HAIFA (Arab. Haifā). - City situated at the southern end of the bay of St. John of Acre, at the foot of Mount Carmel; capital of the northern district of Palestine, it has developed greatly in recent years thanks to the new port, the largest in the Levant, inaugurated in 1933, and to the influx of Zionists.
It is the industrial and commercial center of Palestine (soap, cement, tobacco) and the terminus of the Iraq oil pipeline. Its inhabitants, 110,000, are half Israelites and half Muslims, Christians, Druze and 150 Babists. The Christians, mostly Greek Catholics, number more than 10,000. Catholic institutions are numerous (nurseries, schools, hospitals, boarding houses); the Greek Catholic bishop of Galilee resides there. The city, not mentioned in the Bible, appears in the 4th century B.C. under the name 'Hōz, at the end of a district area that began at the Ladder of Tyre, identified at Tell Abū Ḥawām 2 km southeast of the railway station. Having fallen after the destruction of Tyre, it was rebuilt on the site called Hajfā el-'Atiqah. The Crusaders took it by storm in 1100 with the help of the Venetian fleet. Sacked in 1191 by Saladin, it lived without historical importance until the 18th century, when in 1760 the emir Dāhir el-'Omar transferred it to its present site, building there a castle with defensive walls. Near the sea and around the castle the present old city took shape, with its narrow streets but full of traffic in the crowded bazaar. The new part lies to the northwest with a garden city and to the southeast with the industrial quarter; the greatest development is on the slopes of Carmel, with broad avenues, large houses and new government buildings.