Haifa and Western Galilee District

Background

The Haifa, Western Galilee and Menashe District is one of Israel’s most diverse and fascinating regions, distinguished by both its rich natural environment and the wide variety of communities and historical forces that have shaped it over the centuries. The Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel focuses primarily on the period from 1700 onward, during which the region was influenced by several major historical forces, including the Ottoman Empire, the German Templer settlements, the Zionist Jewish settlement movement, the Bahá’í community, the British Mandate, and the State of Israel.

The district covers three administrative subdistricts as defined by the Ministry of the Interior: Acre, Haifa, and Hadera.

Its urban centers include, from north to south, Shlomi, Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Nahariya, Acre, Karmiel, the Krayot, Haifa, Nesher, Tirat Carmel, the Baron Edmond de Rothschild settlements of Zikhron Ya’akov, Binyamina-Giv’at Ada, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, and Hadera. In the rural sector, the district includes seven regional councils: Ma’ale Yosef, Mateh Asher, Misgav, Zevulun, Hof HaCarmel, Alona, and Menashe, encompassing community villages, moshavim, and kibbutzim. Arab communities are administered by the Council’s National Arab and Circassian District.

Overall, the district serves approximately 180 communities and institutions, encompasses nearly 1,800 square kilometers containing thousands of heritage sites—many of them located in open landscapes—and is home to approximately 1.8 million residents (2021), in addition to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The district’s historic buildings represent an exceptionally broad range of architectural styles, including traditional Arab architecture, Ottoman civic, monumental and infrastructure architecture, Templer architecture, rural and urban Eclecticism, Bahá’í Eclectic architecture, British Mandate Modernism, International Style Modernism, Monumental Brutalism, and Late Modernism.

Our Vision

Preserving and enhancing heritage is an integral part of our history and culture. Historic sites and cultural landscapes lie at the heart of our living environment. They contribute significantly to people’s well-being, strengthen local identity and civic pride, and provide a foundation for sustainable economic and social development.

Mission and Objectives

Our overarching goal is to foster a society that understands, appreciates, and acts in accordance with the values embodied in both tangible and intangible heritage.

Our objectives are to ensure that every municipality, regional council, and local community maintains an up-to-date inventory of heritage sites, precincts, and cultural landscapes; actively implements conservation through physical preservation, statutory planning, and education; and incorporates heritage conservation into planning, development, education, and tourism policies.

Our Approach

The district’s activities are organized around three principal areas that reflect the Council’s mission:

• Planning and statutory conservation – Promoting heritage conservation through planning policies, statutory instruments, and planning processes.

• Education and public outreach – Raising awareness, disseminating professional knowledge, and fostering appreciation for heritage conservation.

• Practical conservation – Preventing the destruction of heritage sites while promoting conservation planning, restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse.

Planning and statutory work constitutes the largest share of the district’s activities. It also provides opportunities to educate planners, decision-makers, and professionals who influence the built environment. Among the principles promoted by the district are:

• Development guided by heritage values.

• Recognition of the cultural significance and quality embodied in historic places.

• Conservation of historic urban and rural fabric rather than isolated landmarks.

• Viewing conservation as an opportunity rather than a burden.

• Promoting a culture of maintenance instead of accepting demolition as inevitable.

• Conserving historic trees and landscapes.

• Encouraging conservation incentives such as dedicated funding and transferable development rights.

• Promoting comprehensive neighborhood and precinct conservation plans rather than fragmented site-specific planning.

Working with Authorities and Communities

The district leads much of the Council’s fieldwork and maintains close working relationships with both public authorities and local communities.

Our governmental partners include municipalities, local and regional councils, district planning offices and planning committees, the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the Israel Land Authority, regional development clusters, the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, drainage authorities, and numerous other governmental bodies.

Community partners include elected representatives and appointed officials in rural communities, local committees, cooperative associations, community managers, property managers, volunteer conservation trustees, civic activists, non-profit organizations, developers, and private property owners.

Heritage as an Integrated Landscape

The district combines major urban centers rich in heritage values with extensive open landscapes containing historic sites, rural communities, cultural landscapes, and natural environments.

These open areas are increasingly threatened by large-scale infrastructure projects. We believe that the value of the landscape as a whole exceeds the sum of its individual elements, and therefore strive to create interconnected “heritage ecological corridors.”

Accordingly, the district adopts a holistic approach that seeks to preserve, strengthen, and connect heritage values across the landscape.

Major Areas of Activity

Haifa

Founded in 1761, Haifa has developed across the coastal plain and the slopes of Mount Carmel into a city of remarkable architectural and urban diversity. The interaction between the natural landscape and the built environment creates an exceptional combination of historical, cultural, urban, architectural, and scenic values.

