Happy New Hijri year from Jerusalem

An illustration from al-Biruni's astronomical works, explains the different phases of the moon

Serge Moati rencontre Kais Bakri et Huda Al Imam

Bayt-Lee, properties of West Jerusalem



i have a house in lower Baqa'a, its actually owned and built by Farid Jamal al Imam, my Father,  born in Bab-al Silsileh, the Chain Gate, leading to al Aqsa Mosque;

In his twenties, my Father decided to move out Old City. He bought a piece of land in the Greek Colony, Baqaa' al tahta or the lower Baqaa', today address is 18 Uzia Street, off Emek Refaim, parallel to the railway station.

Father's love to his mother, Ayshah Aweidah, made him buy the land next to the Aweidah Family houses,  where she lived together with her brothers and sister Zleikha (the grandmother of Ahmad).

Father, like many Palestinians was thrown out of his house in 1948 when the Yergun/Stern and other zionist movements were terrorizing and massacring the Palestinian inhabitants living in Lifta, Malha, Deir Yassin and neighbouring villages in the suburbs of the city.

Israel was created with the Absentee Law; which says that every Palestinian who is found in a country at war with Israel is considered abscent and looses the right to return.
My father and thousands of Palestinians were present; they
walked towards a safer neighbourhood at the time, the Old City home or Sheikh Jarrah, a few kilometers away! 

Ethnic cleansing continues with Libeman and Natanyahoo; Today, settlers are given green light by Israeli court to evacuate people 
in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and other neighbourhoods occupied in 1967.

What are we doing to prevent them?
We are watching them...steel our homes, selling them to private real estate agents like what Natanyahoo did with 'his privatization initiative' sold my Father's house to Udi Kaplan, who sold it then for 3.5 million dollars!

I would like to walk one day barefooted on the flower tiles which my father has chosen for each room of his home in Baqaa'! 

Bayt-Lee, "une maison a moi"," a house of mine" is a new page in town; Bayt-Lee is just launched on facebook aiming to share, to discuss and document our houses and stories of West Jerusalem;

the page seeks to develop exchange amongst people involved and interested, to tell our stories, to lobby, to claim and to win over our rights to our homes and properties confiscated in 1948.

If you have a home, a piece of land, a gravestone or a flower-tile,
please share....





from 'The Electronic Intifada' ....Uprooted Palestinians Blog

 

Jerusalem center promotes Palestinian heritage

Sarah Irving, The Electronic Intifada, 21 October 2010

Uprooted Palestinians:

promotehttp://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/10/jerusalem-center-promotes-palestinian.html-

A day in Yaffa, the Port of Palestine

its actually the city,
so stressful
i cant describe

and to be fair with the place
i would say
its perhaps the people ?
the Mix of People living nowadays in Jerusalem

i am not mentioning the quotidien
a military occupation which
loads you with bitterness !
and no water to refresh
like in Gaza or Yaffa
the city's pools are dried up
its hammams are without soap or steam!

i simply want to say
how relaxing it feels to be out of Jerusalem...
for a day
to walk in Jaffa,
to smell its port
and breathe the mediterranean sea!

Eid Adha Mubarak

Dear Firends,
Sunday 6 November marked the 1st day of Eid al Adha.

Moslems around the world celebrate the end of Hajj, by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command.

While Mecca and Medina continue to host worshipers from all over the world, Al Haram al Ibrahimi in Hebron and al Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem, a few metersfrom my working place, will only be able to welcome a limited number of people as long as Israel continues to occupy, annex and control. 

Would the recent membership at UNESCO change anything on the ground ? I wonder ?!

 I shall now extend on the text which i wrote to talk about the Centre's work and achievements, which said:

"On a positive note, the Jerusalem Studies Master’s degree programme hosts its students in the Old City, where over 70 International students are learning Arabic; Al Quds Tours will take a new path towards sites & themes which haven’t yet been visited and more.... For a change, Jerusalem’s cultural scene during the month of October was exceptionally vibrant! Let me apologize for those of you who were bombarded by ‘Jerusalem Studies’ mails. The Kaek festival organized by Palestinian independent youth celebrated outside the walls, while inside, in the Mamluk Caravan Saraye of Khan Tankaz, CJS hosted Eish al Balad in cooperation with the Afro-Palestinian Community, 'al Quds Underground' music with art works brought more than 1,000 participants for three consecutive nights and The ‘language’ Jerusalem Show 2011 theme  of al Mam’mal Foundation curated this year by Lara Khalidi and Jose A. Sanchez selected Hammam al Ayn for the works of Mona Hatoum “So much I want to say” , Rania Khalil and Sharif Waked’s “to be continued”.


Stay tuned for more academia and culture in the next winter season! Don’t miss the Armenian Tour with George Hintlian and the Noble Sanctuary with Ali Qleibo who insisted to start at 8 am on Sunday 20 November, to appreciate the special early morning light on the Dome of the Rock.

