Within the Gaza Strip’s Jewish Quarter, outdated and dilapidated buildings have a jagged construction coated with silvery zinc plates. The 4,000 sq. meters (1 acre) within the Zaytoun District (Harat az-Zaytoun), southeast of Gaza Metropolis, holds its identify for being inhabited till the late Nineteen Sixties by a Palestinian Jewish household.
In the present day, the options of this neighborhood are now not completely different from the remainder of Gaza. All of them share the identical architectural and demographic character.
Few of this quarter’s residents even know that it was referred to as the Jewish Quarter. Those that do, suppose the identify is due to a couple Jewish graves that existed within the quarter in 1963, and never as a result of it was as soon as inhabited by Jews.
However the fact is probably not to the liking of many Gazans who can hardly imagine that this land as soon as housed 1 / 4 for the Jews who reportedly labored in agriculture and commerce at a time when the neighborhood was not divided by political and non secular variations.
Umm Abdullah Atallah, who has been residing within the Jewish Quarter for greater than 53 years, recalled the death of her daughter within the Could 2021 army operations on the Gaza Strip. She instructed Al-Monitor, “The Israeli occupation killed my daughter.”
However she additionally acknowledges that “Muslims, Christians and Jews as soon as peacefully coexisted on this space, till the 1948 battle, when the Jews started to depart Gaza.”
She mentioned, “Up to now, the land was owned by a Muslim household, nevertheless it became a graveyard for Jews who lived in Gaza beforehand. It was surrounded by lands planted with grains reminiscent of wheat and barley, however after the battle, when Egypt took over the administration of the Gaza Strip, the land was allotted as compensation to the households whose houses have been demolished to develop the close by Salah El-Din Road. These households got official title deeds [by the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments].”
Atallah defined that she purchased the land on which she constructed her home for 28 Egyptian kilos ($63), a big sum on the time, noting that development at the moment was ruled by circumstances set by the Egyptian administration. Many of the homes that have been constructed at the moment have been product of tin or asbestos. “The Palestinian households who at present stay listed here are Juha, Awad, al-Maradi, al-Sous, Ali Hussein, Atallah, al-Madhoun and Abu Wadi,” she added.
Al-Monitor carried out an in depth and historic search to search out out the historical past of this quarter. Inquiries have been despatched to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities within the Gaza Strip, the Islamic College, and Al-Azhar College, the municipal library and the Qattan Foundation’s library. Al-Monitor additionally contacted a number of archaeologists and college professors, however most of them refused to speak in regards to the historical past of this quarter. Speaking in regards to the historic presence of Jews in Palestine is sophisticated, particularly within the Gaza Strip. Palestinian residents don’t wish to make clear any presence of Jews in any space with a Palestinian focus.
These have been Palestinian Jews, not Israelis, and there was no enmity with them in that interval. After the occupation, the battle with the Jews turned a civilizational, spiritual and historic battle. Due to this fact, nobody desires to speak in regards to the historical past of this neighborhood in any respect.
Gaza historian Nasser al-Yafawi instructed Al-Monitor, “Everybody avoids speaking in regards to the Jewish Quarter or something associated to the Jews within the Gaza Strip because of the spiritual and political implications of this subject, marred by long-standing civilization and non secular conflicts. However this doesn’t negate the existence of the Jewish Quarter and the grove in Juhor ad-Deek, which was owned by a Jewish lady earlier than 1948.”
He added, “Earlier than the Israeli occupation, Palestinians didn’t view the Jews as enemies. Jews undertook business initiatives and owned land. The connection between the Muslim and Jewish communities was fraternal till the emergence of Zionism and the challenge of occupying Palestine.”
The Jewish Quarter in Gaza consisted of some homes surrounding a grain mill over an space not exceeding 4 acres and was reportedly inhabited by one household headed by a Jewish man.
Primarily based on data obtained throughout his research at Birzeit College from historical past professor Roger Heacock, Yafawi mentioned that after the 1967 battle and Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip, Israel eliminated the stays of about 12 Jews buried in Gaza and took them to Israel on the order of then-Protection Minister Moshe Dayan. “That is for 2 causes. The primary is that Gaza was seen as a cursed land within the Jewish faith, and the second is the political and subject circumstances in Gaza,” he defined.
He famous, “Within the early Nineteen Fifties, the Egyptian administration expropriated lands within the space to develop the principle Salah El-Din Road. It compensated these affected with different land plots inside what is named the Jewish Quarter. The Jewish cemeteries, nevertheless, have been preserved and Jews continued to go to their family members even below Egypt’s rule.”
When Israel took over the Gaza Strip, Israeli establishments such because the Jewish National Fund and the Custodian of Absentee Properties Department sought to get better the quarter from the Palestinians by submitting title deeds proving the possession of the lands by Jewish households earlier than 1948. Their first success was the switch of the stays of the Jews’ our bodies below the supervision of the consultant of the Mizrahi Jews’ rabbis.
In flip, the Palestinians who resided within the quarter introduced possession paperwork obtained from the Egyptian land and actual property properties division. Yafawi defined, “After prolonged authorized procedures, the Israeli Supreme Court docket dominated in favor of the Palestinians and obligated the Jews to assign the lands. The court docket was persuaded by the truth that Gaza was seen as a cursed land and the principle battleground of a continuing battle. The Supreme Court docket rejected the claims filed by Jews on this case.”
He concluded, “The one guide that addresses the Jewish Quarter in Gaza, briefly, is ‘Gaza By means of Historical past,’ by Ibrahim Khalil Skaik. Not many individuals in Gaza know that the Jews had a neighborhood in Gaza. The problem stays taboo and extremely frowned upon in a society that sees Israel solely as an enemy amid the repeated assaults over time of occupation.”
Abdel Raouf Shniora, a 60-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, who lives within the Jewish Quarter, instructed Al-Monitor, “Within the early Nineteen Sixties the quarter was a part of our groves. There have been only a few graves for Jews. It was a land planted with wheat and barley, surrounded by lemon bushes.”
His octogenarian neighbor, Mohammed Juha, who was sitting in entrance of his home, instructed Al-Monitor, “I’ve lived right here since I used to be younger. My grandfather purchased this home. I keep in mind that Jews would come to this neighborhood to go to the graves of their family members. All we all know is that this neighborhood is named the Jewish Quarter as a result of there are graves for Jews in it. After we moved right here within the Nineteen Sixties there have been no Jews, solely Jewish graves.”
Regardless of the Arab-Israeli battle, nobody can deny that the Jews have a historical past within the Arab area, whether or not within the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt or the Arab Maghreb. In the present day, regardless of harsh criticism, some literary and creative works are shedding gentle on this Jewish presence, such because the novel “In My Coronary heart a Hebrew Lady,” by Tunisian novelist Khawla Hamdi, the novel “Zilah” by Israeli author Judith Katzir and the TV collection “Harat al-Yahud” (“The Jewish Quarter”) produced in Egypt in 2015.
