Haifa Oil Refinery massacre

The Haifa Oil Refinery Massacre of 39 Jewish workers occurred on December 30 1947 at the oil refinery complex in Haifa, during a period of skirmishes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, although the Haifa oil refinery was well known for the peace in which Jew and Arab worked together. Impetus for the massacre started when two bombs hurled into a crowd of Arab workers from a passing vehicle by Etzel (Irgun) militants, exploded massacring 6 workers and wounding 42. The enraged Arab workers of the oil refinery stormed the complex armed with tools and metal pieces with which the rioters then beat 39 Jewish workers to death and wounded 49. Although the Arab constabulary were accused of complicity, [http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=PalestineP&BaseHref=Palestine/1947/12/31&PageLabel=&EntityId=Ar00100&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T.] the Palestinian Arab TACs forces were officially noted as having escorted 30-40 Jewish workers out of the Refinery during the peak of the killing. The British forces only arrived 90 minutes after the riot had started. It was reported by the Jewish Agency among others, that during the riot some Arab workers had helped their Jewish co-workers hide or escape. However both outrages were a major blow to the efforts of Jews and Arabs in Haifa to maintain good relations.

The Haganah immediately retaliated with a massacre on the villages of Balad al-Shaykh and Hawsha, in which some of the Arab refinery workers lived. Their orders were to kill 'maximum adult males'. They fired into and blew up houses, and pulled out adult males and shot them. In some cases women and children were also killed when, according to Haganah accounts, Arabs returned fire from the houses. Haganah estimates of the number of Arabs killed varied from 21 to 70. Two Haganah militants were also killed. [Benny Morris, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisted", p101.]

External links

* [http://www.mideastweb.org/refriots.htm mideastweb.org]
* [http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Skins/PalestineP/Client.asp?Enter=true&Skin=PalestineP Palestine Post] December 31, 1947 [http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=PalestineP&BaseHref=Palestine/1947/12/31&PageLabel=&EntityId=Ar00100&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T. front page] and [http://jic.tau.ac.il/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=PalestineP&BaseHref=Palestine/1947/12/31&PageLabel=&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T continuation]

References

*'The British Withdrawal From Palestine: Possible Advance Of Date By Six Weeks, 17 Killed In Attack On Arab Village', "The Times", Friday, January 2, 1948; pg. 4; Issue 50958; col A.