Karmiel

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Karmiel

Karmiel City Hall
Hebrew כַּרְמִיאֵל
(Standard) Karmi'el
Name meaning God's vineyards
Founded in 1964
Government City
District North
Population 44,100[1] (2006)
Jurisdiction 24,001 dunams (24 km²)
Mayor Adi Eldar

Coordinates: 32°54'49.38′N″35, 17'45.92°E′type:city_scale:20000″{{{8}}} Karmiel (Hebrew: כַּרְמִיאֵל‎) is a city in northern Israel. Established in 1964 as a development town, Karmiel is located in the Beit HaKerem Valley, one of the geographical elements dividing the Upper and Lower Galilee. The city is located south of the 85 national road, also known as the Acre-Safed road (Hebrew: כביש עכו-צפת‎), some 32 kilometers from Safed and 20 kilometers from Acre. Karmiel is home to about 45,000 people. The city's industrial zone is a center of employment for people from the neighboring Arab villages and from other towns in the area. Karmiel strives to be on good terms and in constant communication with the neighboring Arab localities such as Shaghur and Rame.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Birth of a town

In 1956, about 1,275 acres belonging to the Israeli Arab villages of Deir al-Asad, Bi'ina and Nahf were declared as "closed areas" by Israeli authorities. This area, situated next to the main road between Acre and Safed, included some of the finest marble quarries in Israel. Five years later, in 1961, the Israeli authorities were able to expropriate the land (giving the reason that the land was not in use) for the building of Karmiel. The expropriation met with strong resistance from the Arab villagers who offered the government other land which was more suitable for building a town. The government refused, offering instead "equally good land" in the same area.

When Moshe Sneh (Maki) and Yusef Khamis (Mapam) brought the case to the Knesset on behalf of the villagers, and as it turned out, there was no "equally good land" in the area.[2] Following the debate the villagers arranged a protest meeting in March 1962. The military Governor of Galilee, however, declared the villages "closed areas" on the day of the protest, so nobody could contact the villagers and the meetings were therefore cancelled. The same happened with a protest meeting planned for January 1964.

After the first part of Karmiel was finished and Jews had started moving in, some local Arabs applied for permission to move into the town, but were denied. The Minister of Housing, Yosef Almogi, refused in a Knesset debate in 1964 to answer whether it was forbidden for Arabs to live in Karmiel. He only replied that "Karmiel was not built to solve the problems for the people in the surrounding area."[3]

Many Jewish Israelis were upset by what they saw as discrimination against Arabs and in February 1965 about 400 people walked from Tel Aviv to the "closed-off" areas around Karmiel, protesting against "discrimination of a group of our citizens". Representatives of the protesters went to a local police station, informing the police that they were staying in the area without permission. Nobody was arrested immediately, but as soon as things had quiet down the perceived leaders were arrested and put before military tribunal.[4]

In January and February 1972 an Israeli Arab entrepreneur offered to invest money in building industry where both Jews and Arabs could work in the town. The offer divided the town, but those who opposed won, and the offer was rejected.[5]

[edit] Recent history

In the early 1990s during the period of large-scale Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union following the fall of the communism, Karmiel was one of the major centers of absorption of newcomers meaning the town's population grew dramatically.

During the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah, approximately 180 Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon landed in and around the town of Karmiel and the neighboring villages, leading to casualties and to damage to structures, roads, and cars.[6]

On April 22, 2007 during the commemoration ceremony for Israeli fallen soldiers, fireworks were launched from neighbouring Arab villages. The city mayor, Adi Eldar officially protested to the mayors of the villages.[7]

[edit] Karmiel today

Karmiel remains one of only two Israeli cities built and developing in accordance with a master plan (the other being Arad, west of the Dead Sea in the Negev Desert). It has won praise as one of Israel's cleanest and most charming towns, having been intelligently landscaped and well manintained. As of 2007, the city encompasses an area of about 24,000 dunams (24 km²) with a population of about 50,000 residents approximately 40% of whom are immigrants from 75 countries. Since 1990, 16,000 immigrants have arrived in Karmiel, the majority of whom are from the Former Soviet Union. According to the national master plan, by 2020 Karmiel will have a population of approximately 120,000 residents. There are currently several Arab families living peacefully in Karmiel, as well as several Arab-owned businesses which have thrived for the past 25 years. Since 1980, six new neighborhoods have been developed and populated, and a technical college awarding B.A.'s and diplomas has been serving the community since 1989.

In the last few years, a lot of new buildings have been built in the city, and the population of the city has grown significantly. The city is still developing and there are some tax benefits to those who choose to move to Karmiel.

The city is known for the Karmiel Dance Festival, a yearly event since 1988. The festival is usually held for 3 days and nights in July, and includes dance performances, workshops, and open dance sessions. The festival began as a celebration of Israeli folk dance, but today it features many different dance forms from all around the globe, and attracts thousands of dancers and hundreds of thousands of spectators from many countries.[8]

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Table 3 - Population of Localities Numbering Above 1,000 Residents and Other Rural Population. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2007-12-31). Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
  2. ^ Knesset debate, 31 Jan. 1962, page 1126-30, cited in Jiryis
  3. ^ Knesset debate, 2 Des. 1964, page 486, cited in Jiryis
  4. ^ Maariv, 14 Feb., 1965, cited in Jiryis
  5. ^ Maariv, 30 Jan., 1972, Davar, 10. and 16. February 1972, cited in Jiryis
  6. ^ The Second Lebanon War (2006). Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  7. ^ "ערבים ירו זיקוקים בעת טקסי הזיכרון", Yedioth Internet, April 22, 2007. (Hebrew) 
  8. ^ Karmiel Dance Festival. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.

[edit] External

  • Sabri Jiryis: The Arabs in Israel 1st American edition 1976 ISBN 0-85345-377-2 (updated from the 1966 ed.) With a foreword by Noam Chomsky. (First English edition; Beirut, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1968). Chapter 5.

[edit] External links

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