The exhibition A Black Flag in a Red City illuminates a chapter in the history of Haifa's Wadi Salib neighborhood, the social implications of which are absent from most of the urban and national "spaces of memory." The exhibition focuses on the voices of the residents of Wadi Salib in the second half of the twentieth century, reflecting a personal and collective memory of urban history written "from below." Using exclusively visual means, the exhibition presents experiences of marginality, injustice, and exclusion, alongside the development of a diverse and lively social fabric. This reality fostered processes of social organization and resistance, climaxing in the protests of July 1959.

In Wadi Salib, one layer conceals another. After the Israeli War of Independence, the neighborhood's Palestinian residents were not allowed to return; the Jews who replaced them were later dispersed among other neighborhoods. Today the neighborhood is seeing a surge of construction and is being populated by new residents – another layer covering the ruins of the previous ones.

The Wadi Salib neighborhood is thus perched between memory and erasure. Every discussion of its history brings to the surface ethnic, economic, and national conflicts; however, the investigation of the neighborhood's history affords an opportunity for dialogue between its layers and the different groups that have populated it.

Academic consultant: Dr. Yali Hashash

Oscar Tauber / Uri Levi / Eyal Toueg / Eti Schwarzglas / Josyane Vanounou / Hanna Abu Hanna / Judith Meller / Rachel Elbaz Furman / Amiram Erev / Mahmoud Machluf / Ruthi Meyuhas / Shimon and Rachel Piso

Archives and  collections: Collection of the Khan Museum, Hadera / JNF Archive / Central Zionist Archives / Israel Police Archive / Yad Yaari Archive / Haifa Municipal Archives / Government Press Office Archive / Collection of the National Library of Israel / Archive of the Israeli Communist Party

 "Oskar Tauber: photo-journalist"