Hawasa
The settlement of Hawasa was established in 1938. It was originally planned to be a neighborhood of the city of Haifa. The settlement is located west of the village of Balad a-Sheikh near the Check Post junction, where the Ben Dor neighborhood in the city of Nesher is today. The neighborhood is named after the Wadi "al-Hawasa" that borders its western side.
The Initiative to Establish the Neighborhood
The establishment of the settlement was initiated by the British government and the Haifa municipality as part of their initiative to evacuate the "Arad al-Ramel" barracks neighborhood located on Shemen beach near the "Shemen" factory and provide a suitable solution for the Arab population, which in 1934-1935 numbered about 1,700 residents. The source of the population in the neighborhood was villagers from Galilee and Samaria and some of them were migrant workers from Huran in Syria. The decision from the beginning of May 1936 to transfer the residents of Arad al-Ramel to the area where the Neve Yosef neighborhood is located today met with opposition from the residents of Neve Sha'anan. Therefore, a larger alternative area with more favorable slopes was located near Bled a-Sheikh. The area was not included in the jurisdiction of the city of Haifa, and the intention of the authorities was to annex it to the city. Following the decision, the area was prepared by the Department of Public Works. preparation was completed in 1938. At the same time many barracks were demolished in Arad al-Ramel. The municipality's report states that most of the Arab population did not agree with the solution offered to them. 140 families moved to Hawasa, some moved to Balad a-Sheikh and some returned to the villages from which they immigrated to Haifa. The evacuees who moved to the new area set up tin and wooden barracks for themselves without considering the marking of the plots made by the Department of Public Works. Following the failure of the housing plan, the British government left the neighborhood without an approved plan. In 1944, its residents elected a committee to manage the neighborhood's affairs. During 1946 another attempt was made to complete the housing plan, boundaries were set for the neighborhood and it was decided to expand the jurisdiction of the city of Haifa to include the neighborhood area. This plan also did not succeed due to the opposition of the Arabs, which was affected by the escalation of the Jewish-Arab conflict. In 1946, about 450 families lived in the neighborhood, most of them in barracks and a minority, about 25 families, in stone buildings
The War of Independence
The villagers had a well-developed political consciousness. During the Arab uprising in the 1930s, the British carried out a number of operations within the village and even planned to destroy it, but without success, the village remained standing until the War of Independence.
On December 30, 1947, ETSEL fighters threw bombs at a concentration of Arab workers at the refinery gates, killing six Arab workers and injuring dozens. In response, Arab workers at the refineries killed 39 Jewish workers among their colleagues. On the same day, the HAGANAH sent four Departments from the First Palmach Battalion and two divisions from Haifa Police to attack the villages of Balad a-Sheikh and Hwasa, where many workers from the refineries lived. According to Bnei Morris, 16 men were killed and 19 were injured in Hwasa. In the two villages, between 15 and 20 residents were killed, including women and children, and others were injured. He noted that the information given in higher numbers was probably "very exaggerated." Three members of the HAGANAH were also killed in the operation. In January 1948, some of the residents of the two villages were replaced by Arab volunteers who came from outside Haifa to protect the village.
In early April 1948, a unit of the Arab Legion stationed at the site left. This departure led to the departure of most of the residents of Hawasa from their homes, and in Balad a-Sheikh the residents left their homes from the southeastern neighborhoods that were close to the Legion camp and moved to the center of the village.
During the War of Independence, the villagers attacked the passing traffic of the main road next to them. On April 21, 1948, the HAGANAH took over the western neighborhoods of Haifa, and some of the villagers left, according to British observers, due to fear that the HAGANAH would attack the village. On April 24, on the eve of Passover, the HAGANAH forces surrounded the nearby village of Balad a-Sheikh and demanded that its residents hand over their weapons. The residents handed over 22 "useless old rifles," which did not satisfy the HAGANAH commanders who opened fire on Passover morning. with mortars and machine guns on the village, British reinforcements who arrived in the village advised the villagers to leave the place, and they did so immediately with British escort. Voyager British observers believed, according to the method of attack and the negotiations that took place, that the purpose of the attack was to get the remaining residents out and occupy the village
down from heros to safety through the ruins of hawassa, from the brown spot on the Green check your back and 10 m' at least on the narrow path