 The common Israeli saying , " Haifa works , Jerusalem prays , and Tel Aviv plays " attests to Haifa 's reputation as a city of workers and industry . The industrial region of Haifa is in the eastern part of the city , around the Kishon River . It is home to the Haifa oil refinery , one of the two oil refineries in Israel ( the other refinery being located in Ashdod ) . The Haifa refinery processes 9 million tons ( 66 million barrels ) of crude oil a year . Its <unk> unused twin 80 @-@ meter high cooling towers , built in the 1930s , were the tallest buildings built in the British Mandate period . 
