The position of the leadership of the Jewish Yishuv on the mayoralty of Haifa and preparations for elections, 1940-1947

The contest for control of mixed municipalities in Palestine reached its peak in the period of preparations for the last municipal elections to be held in the closing years of the British Mandate. Control of a mixed municipality, as the Mandate approached its end, was considered by Jews and Arabs to be a position of power not to be conceded. The post of mayor carried not only personal prestige, but also the possibility of translating it into influence favouring the needs of national ambitions. From the Jews' point of view, these elections had the potential to damage, more than benefit, them. The principal and most significant loss in these elections was liable to find expression in the loss of the mayoralty of Haifa, and in consequence to constitute a threat to the gains so far made by the Jewish Yishuv in that city. The escalation in the Jewish-Arab struggle towards the end of the Mandate period bore directly on the enormous importance attributed by Jews and Arabs to holding the post of mayor of Haifa, hence on the intense preparations for the elections. The elections threw into even sharper relief the importance that the two sides placed on the status of Haifa in the struggle for Eretz-Israel. The article examines the factors and thinking that guided the Jewish leadership in determining its stance regarding the Haifa mayoralty and the election campaign in the period 1940-7, in light of the attitude evinced by the Arab side.