Port Of Haifa Research Articles

Sephardic longshoremen at the Haifa Port (1933-1936): dynamics of skill-selective labor immigration from Thessaloniki to mandatory Palestine

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the Zionist challenges regarding “Jewish labor” through the micro-history of the Salonikian longshoremen on the eve of their emigration from Greece (early 1930s), and during the first period of integration in the Haifa Port (1933–1936). To date, the hegemonic perspective on Salonikian longshoremen has emphasized the immigrants’ crucial role in overcoming the Arab-dominated port labor market. However, while tending to paint a romantic picture of national fervor, this Zionist view obscured the economic, ethnic, and cultural confrontation involved in realizing “Jewish labor”. These multiple forms of confrontation occurred not only between ethnic groups (Jewish-Arab struggle) but also within the local Jewish labor community. Re-visiting the Zionist agenda from the vantage point of both the Salonikian longshoremen and the Zionist establishment enables to present largely neglected aspects of the complex relations between the Sephardic Salonikians and the Ashkenazi/Eastern European-dominated Jewish labor establishment. Due to heavy doubts about the Salonikian commitment to the uphill battle for “Jewish labor,” the Haifa Labor Council excluded the latter from the labor community. Consequently, the cultural marginality of the Salonikians weakened the Zionist vision of uniting all Jewish wage earners into a cohesive working class in the middle of the 1930s.

On the Effect of Interferences on X-Band Radar Wave Measurements.

X-band radars are in growing use for various oceanographic purposes, providing spatial real-time information about sea state parameters, surface elevations, currents, and bathymetry. Therefore, it is very appealing to use such systems as operational aids to harbour management. In an installation of such a remote sensing system in Haifa Port, consistent radially aligned spikes of brightness randomly distributed with respect to azimuth were identified. These streak noise patterns were found to be interfering with the common approach of oceanographic analysis. Harbour areas are regularly frequented with additional electromagnetic transmissions from other ship and land-based radars, which may serve as a source of such interference. A new approach is proposed for the filtering of such undesirable interference patterns from the X-band radar images. It was verified with comparison to in-situ measurements of a nearby wave buoy. Regardless of the actual source of the corresponding pseudo-wave energy, it was found to be crucial to apply such filtration in order to improve the performance of the standard oceanographic parameter retrieval algorithm. This results in better estimation of the mean sea state parameters towards lower values of the significant wave height. For the commercial WaMoSII system this enhancement was clearly apparent in the improvement of the built-in quality control criteria marks. The developed prepossessing procedure improves the robustness of the directional spectra estimation practically eliminating pseudo-wave energy components. It also extends the system’s capability to measure storm events earlier on, a fact that is of high importance for harbour operational decision making.

The mobile and carceral logics of Haifa Port

This article investigates Haifa Port’s carceral and mobile geographies by examining how Israel is being re-made, rebranded, and harnessed as ‘safe and secure space’ for the transits of global capital. The article contends with ports as key protagonists of empire, situated in an enduring and ongoing history of colonial routes and route-making that are raced and moving with/through the transits of colonised bodies and commodities. Haifa Port – and Israel itself – are examined as nodes in a matrix of global colonial-capitalist relations, moulded to an essential geographic rationale, in which everything moves and must continue circulating. Yet, in exploring the specific dense and durable materialities of Haifa Port – and the racial logics of the settler colonial state – the article also works to understand that which becomes contained and fixed in particular sites, spaces, bodies, and lives. This also helps point to whom and what sits outside them – vulnerable and threatening to Israel’s participation in global economic circuits and orders.

Trends in Emission Inventory of Marine Traffic for Port of Haifa

Located in the Middle East, Haifa Port serves both local and international trade interests (from Asia, Europe, America, Africa, etc.). Due to its strategic location, the port is part of the Belt and Road initiative. This research investigates Haifa Port’s emissions contribution to the existing daily emission inventory level in the area. This research is based on a developed full bottom-up model framework that looks at the single vessel daily voyage through its port call stages. The main data sources for vessel movements used in this research are the Israel Navy’s movements log and the Israel Administration of Shipping and Ports’ (ASP) operational vessel movements and cargo log. The Fuel Consumption (FC) data and Sulfur Content (SC) levels are based on official Israel ASP survey data. The observation years in this research are 2010–2018, with a focus on the Ocean-Going Vessel (OGV) type only. The results show that the vessel fleet calling at Israel ports mainly comprises vessels that have a lower engine tier grade (i.e., Tier 0 and 1), which is considered a heavy contributor to nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution. The study recommends an additional cost charged (selective tariff) to reflect the external social cost linked to the single vessel air pollution combined with supportive technological infrastructure and economic incentive tools (e.g., electric subsidy) to attract or influence vessel owners to assign vessels equipped with new engine tier grades for calls at Israeli ports.

