Not the British, but Indian soldiers liberated Haifa: Mayor

The Israeli city of Haifa Monday paid tributes to fallen Indian soldiers, with the Mayor noting that the city's school history books are being changed to correct that it was Indian troops and not the British who liberated the city from Ottoman rule.

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

"I was born in this city and graduated from here. Constantly we were told that this city was freed by the British till somebody from the Historical Society knocked at my door one day and said that they have done a thorough research and found that it wasn't the British but the Indians who freed this city (from the Ottomans)," said Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav.

He made the remarks while addressing a gathering at the Indian cemetery of fallen soldiers during a ceremony to pay tributes to their bravery.

"In every school, we are changing the texts and saying that it wasn't the British but the Indians who liberated us," Yahav said.

During World War I, Indian cavalry regiments armed with spears and swords cleared the Ottoman forces from the rocky slopes of Mt Carmel under all odds to liberate the city, in what most war historians consider "the last great cavalry campaign in history"