A reign of terror began in Haifa
Jewish/Palestinian relations in Haifa were good in the early to late 1940s, as his experience testifies.
Unfortunately, personal experience tells only a small part of the story. The expulsion/ethnic cleansing of 75,000 Palestinians from Haifa is one of the most tragic episodes of the Nabka (displacement of the people).
With the passing of the UN partition resolution on November 29, 1947, the situation deteriorated immediately, despite the presence of large numbers of British Mandate troops on the ground in Haifa.
The campaign of terror orchestrated by both the Hagana and the Irgun (Jewish paramilitaries) began the morning after the passing of 181. The Jewish neighbourhoods were on the high ground overlooking the Arab neighbourhoods, and Jewish soldiers and Irgun irregulars began shelling and sniping. Jewish troops rolled barrels of explosives and huge steel balls down into the Arab residential areas. They poured oil mixed with fuel down the roads, which they set on fire. When the terrified Palestinians attempted to put out the fires, they were sprayed with machine gun fire. The Irgun specialised in throwing bombs into Arab crowds.
Haifa was chosen... to test British resolve in the face of increasing atrocities — unfortunately for the Palestinians of Haifa, it was not Britannia’s finest hour.
Within a few weeks, the second wave of operations began. Again, Haifa was the first target. The new Israeli army began systematic search-and-arrest operations looking for returnees, that is any Palestinians foolhardy enough to think that they could return home when ‘calm’ had been restored. Barr’s version bears no relationship to the reality of terror experienced by the Palestinians of Haifa in 1947/48. The Palestinians were forced to leave at gunpoint and were most certainly not allowed to return.
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