Infrastructure Development and Waterfront Transformations: Physical and Intangible Borders in Haifa Port City

Constructed on its natural bay as a fortified Muslim town in the late 18th century, Haifa’s port city transformed into a modern cosmopolitan port city in the second half of the 19th century. Significant technological, administrative, and social changes made Haifa into the transportation and economic hub of northern Palestine: Its harbor, the first in the region, became a gate to the east for commodities, pilgrimages, and ideas. British imperialism enlarged it with landfill areas and added an industrial function, constructing refineries and a connecting pipeline with Iraq. Haifa port served as the main entry port for immigration and goods for the newly founded Israeli state. Privatization and neo-liberalization transformed it from national port to international corporate hub, reshaping both port and city. Individual entrepreneurs, local governments, and imperial actions shaped and reshaped the landscape; perforating new access points, creating porous borders, and a new socioeconomic sphere.<strong> </strong>This process persisted through the Late Ottoman era, the British Mandate, and the Israeli state. From the first Ottoman landfills to the sizeable British harbor of 1933, the market economy led urban planning of Haifa’s waterfront and its adjacent railroad to the current Chinese petrol-harbor project. What were the city’s tangible and intangible borders? How did these changes, influenced by local and foreign agendas, unfold? Tapping into built-environment evidence; archival documents (architectural drawings, plans, maps, and photographs); and multidisciplinary academic literature to examine Haifa’s urban landscape transformation, this article studies the history of Haifa’s planned urban landscape—focusing on transformations to the port and waterfront to adjust to new technologies, capital markets, and political needs. We thus explore Haifa port history as a history of porosity and intangibility—rather than the accepted history of European modernization—building upon theoretical literature on global networks and urban form, regional dynamics of port cities, and tangible and intangible border landscapes.

The Thessaloniki Jewish pioneers in the Haifa waterfront, 1929–32

ABSTRACT This article traces the economic history of the small Jewish maritime community in its hometown of Thessaloniki during the 1920s and its new home of Haifa in the early 1930s. The Thessalonikians’ strong connection to port occupations made them an ideal pioneer in the Zionist scheme of creating a Jewish maritime presence in Mandatory Palestine. The Thessalonikians’ arrival in the Arab-dominated Haifa waterfront led to continuous conflict. The article examines the encounter between the Thessaloniki port culture and the Arab one in Haifa and its reflection in the core issue of the Jewish hold in the port of Haifa.

The intimacy of power: gender and US naval visits to Haifa port 1979–2001

Using a method of feminist historical ethnography, this article offers a microanalysis of US Sixth Fleet port calls, Rest and Recreation, and naval diplomacy in Haifa port over the period 1979–2001. The documentation of everyday civil–military encounters in the city supports the claim that in the Mediterranean context, American military expansion was welcomed both by political elites and by the general public. In this process, a politics of consensus was built through repeated activities, ceremonies and cultural frames, which stressed the shared values and importance of US–Israel relations. Although the negative effects of routine visits (vandalism, crime, prostitution and rape) were never publicly acknowledged on the national level, two mechanisms for containing and minimizing urban conflict were developed over time by local officials and entrepreneurs. First, a discursive framing of port calls as a form of militarized tourism enabled municipal authorities to carefully plan and control the daily routine of foreign servicemen, including their exchanges with local residents. Second, the urban decay of the Haifa port district enabled the creation of intimate and confined bars that catered for American soldiers far from residential areas. Narratives of and about women who were involved as agents in the daily maintenance of these spaces reveal that intimacy, sexuality and even motherly love were significant for the development of both mechanisms. Furthermore, local forms of militarized femininity, namely the care for male soldiers as a motherly duty and the trivialization of sexual violence, were expanded to include US servicemen, contributing to the normalization of foreign military presence.

