Israel: An Uncommon Guide
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Joan Comay, Israel: An Uncommon Guide, bahai-library.com.
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Israel: An Uncommon Guide

by Joan Comay

Maps by Rafael D. Palacios

Random House             New York
First Printing
To Michael
Copyright© i962, i966, by Joan Comay
Copyright© 1969 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Con-
ventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New
York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,
Toronto.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 69-16461

Manufactured in the United States of America
by H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company

Photographs courtesy of Israel Information Services

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FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                              CITY OF
i ,200 ocean-going vessels, carrying more than half of the
goods entering or leaving Israel and more than 230,000 pas-
sengers.
Haifa's most important business is ships, and its most
poignant moments in the struggle for independence were
connected with ships of a special kind-the small and
shabby vessels that tried to bring Jewish refugees to the for-
bidden shores of the Promised Land. But most of them
were boarded from British naval vessels when they reached
territorial waters and were towed into Haifa harbor, where
their passengers were disembarked and dragged straight
onto waiting prison ships with deck areas caged in by wire,
in which they were shipped out again to the detention
camps in Cyprus-or, in the case of the Exodus, all the way
back to Germany, a story that made front-page news all
over the world.
Haifa never got used to the anguish of these transship-
ments, or to the crowd of weeping relatives and friends
pressing against the military barriers at the port. Then, sud-
denly, the Mandate was no more, and Haifa was the wide-
open door to the Jewish State.
Through it came a great stream of displaced persons
and immigrants. For them the excited moment of home-
coming was when they packed the deck in the early morn-
ing to watch the rosy top of Mount Carmel rise out of the
sea and hail the pilot's launch riding out to meet them ("A
Jewish pilot," they told each other, "in a Jewish launch!").

As the country's one big seaport and the dominant city in
the north, Haifa was a glittering prize in the fighting of
i948. Actually, its possession was dramatically settled in the
strange period of the Arab-Jewish subwar, between the
TO Tl!LAVIV

252 •                                                                     J
FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                                                                      HAIFA
Carmel is by the Carmelit, Haifa's tilted subway, which          aliens at the beginning of World \Var II and have never
whirls you up at a preposterous angle in less than ten min-      come back. (A number of them now live in Australia.)
utes.
The main business thoroughfare, running in the re-
claimed area adjoining the harbor, used to be known as            Hadar ha-Carmel
Kingsway, but has been renamed Independence Road. The                Hadar ha-Carmel has rather steep and congested streets,
street crowd is a colorful and amiable mixture of seamen,         but it is pleasant to stroll along Herzl Street and to have
port officials and dock workers, young men and women in           coffee and wonderful pastries at one of its pavement cafes,
trim naval uniform, businessmen parleying over endless            which have a Viennese air about them.
cups of Turkish coffee or glasses of lemon tea, tourists,            The handsome City Hall on Bialik Street houses in one
Arabs and Druses in flowing robes, and khaki-clad kibbutz-        wing a gallery of modern art and an archaeological museum,
niks hurrying from the bus station with the inevitable an-        which should be visited for its Roman and Byzantine exhi-
cient briefcases in their hands.                                  bition, mainly from Caesarea, and for a noteworthy collec-
Two prominent buildings on the seaward side are the            tion of ancient local coins. From the Memorial Garden in
Dagon grain silo and the huge Government Hospital, to the         front, one looks down upon the harbor. The two old Turk-
south of which are the Bat Galim and Carmel bathing               ish cannon standing here are survivals of a fort that once
beaches. The silo is one of the tallest buildings in Israel and   guarded the town.
one of the most beautiful. It is worth visiting, both for the        High up on the mountainside stands the most arresting
view from the top and for its small exhibition tracing the         object in Haifa, the Bahai Shrine, with its gleaming golden
history of wheat and flour in the Holy Land from Biblical          dome. The whole slope below it, right down to the German
times.                                                             Colony, is a terraced Persian garden through which runs a
From the railroad station, Carmel Boulevard sweeps up          stairway lined by cypress trees. The garden is being contin-
through the old German Colony, with its solidly built              ued upward behind the Shrine so that the whole effect will
gabled houses, many of them still bearing inscriptions             be that of a Persian carpet spread down the mountainside
above their doors in old Gothic letters. Pross' restaurant,        from top to bottom. To one side of the domed building is
which dates back to the last century, still provides a good        another one modeled on the Greek Parthenon, to house their
and substantial meal. The former residents of this quarter,        museum and archives.
descendants of the original German Templar settlers, a                The Bahai faith, founded in Persia in i844, upholds the
Protestant group from southern Germany that started to             unity of God and takes its inspirations from the Old and
set up its own colonies in the Holy Land from i868 onwards.        New Testaments as well as the Koran. It has no priesthood
They were deported by the British authorities as enemy             but attempts to adapt basic religious truths to modem

