Acre is a city in the northern coastal plain region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. The population is at 46,000. Acre is a mixed city. Jewish Israelis live in the New City quarter, while Arab Israelis live in the Old City quarter. Acre is the most “oriental” city in Israel. In 2001, Acre’s Old City has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Acre is the holiest city of the Bahá’í Faith.
Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. In crusader times it was known as St. John d’Acre after the Knights Hospitaller of St John order who had their headquarters there, founded by German merchants from Lübeck and Bremen. The seat of the order’s Grand Master remained in Acre until 1291, when it was relocated to Venice.
In the 1990s the city absorbed thousands of Jews, who immigrated from the Soviet Union and later from Russia and Ukraine. Within several years, however, the population balance between Jews and Arabs, as northern neighbourhoods were abandoned by many of its Jewish residents in favour of new housing projects in nearby Nahariya, while many Muslim Arabs moved in, largely coming from nearby Arab villages. Arab Israelis are living in the Old Town, while the Jewish Israelies live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Acre is the most oriental town of Israel.
Today, the city, which was for centuries a major port city in the eastern Mediterranean, has lost much of its importance. Industry is of economic significance, especially the iron processing.
[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a foreign relations instrument of the European Union (EU) which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the Union. These cou...