Plankton resting stages in recent sediments of Haifa port, Israel (Eastern Mediterranean) - Distribution, viability and potential environmental consequences

Resting stages of plankton were sampled in the surficial sediments in the port of Haifa, Israel, on the eve of a major port enlargement project. We recorded the structure of the assemblages and examined their relationship with different environments within the port. Our findings reveal a remarkably high diversity coupled with low density and the highest number of oligotrich ciliate cyst types recorded from marine sediments. Near the eutrophic and highly polluted zone of the Kishon estuary ciliates were more abundant than elsewhere in the port, whereas dinoflagellates' abundance was reduced, and these trends held true both for full and empty cysts. Some harmful or potentially toxic species, such as Scrippsiella acuminata, were widespread in the port. The toxigenic species include Alexandrium minutum, Gymnodinium uncatenatum and Lingulodinium polyedrum. Active cells of the unarmoured, bloom-forming Akashiwo sanguinea were identified in the cultures obtained from the incubated sediments.

Between idealism and reality: the unknown chapter of the Thessalonikian dockworkers in their struggle in the port of Haifa, 1933–1935

ABSTRACTIn the struggle of Jewish labor in the port of Haifa during the British Mandate, the Thessalonikian dockers played a major role. Until recently the story of their absorption was analyzed ‘from above’ with a functionalist-nationalist explanation. The Thessalonikians arrived equipped with professional skills, enthusiasm, and Zionist solidarity, which ostensibly was to be sufficient for their successful occupational integration at the waterfront. This article looks again on (1) the push–pull factors of migration, and (2) the professional and economic absorption in the waterfront of Haifa, but according to social history approach and ‘from below’, from which emerges a much more complex story. We note failures and successes to gain a foothold in the maritime labor market, the persistence involved, and the partial withdrawal from the struggle. The deepening chasm between national idealism and social reality brought an ongoing polemic between the Thessalonikian dockers and the Zionist elites of the interwar Yishuv, with both sides failing to bridge the gaps.

Coastal congestion: Simulating port expansion and land use change under zero-sum conditions

This paper examines the displacement effects associated with new land use development in a congested coastal area. A land use micro-simulation model (UrbanSim) and statistical estimation are used to identify the expected future land use impacts arising from the proposed expansion of the Port of Haifa. Maximum and minimum development scenarios are simulated and compared to baseline (business-as-usual) conditions. Simulation outputs refer to future population, employment, residential and non-residential construction for the city of Haifa and its metropolitan area untill the year 2038. A key finding relates to the spatial substitution effects of additional non-residential floor space on residential development throughout the Haifa region. This highlights the zero sum effects of land use change under conditions of congestion. The challenge of efficiently using limited land use resources and balancing development across many competing uses and stakeholders, is stressed.

First record of Pseudorhaphitoma cf. iodolabiata (Hornung & Mermod, 1928) (Mollusca; Gastropoda; Mangeliidae) off the Mediterranean coast of Israel

A live juvenile specimen of the mangeliid gastropod Pseudorhaphitoma cf. iodolabiata was noted off the Mediterranean coast of Israel on April 25, 2010, outside the port of Haifa. The occurrence of this Red Sea endemic raises the number of alien mollusk species recorded off the Israeli coast to 137.

First record of the Indo-Pacific seaweed Codium arabicum Kütz. (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta) in the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Mediterranean shores of Israel have experienced invasions of several alien Indo-Pacific seaweed species. This phenomenon has been observed mainly on the northern Israeli Mediterranean shore, particularly near the port of Haifa. Here we report and discuss the first record of the common Indo-Pacific seaweed Codium arabicum from the Mediterranean Sea, namely, from the Levant coast of Israel. This macroalga was first identified morphologically, and the determination later confirmed by molecular techniques using two plastid DNA sequences: rbcL exon 1 and rps3-rpl16. High water temperatures for most of the year and free habitat space appear to facilitate the successful settlement and establishment of this species, as has been the case for hundreds of other invasive Indo-Pacific organisms along the Israeli Mediterranean shore.