• 2   57
FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                                                                                HAIFA

needs. Haifa is the world center of the religion, which now             the white cap of distant Mount Hermon floating over the
has several million adherents scattered over many countries.            eastern horizon on a clear day. The heavy dew keeps this a
The Panorama road intersects the Bahai Garden above                  verdant oasis even in the dry, hot summer, and the very
the Shrine and winds up to the top of the Carmel, with a                name Carmel (which means Vineyard of the Lord) sug-
more breathtaking vista opening up at each dizzy curve.                 gests the blend of fertility and holiness which belongs to
Looking down from this vantage point, one gets a clear idea             the mountain. From earliest times, mystery shrouded the
of the planned development of the bayshore area between                 habitation of Carmel. Its high places held the altars of
Haifa and Acre, to the north. It now contains a number of               strange gods, and its hidden places, the sanctuaries of fugi-
Israel's major industrial plants, surrounded by housing proj-           tives and hermits.
ects, set in green belts, for workers and immigrants. The
And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel,
plain was known as the Valley of Zebulun, after the seafar-                  I will search and take them out thence; . . .
ing tribe of Israel that settled in this part of the country in                                                           -Amos 9:3
the period of the Judges. (Their emblem was a galley with a
square sail and banks of oars.) The silted mouths of two                Above all, there broods over it the memory of that fierce
small rivers, the Kishon and the Na'aman, had turned the                old man of God, Elijah, and his war against idolatry.
area into a malarial swamp, until it was drained and re-                    The Bible tells us, in the First Book of Kings, that after a
claimed by Jewish settlers more than forty years ago.                   three-year drought which God had sent to punish King
The most conspicuous plant in this bay industrial area is            Ahab and the Israelites for their pagan cult, the Prophet
the oil refinery, with its giant concrete cooling vats, fret-           Elijah gathered together on Mount Carmel 450 priests of
work metal superstructure and shining tanks. Other large                Baal and proved by a miracle that their gods did not exist.
enterprises concentrated in the industrial zone produce                 Elijah built an altar for sacrifice, as did the other priests; but
chemicals and fertilizers, textiles, steel, glass, cement, and          Baal did not come to the altar dedicated to him, whereas
soap. There are also automobile assembly plants which use               God sent a fire which burnt up the sacrifice offered by Elijah.
a growing number of components manufactured locally.                    As a result of this miracle the people turned to the true God
and all the idolatrous priests were put to death. Then, in
answer to Elijah's prayer, came rain in abundance. The
MOUNT CARMEL                                           place where this miracle was performed is traditionally iden-
There can be few more attractive residential districts any-           tified with Muhraka or EI Muhraka (Place of Burning),
where than Har ha-Carmel (Mount Carmel), the top of                     seventeen miles from Haifa by the mountain road to the
the Carmel Range. It is an area of ridges and woody ravines,             southeast. The spot where the pagan priests were then put
sunlit boulders and pine trees, summer breezes and glorious              to death is by tradition identified with Tel el-Kuassis (Mount
views of the Mediterranean and the Galilee highlands, with               of the Priest), at a bend in the River Kish on .
258 •                                                             ..J
FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                                                                      HAIFA
road descends through a rugged defile to the coastal high-         Haifa has one exquisite moment which every vlSltor
way, passing the forest of Ya'arot ha-Carmel. The many          should capture if he can. It is the sight from the top of the
caves which pit the rock-faces along the road have held         Carmel of a huge orange-red sun sinking into the sea while
strange tenants in their time, from Stone Age men to Byz-       a spangled veil of lights is flung along the ancient coast
antine hermits.                                                 from the Ladder of Tyre to Caesarea.
Just before Beit Oren is reached, a narrow side road turns
off to the two big Druse villages of Isfiya and Daliyat el-
Carmel. The handsome and dignified Druses from the Car-
mel move easily around Haifa city and frequent its Oriental
coffee shops, the men distinguished by their big cavalry
mustaches. Isfiya, which is populated by both Druses and
Christian Arabs, stands on the site of the ancient Jewish
village of Huseifa. A piece of a mosaic synagogue floor has
been dug up here and it depicts a pretty garland of yellow
flowers surrounding the Hebrew inscription Shalom al Yis-
rael (Peace be unto Israel); it is now in the Israel Mu-
seum in Jerusalem, and is reproduced in the design of
the Israel one-pound note. At the end of the main street in
Daliyat el-Carmel is the house occupied in the eighties of
the last century by Laurence Oliphant, an early English
supporter of the Zionist cause. The tomb of Mrs. Oliphant
is in the village. Visitors to these clean and picturesque
Druse villages can enjoy a friendly cup of Turkish coffee
while they buy the gay basketware for which the Druse
women are noted.

