The Haifa Oil Refinery massacrePappe, 1999, p. 119. took place on 30 December 1947 in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

. It began when six Arabs were killed and 42 wounded after members of the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

paramilitary organisation, the

Irgun Irgun • Etzel , image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...

, threw a number of grenades at a crowd of about 100

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

day-labourers. These Arab day-labourers had gathered outside the main gate of the then British-owned Haifa Oil Refinery to look for work. Minutes after this Irgun attack, Arab refinery workers and others began attacking the

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish refinery workers, resulting in 39 deaths and 49 injuries, before the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and

Palestine Police The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from Gener ...

units arrived to put an end to the violence. This came to be known as the "''Haifa Oil Refinery massacre''". Haganah later retaliated by attacking two nearby Arab villages in what became known as the

Balad al-Shaykh massacre The Balad al-Shaykh massacre was the killing of a large number of Arab villagers by the Haganah in the Palestinian Arab village of Balad al-Shaykh during the early stages of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. It was one of the la ...

, where between 21 and 70 Arabs were killed, while skirmishes followed in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

Background

Relations between Jews and Arabs at the refinery were known to be good. However, tensions rose in 1947–48 in the wake of the

1947 UN Partition Plan The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as ...

. On 30 December 1947, Irgun militants hurled two bombs into a crowd of Arab workers from a passing vehicle. Irgun who planned the attack on the day laborers said it was in retaliation for recent attacks elsewhere on

s in Palestine. After 6 workers were killed and 42 wounded, Arab workers stormed the refinery armed with tools and metal rods, beating 39 Jewish workers to death and wounding 49. British forces arrived only an hour after the riot started. According to the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

, some Arab workers helped their Jewish co-workers hide or escape. The Jewish Agency condemned the Irgun for the "act of madness" that preceded the killing of Jewish workers at the Haifa oil refinery, but at the same time authorized retaliation. The Haganah mounted a retaliatory raid which became known as the

on the villages of Balad al-Shaykh and

Hawsha Hawsha ( ar, هوشة, ''Hǔsheh'', also Husha) was a Palestinian village located east of Haifa, about above sea level. During the late Roman period, Hawsha was the site of the ancient Jewish town of Usha, which was the seat of the Sanhedrin ...

, where some of the Arab refinery workers lived. They fired into and blew up houses. Some women and children were injured when, according to Haganah accounts, Arabs returned fire from the houses. Haganah estimates of the number of Arabs killed varied from 21 to 70, including one woman. In addition two Haganah soldiers were killed during the fight. Zachary Lockman wrote that, "... the Jewish attackers killed some sixty men, women, and children and destroyed several dozen houses.Zachary Lockman, ''Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906–1948''

References

Bibliography

External links

continuation
*'The British Withdrawal From Palestine: Possible Advance Of Date By Six Weeks, 17 Killed in Attack On Arab Village', ''The Times'', Friday, 2 January 1948; pg. 4; Issue 50958; col A. {{DEFAULTSORT:Haifa Oil Refinery Massacre 1948 Arab–Israeli War 1947 in Mandatory Palestine Mass murder in 1947 December 1947 events in Asia Massacres in 1947 Irgun Haganah Massacres in Mandatory Palestine