At the entrance to an Arab restaurant in my neighborhood in Berlin, an ad touting an organization I'd never heard of, the "Haifa Cultural Center," caught my eye. It was essentially an advertisement for books, which describe the "lives of Palestinians in Israel and the diaspora." The author of the books and founder of the "Haifa Cultural Center" is Fouad Abdelnour, a "Palestinian" who moved to Berlin and endeavors to document "Palestinian history." However, in a report published about him four years ago in the pro-Palestinian London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, Abdelnour's roots were exposed: His family hails from the Chouf Mountain region in Lebanon, and his grandmother and one of her sons fled during the first Lebanese civil war in 1860 to "Palestine," which didn't even exist at the time.
Haifa receives a place of honor in the "Arabs' and Palestinians'" political struggle to eradicate the State of Israel and gradually turn the city into the "Palestinian cultural capital." Not Ramallah, not Nablus; but Haifa of all places. This proves that the fight against "occupation" doesn't stop at the 1967 borders, but rather already focuses on all parts of the Land of Israel.
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It appears Haifa's liberal atmosphere of tolerance and openness has allowed nationalists from the local Arab population to cultivate the false narrative about "Palestinian national and cultural identity" and apply it to the city. The municipal and academic establishment in Haifa let this trend develop, whether by turning a blind eye or actively participating, as part of the Left's opposition to the "Right's ideological rule." Thus, the Haifa City Museum hosted the "1948" exhibit, which presented the city's Arabs as victims of the violence perpetrated by the Jews and Zionists, without telling Haifa's actual, unique historical story. The Al-Midan Theater and the "Palestinian Culture" festival have put on shows related to Arab terrorists. While Tel Aviv was hosting the Eurovision song competition, in Haifa a show ran as a "Palestinian" alternative and response; while the Haifa municipality invited guests to join "tours of abandoned Palestinian homes of people who were expelled in the Nakba." Haifa's liberal establishment exacerbates the phenomenon by championing the ostensibly liberal principle of "acceptance of the other," and is consequently erasing Israeli sovereignty from the city.
Let's set the record straight: There never was Palestinian culture, because there never was a Palestine. There was a territory ruled by the British Mandate. The population in this territory wasn't just Christian or Muslim Arab; it also comprised Jews who were considered Palestinians until the establishment of the state. Anyone evoking "ancient Palestinian-Arab national identity" is lying; the Arabs of Haifa are mostly from Lebanon and Syria.
The city's authorities are doing nothing to stem the tide of Arab nationalism flooding the city with false narratives; to a large extent, they are even collaborating with and helping to fund it. But Israel cannot lose Haifa. Declarations in the vein of Haifa Mayor Einat Kalisch's that she "won't allow co-existence in the city to be harmed," only support and embolden the Arab nationalist extremists who are working to undermine co-existence.
The "Jewish far-right" – which was invented by the Left so it could have someone to fight – isn't Haifa's problem; it is the radical Arab nationalists. Turning a blind eye to the phenomenon or looking the other way is only exacerbating the already-difficult situation.