Nowhere else in the world can there be the same curious
human mixture as upon the Carmel: Jewish suburbanites,
kibbutzniks, Carmelite monks, Druses, Christian Arabs,
Moslems, and Bahais-all living side by side among the lin-
gering echoes of primitive cavemen, pagan altars, hermits
and Crusaders.
262 •
FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                                                              THE GALILEE

columns brought from the Roman ruins of Caesarea farther          tables, and prices are settled in a dozen different tongues.
down the coast. These arcades enclose three sides of a large,     Travelers to Palestine in the eighteenth and nineteenth
sunny courtyard; behind them are small domed cells for the        centuries talked of the grain trade carried on in Acre, where
scholarly. The courtyard is paved with worn flagstones, and       two to thr<"e thousand camels arrived daily in the season
trees and flowering shrubs spring up in the corners. The          from the Haman in Syria. The grain caravans have disap-
sundial gives it charm, and the fountains gaiety. The             peared, and the trucks piled high with produce from the
mosque closes off the fourth side of the square. The Minis-       fertile Galilee have taken their place.
try of Religions has painted it and restored the ancient in-         The most important Crusader monument in Acre is
scriptions. The visitor who slips off his shoes and enters will   known as the Crypt of St. John. The entrance can be
find the proportions good, but the effect one of emptiness.       reached from a lane off the bazaar. This magnificent vaulted
At the bottom of the stairs leading to the square is           stone hall under the Turkish Citadel has been excavated
Ahmed Jezzar's fountain, and next door are luxurious              and is now believed to have been the refectory of the
eighteenth-century steam baths modeled on those in Cairo          Hospitalers. A secret tunnel has been found and cleared
but used today as a municipal museum. Here the Turkish            at the base of one of the big columns that support the
tiling forms an attractive background for the collection of       Gothic arched roof. It leads right through the city to the
medieval ceramics and archaeological fragments through            water's edge and was almost certainly designed as a secret
which the tumultuous history of the city can be traced, and       passageway which in times of emergency offered the knights
also for a series of tableaux showing Arab and Druse village      direct access to their vessels from the central hall.
life and costumes.                                                   In the course of the clearance work, other openings were
Most of the buildings in the Old City of Acre are              found in the walls of this tunnel. These lead to what ap-
squeezed together and threaded by narrow alleys in which a        pears to be a considerable network of wider tunnels mark-
rich assortment of communities amicably rub shoulders.            ing the streets of the old Crusader city beneath the present
The population includes nearly 5,000 Christian and Mos-           street levels. When all this is cleared, which may take years,
lem Arabs and 20,000 Jewish immigrants from a score of            it will perhaps prove one of the most exciting Crusader sites
different countries. New immigrant quarters have spread to        in the world. There is also the possibility that beneath the
the east, across the highway.                                    Crusader city is the city of Roman times, for remains of
The chief meeting place is the winding bazaar which            that period have already come to light.
crosses the Old City. Here Arab pottery jars jostle plastic          The Citadel, whose stone walls rise sheer above the lane
cups and saucers, while in the metalworkers' street Euro-         leading to the so-called Crypt of St. John, was built by the
pean tinsmiths hammer out zinc buckets next door to Arab          Turks in the eighteenth century and rests on Crusader
coppersmiths making traditional coffee urns. Little don-          foundations. During the Mandate the Citadel was used as
keys share with trucks the deliveries of fresh fruit and vege-   the central prison of Palestine. In its dungeons were locked