Laryngeal Snaring by Ingested Fishing Net in a Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Off the Israeli Shoreline

We report an unusual snaring of the larynx in an adult, female common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The dolphin was observed swimming and diving in Haifa Port, Israel, but was found dead the next day, 60 km south, on the coast. Postmortem examination revealed stranded-cordage, nylon filaments wrapped around the larynx, cutting through the soft tissue, and extending down into the forestomach, where a large mass of netting was found. The cachectic state of the dolphin and the subacute to chronic, hyper-plastic response of soft tissue surrounding the filaments lodged around the larynx, suggest a prolonged period of starvation, which led to the final weakness and wasting of the dolphin.

Shoreline migration and beach-nearshore sand balance over the last 200 years in Haifa Bay (SE Mediterranean)

Several researchers have investigated morphological changes on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast during the late Holocene. However, very few of these studies include quantitative data covering the last 200 years. In this study, topographical maps, nautical charts and aerial photographs are used to estimate the shoreline migrations and beach–nearshore sand balance over the last 200 years in Haifa Bay, Israel, the northernmost final depositional sink of the Nile littoral cell. The findings reflect two main periods. During the first period, between 1799 and 1928, human intervention along the bay’s coast was negligible, a significant coastal expansion of ∼50 to 150 m (averages of 0.4–1.2 m/year) was measured, and sand accumulation was estimated at ∼70,000 m3 annually in the beach–nearshore area. A dramatic change in the sedimentological pattern was observed during the second period, between 1928 and 2006, following the completion of Haifa Port’s main breakwater (1929–1933). During this period, most of the bay’s coast was in a steady state, with seasonal fluctuations of less than about ±20 m, and slight erosion of ∼7,000 m3 annually. These findings are consistent with previous studies which conclude that from approximately 4,000 years ago until the construction of Haifa Port, sea level remained relatively stable, and a continuous accumulation of Nile-derived sand dried up the Zevulun Plain and shifted the Haifa Bay shoreline westwards to its present location. This long-term trend ceased after completion of the Haifa Port main breakwater.

Longshore sand transport estimates along the Mediterranean coast of Israel in the Holocene

The Nile littoral cell, one of the world's longest, runs 650 km along the southeastern Mediterranean, from Abu Quir Bay near Alexandria, Egypt, to Haifa Bay on the northern Israeli coast. Haifa Bay constitutes the northernmost final depositional sink of Nile-derived quartz sand, transported from the Nile delta by longshore currents generated by approaching breaking waves. The northward net sand transport along the Mediterranean coast of Israel results from larger waves approaching from west–south–west and south–west compared to their counterparts from west–north–west and north–west. This study utilizes an extensive new database gathered from sediment drill cores, marine geophysical maps and field observations to measure the volume of sand deposited in Haifa Bay and the adjacent Zevulun Plain during the Holocene. It then compares this volume to recent data, including measurements of sand accumulation along Haifa Port's main breakwater (constructed in the southern entrance of the bay) as well as longshore sand transport estimates along the northern Carmel coast. Research findings estimate the annual average quantity of sand transported to Haifa Bay throughout the period at 80,000–90,000 m 3. The findings further conclude that this amount has not changed appreciably over the past 75 years. Evaluating calculated values over the long term, it is suggested that the characteristics of longshore sand transport along the coast of Israel have not changed significantly during the past 7900–8500 years. It is obvious that this conjecture should be treated with reservations.

Land versus State: Israel and its Army after the Disengagement

In the summer of 2005 the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out one of its largest military campaigns in many years. Fifty thousand soldiers were sent to confront an adversary numbering ten thousand. But unlike the past, the adversary was not an external enemy. It was a section of the Israeli population. Only once before had an Israeli government ordered soldiers to bring Israeli citizens to heel. That was in 1951, three years after the establishment of the state, when the IDF broke a seamen's strike in the port of Haifa. The traumatic effect of this step on the young society was so profound that no subsequent government ventured to use the military in internal disputes among Jews. Never—until the summer of 2005.

The Sail Tower, Haifa, Israel

The Government Office Tower is a part of the new urban development currently under construction in down-town Haifa, near Haifa Port. The structure is a 37-storey tower (approx. 140 m high) with a total floor area of more than 150 000 m 2 .

