs and Jews, thus turning the art of research and writing into a bi-national practice. Addressing 1948 as a benchmark, is crucial particularly today in facilitating not only a new reading of the political story, but also offering political possibilities. Haifa Before & After 1948 is an inspirational book that deserves to be read by everyone who is interested in the history and memory of bi-national societies. Yehouda Shenhav, Professor of Sociology, Tel Aviv University Table of Contents Contributors Preface - Catherine Ciss -van den Muijsenbergh 1. Towards Mutual Historical Writing: An Introduction to the "Haifa Project" - Mahmoud Yazbak and Yfaat Weiss 2. A Tale of Two Houses - Mahmoud Yazbak and Yfaat Weiss 3. Arab-Jewish Architectural Partnership in Haifa during the Mandate Period: Qaraman and Gerstel Meet on the "Seam Line" - Waleed Karkabi and Adi Roitenberg 4. Arabs and Jews, Leisure and Gender, in Haifa's Public Spaces - Manar Hasan and Ami Ayalon 5. Commodities and Power: Edible Oil and Soap in the History of Arab-Jewish Haifa - Mustafa Abbasi and David De Vries 6. Historicizing Climate: Haifawis and Haifo'im Remembering the Winter of 1950 -Dan Rabinowitz and Johnny Mansour 7. "Eraser" and "Anti-Eraser" - Commemoration and Marginalization on the Main Street of the German Colony: The Haifa City Museum and Caf Fattush - Salman Natour and Avner Giladi 8. Haifa Umm al-Gharib: Historical Notes and Memory of Inter-Communal Relations - Regev Nathansohn and Abbas Shiblak Bibliography Index About the Editors Mahmoud Yazbak is a Professor of Palestinian History, Head of the Department of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa. He served as the Chair of Adalah (2008-2011), and headed MEISAI (Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Association in Israel, 2008-2011). He publishes frequently on social history and issues concerning the modern Palestinian society. Yfaat Weiss is a Professor at the department of History of the Jewish people and is the head of School of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The scope of her publication covers German and Central European History, and Jewish and Israeli History.