Rabbi Yehuda said: There is no removal of leaven except by burning; but the Sages maintain: he may also crumble and throw it to the wind or cast it into the sea. (Mishnah Pesachim 2:1)

On the eve of Passover, April 21, 1948,
leaflets and loudspeakers ordered
the 75,000 Palestinian Arabs of Haifa
to send their women and children away,
warning them of terrible consequences
if these warnings were disregarded.

At 6:30 pm the Carmeli brigade –
a joint force of the Haganah and Irgun –
opened fire on the lower regions of the city.
This strange cacophony of loudspeaker voices
and gunfire lasted until midnight.
All night long, panic stricken civilians
fled homes that were in the path
of the Jewish militias heading
into Wadi Nisnsa and the areas
nearest Hadar HaCarmel.

Early on Passover morning,
the Irgun forces were making progress.
(As Menachem Begin, later remembered, they
proceeded to advance through Haifa
like a knife through butter.
The Arabs began fleeing in panic,
shouting “Deir Yassin!”)

By 6:00 am the cacophony had grown
with the cries of fleeing families
and new loudspeaker voices:
Arab leaders urging residents
to gather in the old marketplace
next to the port and seek shelter
until an orderly evacuation by sea
could be organized.

As Passover day unfolded,
Haifa’s market and the port soon
became a scene of utter chaos:
children in pajamas,
men in old fashioned nightshirts,
women carrying babies,
running desperately
toward the water.

The Carmeli brigade stationed itself
on the slopes of Mt. Carmel
and launched three inch mortars
on the fleeing crowd below.
Panic stricken, they eventually
broke into the port and tried to climb
aboard the boats moored in the harbor.

One survivor later recalled:
men stepped on their friends
and women on their own children.
The boats in the port were soon filled
with living cargo. The overcrowding
in them was horrible. Many turned over
and sank with all their passengers.

When the week of Passover was concluded,
scores of Palestinians had been killed
and 50,000 expelled from their homes.

The military named this “Operation Biur Chametz,”
which means “Operation Cleaning Out the Leaven.”
This is a reference to sacred Jewish tradition,
which commands that leaven be swept out of Jewish homes
prior to the onset of Passover.

Of course the cacophony on the shores of Haifa
has long since receded.
But every Passover,
if you listen closely to the water
lapping back and forth across the sand
you will hear a voice whispering softly:
How can you sing your songs of joy
while my children are drowning?