Shallow water seismic surveys for site investigation in the Haifa Port Extension area, Israel

A shallow water seismic study was recently carried out as a part of a site investigation project in the Haifa Port Extension area near the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The objectives of the study were estimating P- and S-wave velocity distribution below the seabed and detecting recent faulting at the site. An additional target was testing the presence of a hard rock with P-wave velocity of more than 3000 m/s within the depth range down to 700 m. To achieve the objectives, specially designed refraction and high resolution reflection surveys were carried out at the site. The data acquisition was performed using bay cables and hydrophones placed at the seabed. The source of seismic energy was a single air gun for the reflection survey and explosives for the refraction survey. The P-wave velocities estimated from the shallow refraction data vary in a narrow range of 1800–2200 m/s, hampering the depth interpretation of the data. No indication of the presence of a high-velocity (hard rock) layer within the depth range of 700 m was found. The S-wave velocities were estimated on the basis of the dispersion analysis of Scholte waves contained in the refraction records. The resulting S-wave velocity distribution correlates well with the result of the land refraction survey carried out in the vicinity of the investigated site. The reflection time sections display a sequence of reflections from various stratigraphic units down to the depths of about 800 m. Although some evidence of deformation may be found in the deep part of the sections, there is no indication of the existence of faults in the shallow part of the sections (upper 250–300 m). The results of the surveys show that acquiring shallow water seismic data at the sea bottom may be a relatively simple and effective way to derive information regarding the structure and properties of the shallow subsurface below the seabed.

Transportation Environments of Fresh Produce

A produce distribution survey was conducted to develop a calculated risk approach to packaging systems design. A database for simulating shock and vibration inputs was derived from two instrumented surveys of typical transport routes of apples and citrus fruit. These comprised spectral envelopes encompassing different truck types and road conditions, and a ship voyage from Haifa port in Israel to Marseille, France. Intermittent transient accelerations were segregated from continuous steady-state vibration records and presented separately as Fourier spectrum envelopes. Handling shocks sustained by pallet loads during forklift loading and unloading are also reported.

A Rodent Ectoparasite Survey of Haifa Port

The port of Haifa was completed in 1932, and rodent and rodent ectoparasite surveys were undertaken from 1933 onwards, although their results were never published. The importance of these surveys was demonstrated when plague-infected rats were found in the port in May 1941 followed some months afterwards by 15 cases of human plague around the port. Plague-infected rats continued to be found until January 1943. All rats trapped were negative for plague from this date until June 1944 when infected rats once again appeared in the port; this was closely followed by an epidemic of 29 human cases with 10 deaths among port workers and in the surrounding town (Btesh, 1945). In July 1947 plague-infected rats were again found in the port. This had been preceded by the appearance of 1 human case of bubonic plague on June 26, and during the month of July, 15 additional cases appeared in the town, until the anti-plague work had its effect. This epidemic was one of the earliest to be controlled by the widespread use of D.D.T., although in this case, the major part of the work was done with a 5% D.D.T. spray, rather than with the now more conventional use of a 10% D.D.T. dust (MacKenziePollock, 1948). With the outbreak of civil disturbances and hostilities in Palestine in 19471948, the rodent ectoparasite surveys ceased, and were not again commenced until January 1954. This report summarizes the data of that survey, from January 1954 until July 1955. Rat-trapping was done throughout the port in warehouses, restaurants, offices etc.; baited, cage-type traps were used, the rats being transferred alive into cloth bags and then chloroformed and combed in the laboratory. They were then dissected and examined for any signs of plague. More recently blood samples have also been taken for murine typhus complement fixation tests; this will be reported on in a later paper. Only live-trapped rats were included in the survey. Rats found dead in or near the traps were examined only for signs of plague. A total of 1066 rats were examined for ectoparasites; of these 773, or 72.6% were Rattus norvegicus and 293, or 27.4% were R. rattus alexandrinus. 57% of the Norway rats and 56.3% of the roof rats were females. The two species of rats have been found together in the port, in varying proportions, since 1933, although R. rattus alexandrinus is quite rare in the surrounding city of Haifa. Fleas: