#OTD #history #22June 1948 the British Mandate ended & 50 British soldiers who were stationed at Stella Maris Church & Monastery on Mt Carmel hauled down their flag 🇬🇧 & marched down the street to set sail for England. As the time for their departure approached...
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... the Vicar for the Latin Patriarch🇻🇦 in Jerusalem met a political representative for the new Israeli government 🇮🇱 at Stella Maris Monastery on Mount Carmel at Haifa & pressed him for an assurance that the Carmelites' property, which the British army had requisitioned...
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... would be fully restored to them when the British troops withdrew from the country. The Israeli representative replied that, if Stella Maris property had been retained by the British for almost 10 years, it was because of its obvious strategic importance...
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... In 1948 The Israeli 🇮🇱 representative told the Vicar of the Latin Patriarch🇻🇦 that the Carmelites would not have their land restored. In fact, Israeli Defense Forces established a base of operations in between the monasteries of Carmelite friars & nuns on Mt Carmel...
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... As recently as 1991, the US installed a Patriot missile system at the IDF base next to the Carmelite monasteries and it was used during the first Gulf war to defend Haifa from missile attacks....
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...As recently as 2010 there were plans to turn the army base by Stella Maris into a high-density apartment complex, which would have been disastrous for the peace & security of the friars & even the nuns...
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...Conservationists prevailed & the complex was never built; instead, conservation volunteers worked tirelessly to restore a decades-old path from Stella Maris Monastery to the current Sculpture Garden, which was the home of the caretaker for the Carmelite properties...
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...To learn more about the British Mandate at Stella Maris
teresianum.net/wp-content/upl…
About the apartment complex plans
haaretz.com/1.5130464
Yarok Balev Conservationists
yarokbalev.org/en/about/
Thanks to the OCD nuns in Haifa for additional details
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@carmelnunsgb @ocdcuria
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