HAIFA CALLING
BY FLORENCE E. P1NCHON
”Some day ‘Akká and Haifa will be connected as one large city, with a long breakwater sheltering harbor and docks, and a driveway, through orange groves, skirting the sea. The ships of all nations will be seen here, commerce will thrive, and the Bay of ‘Akká will be the center of the pilgrimage of the world—the sovereignty of world reverence. ”
—‘ABDU’L—BAHÁ.
IT was a thrilling moment when, on the morning of the 31st of October, 1933, we paused in the business of the day, to listen to the voice of Haifa, Palestine, calling the British Isles.
The broadcast was taking place on the occasion of the opening, by the High Commissioner of Palestine, of the new harbor, whose construction now makes the port of Haifa one of the finest and most sheltered havens in the Mediterranean.
However, to Bahá’ís generally, the ceremony meant something far more than the mere inauguration of a harbor. For not only does it mark the opening of a new door between the Eastern and Western worlds—in itself an event of outstanding consequence both to world communications and world relations—but to those who could trace, however dimly, the working-out of a divine plan and purpose, the happening seemed fraught with a profound spiritual significance.
The masterly description given in the broadcast of the beautiful and historic scene in which the ceremony took place, with all its ancient and sacred associations, and now its new world importance, filled one with a deep content. For were we not actual witnesses of the beginning of the fulfillment of those glowing predictions, uttered long ago by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, concerning the brilliant destiny that awaited this, the home of His life-long exile and labors?
Authoritative writers suggest that the immediate future is likely to witness a reawakening of the whole of the region formerly known to us as Asia Minor. In Palestine this renaissance is already well begun, with its radiating point at the port of Haifa. Symbolic of this progressive spirit, the new harbor here will constitute a landmark in the annals of world intercourse, and play a leading part in the developments that are taking place in the Near and Middle East.
The ancient town of Haifa lies on the southern horn of a magnificent bay, three miles deep and nine miles wide, just where the green promontory of Mt. Carmel breaks the two hundred miles of inhospitable coastline and yellow sand-dunes stretching northwards from Port Said.
At the other extremity of the bay, the grey fortress of ‘Akká—the Acre of the Crusades, and Christianity’s last stronghold in Palestine—stands out into the blue Syrian Sea. The great semi-circular harbor so formed is now spanned by a breakwater about one and a half miles long, which runs out from Rasel-Kerim at the northern extremity of the base of Mt. Carmel, eastwards, in a line parallel to the town front. The leeside of the harbor is formed by another breakwater, about half a mile long, running out at right angles to the main one. The sheltered haven so constituted encloses an area about the size of Genoa harbor, and can afford accommodation to every class of vessel navigating the Levant.
Yet contrary to what has happened in the case of most other seaports, the harbor does not overshadow the town, but has been designed to suit the landscape and fit with due proportion into the whole noble picture.
All who have visited this spot seem to
agree that, as Sir Cunliffe Lister observed in
his reply from London to the High Commissioner,
it is a monument to British engineering genius,
and an achievement of
which they may be justly proud. And, in this
connection, it may not be without interest
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to note, that if two imaginary lines were
drawn across the globe, passing through the
widespread British dominions and colonies,
they would quite naturally meet and
intersect at this point of the Holy Land.
While Haifa, in the near future, is likely
to become an important naval, land and air base
of the Empire.
Yet, in spite of its unique position and rich associations, until within quite recent years this particular part of the Near East has lain all neglected and forgotten by men.
In the days of the Canaanites, Haifa was known as Shikmona, and later, to the Jews, as Hepha or haven. Among the Medes and Phoenicians it was famed as an important station on the highroads of the nations. For Nature appears to have endowed it with advantages granted to no other seaport on the Eastern Mediterranean.
About half a century ago, a group of prominent Englishmen, recognizing the immense possibilities of this locality, agitated for the cession of Haifa to Great Britain. And later, the author of “New Old Land” and founder of the modern Zionist Movement, sailed along its shores and envisioned for it a brilliant future.
But it was in 1868, at the time when the whole country lay under the indolent Turkish rule, that the first flush of another dawn broke above these ancient hills of God, and a breeze of a new morning ruffled its sleeping waves. For when ‘Akká was but a grim penal settlement—a home of the owl and the bat—and Haifa a small obscure town, a Messenger of God was sent here by the Persian and Turkish governments, as a lifelong prisoner and exile. And so, here, beneath the shadow of Mt. Carmel, in the land of Jesus Christ and of the Prophets, Bahá’u’lláh lived and suffered, and finally triumphed, delivering to men His message of world unity and peace, and pointing out the spiritual and practical means by which such a consummation might be achieved.
Visiting pilgrims tell us that, from this time onward the whole district began to change; that even the atmosphere seemed charged with a purer and more vibrant quality. So intimately related are the things of earth and heaven, things temporal and things eternal.
