| Jisr az-Zarqa | |
|---|---|
| Hebrew transcription(s) | |
| • Hebrew | גִ'סְּר א-זַּרְקָא |
| • ISO 259 | Ǧissr ˀa-Zárqaˀ |
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | جـِسـْر الزرقاء |
| View of Jisr az-Zarqa | |
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Jisr az-Zarqa
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| Coordinates: | |
| District | Haifa |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Local council |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,520 dunams (1.5 km2 / 0.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 11,100 |
| Name meaning | Bridge over the Blue |
Jisr az-Zarqa (Arabic: جـِسـْر الزرقاء, Hebrew: גִ'סְּר א-זַּרְקָא lit. bridge over the blue [stream]) is an Israeli Arab local council on Israel's northern Mediterranean coastal plain. Located just north of Caesarea within the Haifa District, it achieved local council status in 1963. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) the town had a population of 11,100 residents at the end of 2005. Its name refers to the Taninim stream, which is known in Arabic as 'the blue [stream].'
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Jisr az-Zarqa is the only Arab town in Israel that is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (though there are coastal towns such as Acre, Haifa, and Jaffa with significant Arab populations). Other Arab towns located along the coast were depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during a large Israeli offensive called Coastal Clearing. However, the intervention of Jews from the neighboring towns of Zikhron Ya'akov and Binyamina, who relied on the population of Jisr az-Zarqa and nearby Fureidis for agricultural labor, prevented the Israeli authorities from dispersing the Arab populations there.[1]
In November 2002, the Caesarea Development Corporation began constructing a large earthen embankment running the length of the 160 meter-wide corridor between the village and neighboring Caesarea. The construction was undertaken without informing the Jisr az-Zarqa municipal council, and for acoustical reasons; i.e., to block out noise from the muezzin, celebratory gunfire, etc.[2] Other explanations given have been the frequent thefts by village residents and the preservation of property values in Caesarea.[3][4] The residents of Jisr az-Zarqa claim that with a national park located to the north, the embankment to the south, a highway to the east and the sea to the west, there is no room for their town to develop, and that it is effectively cut off from the surrounding areas.[3]
The inhabitants of Jisr az-Zarqa are primarily Muslim. There have also been unverified reports of the existence of a small community of idol worshipers or polytheists, who are the descendants of the ancient Canaanite and Philistine nations.[5] The town has the lowest average monthly wage of any locality in Israel at 3,800 New Israeli Sheqel (NIS), or a little over 1,100 USD.[6] According the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Jisr az-Zarqa also has the highest high school drop out rates in the country at 12%.[7][8]
A woman from the town, Mariam Amash, applied for a new identity card in Hadera in February 2008, using a birth document issued by the Ottoman Empire that said she was born in 1888. If verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, this would make her the oldest living person in the world.[9][10]
Several events involving the village's residents highlight tensions surrounding its place in wider Israeli society:
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