Wadi Nisnas
Neighbourhood in Haifa, Israel / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wadi Nisnas (Arabic: وادي النسناس; Hebrew: ואדי ניסנאס) is a formerly mixed Jewish and Arab neighborhood in the city of Haifa in northern Israel, which is becoming mixed again.[1][2][3] Nisnas is the Arabic word for mongoose, an indigenous animal. The Wadi has a population of about 8,000 inhabitants.[4]
Wadi Nisnas was developed at the end of the nineteenth century as a Christian-Arab neighborhood outside the walls of Haifa. After 1948, the neighborhood became the center of Haifa Arab community, providing the community with education, religious, and other civic and cultural services.[5][6] The current Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics census estimates that 66% of the Wadi Nisnas population are Christians, 31.5% are Muslims, and the rest are Jews.[7]
Wadi Nisnas is the setting for the 1987 novel, Hatsotsrah ba-Vadi (Hebrew: "Trumpet in the Wadi") by Sami Michael. It centers on the love story between a young Israeli Arab woman and a new Jewish immigrant from Russia.