When we talk about the security threats facing Haifa, we usually think of wars, the petrochemical plants in the Gulf, and the lack of protection. These are real dangers that require serious preparation on the part of the authorities. But there is another aspect of urban security that is too often overlooked: the relations between Jews and Arabs in the city.
How we define a threat also determines how we choose to deal with it. And when we present relations between Jews and Arabs primarily as a risk that must be managed and monitored, we risk missing the real dangers to shared life in the city, and especially the opportunity to turn them into a source of security and resilience for us all.
To understand this, it is worth going back to the events that took place here in May 2021, during Operation "Guardian of the Walls":
On May 12, 2021, hundreds of Jewish right-wing activists gathered in Kiryat Eliezer, many of whom arrived by bus from outside the city. Some carried clubs and weapons. During the march, stones were thrown at Arab homes, dozens of cars belonging to Arab residents were damaged, and three young Arab women were attacked on Allenby Street. Residents also reported that storefronts of Arab businesses were smashed.
These events were documented in the "Wall Breakers" study, published in 2022 by the Abraham Initiatives, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Haifa. The study also documented acts of violence by Arab youth and attacks on Jewish residents. All of these deserve unequivocal condemnation. But it is impossible to ignore the fact that some of the nationalist violence in Haifa did not grow out of the relations between Jewish and Arab neighbors, but came from outside, in an organized manner, and undermined the security of the city's residents.
This is an important distinction. Living together in Haifa is not a security threat. On the contrary, it is a threat, even a grave threat, to all those who try to condemn us to an endless cycle of fear, violence, and bereavement. For those who seek to turn our differences into a cause for constant war, the fact that Arabs and Jews in Haifa live next door, work and study together is an obstacle. For everyone else, living together is a solution, not a problem.
In October 2023, with the outbreak of war, life together in Haifa once again faced a severe test. Fear, pain, and tension were felt throughout the city. But this time, alongside the fear of escalation, something else was also happening here.
In the Most of the City movement, in which I am active, we initiated a joint project of Jews and Arabs to prepare shelters in residential buildings throughout Haifa. More than 1,000 residents participated in an operation to map, evacuate, and clean shelters, which included the treatment of hundreds of shelters in the city. Neighbors who had never met worked together to ensure everyone's safety, without asking who was Jewish and who was Arab.
The project was born out of a real security need, but it also had a clear social goal: to strengthen trust and solidarity among the city's residents at a time when national tension could tear them apart. This move was widely covered in the media.
This was not just a volunteer activity to clean shelters. This was a different concept of security. A concept that holds that living together creates a community of partnership, mutual guarantee, and social resilience, which in turn strengthens the security of Haifa residents. No amount of cameras or police can replace the trust built between neighbors and the knowledge that in moments of crisis we have someone to rely on.
Unfortunately, this is not always the perception that guides the authorities.
Since the outbreak of the war, we have repeatedly seen attempts in Haifa to limit and disperse political protests, including arrests of demonstrators who opposed the war in Gaza. In October 2023, a petition was even filed with the High Court of Justice following the prevention of demonstrations in Haifa and other places. The police claimed that they acted to prevent disturbances, but the events raised serious questions about freedom of expression and protest, especially of Arab citizens.
When political protest is perceived primarily as a threat to public order, rather than as a legitimate expression of citizens in a democratic society, the result may actually be deepening alienation and distrust. On the other hand, while authorities invest resources in policing and monitoring public space, many residents of Haifa continue to deal with crime and violence, both organized and unorganized, that plague their neighborhoods.
The crime that Haifa faces every day and undermines its residents' sense of security is also a symptom of a much deeper illness. It is linked to extreme inequality, a lack of economic opportunity, the disintegration of welfare and community frameworks, and a deepening sense of alienation between the government and residents.
Here too, unfortunately, the municipality's main response was to raise property tax collections in order to establish special policing units, while the deeper problems that are under its responsibility were resoundingly ignored. On the contrary, in the latest municipal budget, the municipality sought to harm urban welfare even more. Instead of investing in social services, education, welfare, and the community, it continues to favor enforcement and policing solutions.
Haifa is a city where Jews and Arabs live, work, study, create and spend time together. Living together is not just a nice slogan that appears in municipal publications, it is a daily reality for tens of thousands of residents. But this living together does not happen by itself. It is the result of daily, hard and Sisyphean work of creating and maintaining a community with all that this implies.
If the Haifa Municipality wants to seriously prepare for the next crisis, it must dramatically increase investment in every resident, regardless of religion or nationality. This must be reflected in reducing the huge gaps that exist today in infrastructure, education, and services to residents, and no less so, in the respect that residents, all residents, receive from the authorities.
The municipality must conduct a thorough home inspection to block and disavow those elements within Haifa who incite violence and attempt to create friction, while at the same time working to open as many joint educational, cultural, and community frameworks as possible for the city's Jewish and Arab residents.
The best and most effective defense against Jews and Arabs trying to harm each other is Jews and Arabs who are determined to protect each other.
Because the security of Haifa's Jewish residents does not conflict with the security of its Arab residents, it depends on it.
Author: Hila Asia, a member of the leadership of the 'Rob Ha'ir movement and a student of urban planning.
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