268.                                                                                                                      • 269
FROM DAN TO EILAT                                                                                             THE GALILEE
captured members of the Jewish underground resistance             he was released in i892 after twenty-four years of imprison-
movement; and tablets in the execution chamber, which             ment in the Acre jail. The house is preserved exactly as it
now serves as a small museum, record the names of those           was and its furnishings are an odd blend of Victorian and
who were hanged. The novel and film Exodus recall the             Persian.
i947 jailbreak of resistance fighters from the Acre prison.          The dramatic stone aqueduct that runs parallel to the
Here too are the cells where the Bahai apostles were impris-      main road was built by Jezzar atop the remains of an an-
oned by the Turks more than half a century ago. The Cita-         cient Roman one to bring fresh water to Acre from the
del today, looking less grim after being repainted a soft pink    Springs of Kabri. Each of the aqueduct's hundreds of arches
color, serves as a government psychiatric hospital. As new        is a separate picture frame enclosing a vista of farms and
institutions are built the patients will be moved out, and        hills, orange groves and cypress trees, surmounted by a
there are plans afoot to clear the moat and restore the Cru-      curved slice of blue sky.
sader citadel.                                                       On a small plateau next to the aqueduct stands a square
On top of the walls is a restaurant and night club called       museum exhibiting scenes of the Nazi period. It was estab-
Chumot Acco (Walls of Acre). It can be approached                lished by the nearby kibbutz Lohamei ha-Ghettaot, which
through a secret tunnel.                                          is composed of ghetto fighters.
The road down to the old port passes a number. of Jez-             Nahariya (River) gets its name from a small stream that
zar's cannon, mounted on the sea wall, and some captured         runs down the center of the main street of this town. With
French pieces that Sir Sydney Smith presented to him after       its fine beach, its gardens and its clean, pleasant pensions
the defeat of Napoleon. The road ends at the port, now            (boarding houses) and cafes, it has become a popular sum-
sanded up and shallow with small fishing boats riding at         mer resort. At the beginning, Nahariya remained a strong-
anchor in the lee of a crumbling medieval tower.                 hold of the German Jews and the German language; there
Between Acre and the Lebanese border stretch twelve            is an apocryphal story that when the Royal Commission of
miles of fertile coastal plain.                                  i936 recommended a partition plan by which their town
would fall within the proposed Arab state, the angry inhab-
An avenue of eucalyptus trees just beyond the city limits     itants cabled Dr. Weizmann that, come what may, "Naha-
of Acre marks the entrance to the Government Experimen-          riya bleibt immer Deutsch" (Nahariya remains forever Ger-
tal Station, where a former Turkish khan (caravan inn)           man).
with a spacious cobbled courtyard now houses Israel's most           The faintly scandalous archaeological pride of this very
important stud farm for horses and mules.                        respectable town is the remains of a Canaanite temple that
A mile to the north is the house and tomb of the prophet      was discovered while the foundation of a house was being
and founder of the Bahai sect, Baba-Ullah (Glory of God),        dug near the beach. A little figure of i 500 B.c. was found at
set in a beautiful flower garden. This is where he lived when    the site; it seems to be that of Astarte, the Goddess of Fer-
270.                                                                                                                     • 271
-- Israel: An Uncommon Guide (Used by permission of the curator)