Amid these fateful days of darkness and chaos, we find ourselves turning, with ever increasing longing, towards the heavenly Light that once shone from that lonely fortress, hearing again across the world’s troubled waters the reassuring voice of the Counsellor of Nations: “Be not afraid.”—“These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come!”
Today we are witnessing in the steadily growing importance of Haifa and its magnificent harbor, the materialization of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s predictions, and the justification of all those who have dared to dream greatly concerning her. Planted at the feet of green and majestic Carmel she is beginning to blossom like the proverbial rose.
One of the principal causes contributing to this prosperity is, of course, the fact that at Haifa the gigantic pipe-line of some 600 miles, through which will pour the petroleum from the oil fields of Mosul, will find its outlet to the refineries and to the sea. This vast enterprise and the implications that oil—the igniter of the nations—brings in its wake would alone entitle Haifa to be called —“City of Light and of the Future.”
It is also anticipated that for economic, political and strategic reasons, ere long a railway will follow the route of the oil-pipes, crossing the wide stretches of desert that lie between Haifa and Baghdad, and tapping the trade of Upper Mesopotamia, the Euphrates valley and Eastern Turkey, and so forming a truly golden link between the Eastern and Western Worlds.
A link that, as some of us realize, was forged spiritually long ago, when Bahá’u’lláh journeyed across these same deserts in hardship and suffering in order that a path might be blazoned for the kinship of East and West, and differences of race be annulled.
So comes today the wheel of destiny full
circle, and Haifa is again about to fulfil her
ancient purpose as a highway for the nations,
as well as a great distributing center for the
world’s merchandise. Soon, as a certain
writer has predicted,—"We shall hear of
wool from Mosul, barley and grains from
Irak and Palestine, dates from Amara, potash
and phosphates from the Dead Sea, rice, skins
and hides from Persia, oranges from Jaffa
. . . precious articles from Central Asia and
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India, all passing through Haifa to
the markets of the West.”
In short, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
foretold, it will become one of the first
emporiums of the world.
And the story does not end here. It is, indeed, only the beginning. Few of us can imagine the high destiny that awaits this “radiant white spot” from which has flashed forth, in this new cycle of human power, the guiding Light of the Spirit.
“The flowers of civilization and culture from all nations will be brought here to blend their fragrances together and blaze the way for the brotherhood of man.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá prophesied in 1914: “The entire harbor from ‘Akká to Haifa will be one path of illumination. Carmel itself will be submerged in a sea of light. A person standing on the summit of the mountain, and passengers on the incoming steamers will look upon the most sublime and majestic spectacle of the whole world.”
The searchlight, that shines across harbor from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s shrine on the mountain-side, is itself a witness that the word of God is being accomplished. As the Psalmist sang: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mt. Zion”—because it has been and is destined increasingly to become—“the City of the great King.”
Among the statements made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá may be quoted:
"In the future the distance between ‘Akká and Haifa will be built up, and the two cities will join and clasp hands, becoming the two terminal sections of one mighty metropolis. As I look now over this scene, I see so clearly that it will become one of the first emporiums of the world. This great semi-circular bay will be transformed into the fine harbor, wherein the ships of all nations will seek shelter and refuge. The great vessels of all peoples will come to this port, bringing on their decks thousands and thousands of men and women from every part of the globe.
The mountain and the plain will be dotted with the most modern buildings and palaces. Industries will be established and various institutions of philanthropic nature will be founded. . . . Wonderful gardens, orchards, groves and parks will be laid out on all sides. At night the great city will be lighted by electricity. The entire harbor from ‘Akká to Haifa will be one path of illumination. Powerful searchlights will be placed on both sides of Mount Carmel to guide the steamers. Mount Carmel itself, from top to bottom, will be submerged in a sea of light. A person standing on the summit of Mount Carmel, and the passengers of the steamers coming to it, will look upon the most sublime and majestic spectacle of the whole world!”1
“The day will come when this mountain will be resplendent with light—lights from top to bottom. On one side of it there will be a hotel, a universal hotel. Its doors will be open to all the people of the world. Whoever comes will be a guest. On the other side of the mountain there will be a university in which all the higher sciences will be taught. On another part of it there will be a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár (Bahá’í Temple). On another part of it there will be a home for the incurables. In still another part there will be a home for the poor. In still another part there will a home for orphans. All these will be administered with love.
“I foresee that this harbor [Haifa] will be full of vessels. And from here to the blessed Shrine [Bahje] there will be wide avenues, on both sides of which there will be trees and gardens. On the surrounding land at Bahje similar institutions to those on Mount Carmel will be established. And from all these places the songs of praise and exaltation will be raised to the Supreme Concourse.”2
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1Haifa, February 14, 1914.
2Mount Carmel, January 4, 1920.
Haifa, April 24, 1839.
Haifa at the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing.
Haifa, 1934, from Mt. Carmel, showing Shine of the Báb and Gardens (left foreground) and Tomb of the Most Exalted Leaf (right foreground).
