Jisr az-Zarqa
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| Hebrew | ג'סר א-זרקא |
| Arabic | جـِسـْر الزرقاء |
| Name meaning | bridge over the blue |
| Government | Local council (from 1963) |
| District | Haifa |
| Population | 10 400 (CBS end of 2003) |
| Jurisdiction | 1 520 dunams (1.5 km²) |
Jisr az-Zarqa (Arabic: جـِسـْر الزرقاء, Hebrew: ג'סר א-זרקא lit. bridge over the blue [stream]) is an Israeli Arab village on Israel's northern Mediterranean coastal plain. Located just north of Caesarea within the Haifa District, it achieved local council status in 1963, and as of September 2003, the Central Bureau of Statistics counts 10,400 residents. Its name refers to the Taninim stream, which is known in Arabic as 'the blue [stream].'
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[edit] History
| Arab citizens of Israel |
| Political Parties & Movements |
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al-Tajamu · al-Jabha |
| Culture |
| Notable Personalities |
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Emile Habibi · Azmi Bishara · |
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Jisr az-Zarqa is the only Arab village in Israel that is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (though there are coastal towns such as Acre, Haifa, and Jaffa with large Arab populations). While there were tens of such villages prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948, all the others were depopulated of their original inhabitants and either destroyed or resettled and redeveloped by newly arrived Jewish immigrants. It was the intervention of Jews from the neighbouring towns of Zikhron Ya'aqov and Binyamina, who relied on the population of Jisr az-Zarqa and Fureidis for agricultural labour, that prevented the Israeli authorities from dispersing the Arab populations there.[1]
[edit] Demographic Characteristics
The inhabitants of Jisr az-Zarqa hold the unfortunate distinction of having the lowest average monthly wage of any village in Israel at 3,800 New Israeli Sheqel (NIS), or less than 1,000 USD.[2] According the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Jisr az-Zarqa also has the highest high school drop out rates in the country at 12%.[3][4]
[edit] Coexistence
Several events involving the village's residents highlight tensions surrounding its place in wider Israeli society:
- In 1998, the first multiple kidney transplant in Israel took place between a couple from the village and a Jewish couple from Jerusalem.[5]
- A Jewish motorist killed after a stone was thrown at his vehicle as he drove on the Haifa-Tel Aviv freeway near Jisr az-Zarqa is generally considered the first Israeli fatality in the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Four youths from the village were initially arrested, but for lack of evidence three were released, and one subject to house arrest.[6][7]
- In the course of the Intifada, a 41 year old Arab resident was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Afula.[7]
[edit] Caesarea embankment
In November 2002, the Caesarea Development Corporation began constructing a large earthen embankment running the length of the 160 metre-wide corridor between the village and neighbouring Caesarea, among Israel's most exclusive and wealthiest towns. The construction was undertaken without informing the Jisr az-Zarqa municipal council. The reason provided by the Caesarea Development Company for the construction of the barrier is acoustical; i.e., blocking out noise from the muezzin, celebratory gunfire, etc.[8] Other explanations given have been the frequent thefts by village residents and the preservation of property values in Caesarea, which were being affected by its proximity to poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Jisr az-Zarqa.[9][7]
The residents of Jisr az-Zarqa refer to the 4 to 5 metre high and 1-1.5km long embankment as "the racist barrier." They claim that with a national park located to the north, the embankment to the south, a highway to the west and the sea to the east, that there is no room for their town to develop, and that it is effectively cut off from the surrounding areas.[9][10]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8205/8205.ch05.html
- ^ "Settlers earn double the minimum wage and more than the average wage", translated by AAD from <http://www.hagada.org.il/hagada/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3819>, 2006, 24 August.
- ^ "Jisr al-Zarqa, J'lem, Eilat have highest high school dropout rates", Haaretz, 2006, 8 September.
- ^ "Equal opportunity? Not in our school", Haaretz, 2006, 27 September.
- ^ "An Israeli and an Arab showing the way", ArabicNews.com, 1998, 13 May.
- ^ http://www.arabhra.org/publications/wrap/2000/wrap14.htm
- ^ a b c "The other victims", Haaretz, 2003, 27 June.
- ^ http://www.caesarea.org.il/template_e/default.asp?maincat=12&catid=53&pageId=187&id_site=9
- ^ a b http://friendvill1203.homestead.com/Long.html
- ^ http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4816.shtml
[edit] Further reading
- Benny Morris (1994): "1948 and after; Israel and the Palestinians" ISBN 0-19-827929-9. (Chapter 8, p. 257-289: The Case of Abu Ghosh and Beit Naqquba, Al Fureidis and Jisr Zarka in 1948 -or Why Four Villages Remained.)
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| Cities | Baqa-Jat · Carmel City · Hadera · Haifa · Nesher · Or Aqiva · Qiryat Atta · Qiryat Bialik · Qiryat Motzkin · Qiryat Yam · Tirat Karmel · Umm al-Fahm |  |
| Local councils | Ar'ara · Binyamina-Giv'at Ada · Jisr az-Zarqa · Kfar Qara · Ma'ale Iron · Pardes Hanna-Karkur · Fureidis · Qiryat Tiv'on · Rekhasim · Zikhron Ya'aqov | |
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