Eid Adha Mubarak

Huda al Imam

Director, Centre for Jerusalem Studies of al Quds Univesity

5 Nov 2011

On a more personal view, Together with Mother and Son, our,'

the 1st day was relatively quiet.  And, when close friends invite us to join them for 'akel el Eid' Raabeh or fakhdeh' (mouton: coup or cuisse), Mother insists to  cook  and keep us at home; i must  say her 'Eid food' i sparticularly delicious 

served with minced meat rice decorated with fried pines and almonds 'ruz bi titbeeleh'!

Who is left of the few cousins in Jerusalem, bring their children over, early morning for the 'Eid' ritual round visit. They are offered coffee or tea with a 'kaek ou ma'moul', Eid's cookies with dates and nuts; I asked Fuad about the route he takes, (also a ritual for many Jerusalemites), on this day, as they accompany their 'boys' children, (who get the Eideyyeh,  money gift ) while daughters stay at home with their mothers: "i hope to see your sisters in the next Eid, i uttered to the boys, ok" ?

'bab il sahira cemetery'  is one of the main stops, to pay a visit to beloved dead ones, he said. Then  a 5 minute round visit to the family: 'women' members of the family, priority to the singles 'widowed', divorced or deserted !

We talked about the Wakfyaat, Imam's properties in the Old City, since Fuad took after his frandfther and became the 'mitwalli', the custodian of the family properties in the Old City, at the Wakf. \My great grandfather Yousef Eddine al Imam who generously priviedged the female in the family (as long as she is single); is burried at the Faisal Gate of al Aqsa Mosque; Today his house and tomb are occupied by squatters. "last year, depsite the fact that the Head of Wakf told me he would accompany me, but i didnt wait,  i attempted a visit with Hani, but we were not allowed in", i told Fuad, who noodded his head with amazement!
.

The evening of the Eid, walking around Musrara, Bab el Amoud, Bab el Sahera, Salah Eddine street we made a soft stop at the newly restored Nusseibeh's Building; a 60s 'vintage' architecture,  designed by Engineer Hisham Nusseibeh, today 'Addar Mall'. Munira and I, attempted to step at the entrance of the marbelled floor mall, when an elderly descent looking man, but holding a stick in his hand shouted  'wein ya banat'?   
"in addition to being stopped by the occupier, i feel our movements are also stopped from within"
i answered Munira when she asked me what was i thinking of.

Another sunny quiet Jerusalem day, its Monday marking the 2nd day of the Eid. We chose to take our mothers on a 'West-ern' Tour. Crossing the 47 armistice line, from East to West, the roads, unlike 'shabath' when the red lights are lit off, life is moving and normal. Tramway and busses run along the road 'MandleBaum' seperating Palestinian houses including those which ten years ago were destroyed,  to allow Giant unfriendly Novotel, Olive Tree and other hotels to be built instead.

On the other side of the road, a beautiful Arab house with a big 'kahnoouka' lies right opposite the hotels, to mark 'synaguoge school' "this is the house of  'Hikmat Sharif Nashashibi".  In teh car Saida, who lived in London for many years, know Muna & late Hikmat, and their children Sharif, Noura and Omar who used to go to Hill house with my niece Noura.


 A few meters to the north, also with othoman architecture 'Turjuman's' house where 'George Baramki' lived in 48', today the house hosts the 'israeli museum on the seam'; passed Mamilla with the three arches Naheel Aweidah told me about her father' Aref Aweidah', owned 'al Foundoq al 'Assri' where the famous Picadilly Cafe' is today one of the most expensive israeli hotels "Mamilla hotel'." This is where the elite jerusalem families such as the Arsenian family had their businesses: pharmacies,   Anwar Nusseibeh's law office and more ...The AStoria Hotel which is still in the making, kept the facade of the 'Palace hotel' where the Islamic Council operated from, opposite the pool and cemetery, where the Museum of Tolerance is planned to be constructed;  It is all sold by Natanyahou and the Israeli government, they keep the islamic architecture because it can be sold for bigger amounts of money ! "
along the corner of Kingn David and Jabotinsky, leading to 'Salameh square' where Salameh house, or the Belgian Consulate, lies the giant 'Daoud's building' which in the early 40s hosted 'Hunal Quds' the Palestinian broadcasting' PBC; unlike the 77% Palestinian properties on the West side of the city, this particular building has been Repossesed!
 WHY ?

simply because Daoud brothers happened to be in latin America, when the law of the absentee was drafted.

'Kuwait', i learnt yesterday, was also not at war with Israel, then,

would the Israeli Courts consider this ?
Would people who own property and who were in Kuwait dare to claim their rights to reposses ?
LETS DIG INTO THIS...

Driving along the ancient railway station towards Ba'qaa, i tired to stay as far as i could from my father's house, (since i was 2 months ago threatened of deportation by the police, for having taken a photo); "Your father's next door neighbour was Olga Wahbeh", mother mentioned...
we continued driving along what was called the Katamon, the German Colony, the Greek Colony visiting houses with green shutters of the Nammari's, Khoury's, Asa''d Khader's with AK decorated on the 'fer forgee' door, the Ghusseins,
Aweidah's twin houses put now on sale, Mona Halaby's family, Nuweihed,  and many more...on both sides of the main road today called 'Emek Refaim';

Until when should we allow them to consider us abscent when we are all present ?

Happy Eid to All.