Thousands of historic buildings and numerous conservation precincts are located throughout the city. Haifa’s master plan (Haf/2000) established the framework for heritage conservation, which is being implemented through a comprehensive process of preparing statutory conservation documents.

The municipality operates an experienced Conservation Department and an active Conservation Committee. Comprehensive heritage surveys are currently underway to expand the city’s conservation inventory and provide the basis for future planning that balances urban growth with heritage preservation.

The district devotes considerable resources to supporting these efforts by participating in the Conservation Committee, preparing professional opinions, reviewing planning proposals, and representing heritage interests before planning authorities.

Acre

Acre presents a unique combination of a Crusader city overlaid by an outstanding Ottoman historic layer, alongside modern urban development that expanded northward during the British Mandate period. The city’s historic aqueduct, constructed in the early nineteenth century, connected the Kabri springs with the Old City and remains a defining heritage feature.

Separate architectural conservation committees oversee the Old City and the Mandate-era city under dedicated planning schemes.

Acre serves as a living laboratory for heritage conservation. The presence of a large residential population within the historic city raises complex questions concerning the conservation of multicultural heritage while balancing social, economic, and planning considerations.

Caesarea

Caesarea is one of Israel’s most remarkable multi-layered archaeological and historic sites. Above the remains of the Roman harbor city and the Crusader settlement, a village established by immigrants from Bosnia developed during the nineteenth century.

The surviving village buildings now house many of the restaurants and commercial activities within Caesarea National Park. A recently approved statutory plan provides the framework for their restoration and adaptive reuse.

The district is actively involved in documenting these buildings, preparing detailed conservation plans, and ensuring their sustainable use for future generations.

The Baron Edmond de Rothschild Settlements

The historic settlements of Zikhron Ya’akov, Binyamina, Giv’at Ada, and Pardes Hanna have evolved into thriving communities that continue to expand.

The principal conservation challenge is maintaining the unique historic character of these communities—particularly within their historic cores—while preserving landmark buildings that tell the story of the early settlements.

Most communities operate conservation committees, although engineering responsibilities are often divided between local municipalities and regional planning authorities.

Hadera

In recent years, Hadera has experienced intensive development within its historic center.

This presents significant challenges for conserving both the historic urban fabric and individual heritage buildings amid increasing urban density. Additional concerns relate to the erosion of the city’s coastal cliffs and their impact on historic sites along the shoreline.

Rural Heritage – Moshavim and Kibbutzim

Israel’s rural communities have undergone profound changes in recent decades. Traditional cooperative models have gradually given way to more individual lifestyles, while residential expansion has introduced new populations with limited historical ties to these communities.

Conservation efforts therefore focus on preserving both rural character and historic assets that embody local identity.

Particular attention is given to protecting the historic layout and landscape of community cores—especially the central “campus” areas of kibbutzim—as well as iconic buildings such as dining halls, schools, community facilities, and agricultural structures.

The district also provides strategic guidance on adapting historic buildings for economically sustainable uses while sharing successful models from other communities.

These efforts involve close cooperation with both local communities and regional councils, including the preparation of conservation surveys and the establishment of conservation committees.

Open Landscapes

Special attention is devoted to historic sites located within open landscapes.

The challenge is to integrate these sites into their surrounding natural and built environments while mobilizing organizations operating in these areas to support their conservation and enhancement.

The district also works to respond to planning proposals that threaten open landscapes and the significant heritage assets they contain.

Public Forum

The Council’s strength derives not only from professional expertise but also from broad public support.

The district’s Public Forum serves as an essential operational partner, bringing together professionals and community leaders with a shared commitment to heritage conservation.

The Forum meets regularly to discuss current conservation issues, establish working groups, prepare planning initiatives, submit objections to inappropriate development proposals, and coordinate public advocacy when necessary.

Our long-term goal is to organize the Forum into thematic and regional working groups according to members’ expertise and interests.

Physical Conservation Projects

Physical conservation projects are coordinated by the Council’s national headquarters.

The district receives requests from local communities for financial and professional assistance in rescuing and restoring historic buildings, prioritizes these projects, and supports their implementation once funding has been secured.

Educational Initiatives

The district maintains productive partnerships with Haifa’s academic institutions, including the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the University of Haifa, and the WIZO Academic Center, as well as elementary and secondary schools and the Haifa Municipality’s Department of Education.

In Acre, the district collaborates with the Conservation Studies Program at Western Galilee College, which also hosts the Council’s unique Conservation Trustees Program, dedicated to training volunteer heritage advocates.

Staff and Contact Information

Oren Agmon
Director, Haifa, Western Galilee and Menashe District
Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel

Tel: +972-4-855-2511
Email: haifa@shimur.org.il