Sheikh Jarrah

Coordinates: 31°47′40.50″N 35°13′54.75″E / 31.7945833°N 35.2318750°E / 31.7945833; 35.2318750
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zero0000 (talk | contribs) at 01:54, 2 June 2011 (Undid revision 432029778 by 86.163.200.12 (talk) we use the common english names). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. In the background, the city center of Jerusalem.

Sheikh Jarrah (Arabic: الشيخ جراح, Hebrew: שייח' ג'ראח) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem on the road to Mount Scopus.[1][2]

History

Entrance to Sheikh Jarrah

Sheikh Jarrah was established on the slopes of Mount Scopus, taking its name from the tomb of Sheikh Jarrah.[3] The tomb, dated to 1201, is the burial place of Husam al-Din al-Jarrahi, an emir and physician to Saladin[4][5] ("jarrah" means surgeon in Arabic). In the 12th century, he established a zawiya (literally "angle, corner", also meaning a small mosque or school) known as the Zawiya Jarrahiyya[5] ("surgery zawiya"). He was buried on the grounds of the school. 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, a scholar from Damascus, who travelled to Jerusalem in 1690, was received at the school by a group of dignitaries and spiritual leaders.[6] The tomb is situated inside a mosque built in 1895 on Nablus Road, north of the Old City and the American Colony.[7][8] Prayer at the shrine is said bring good luck, particularly for those who raise chickens and eggs.[8]

A two-story stone building incorporating a flour mill, Qasr el-Amawi, was built opposite the tomb in the 17th century.[9] Sheikh Jarrah began to grow as a Muslim nucleus between the 1870s and 1890s.[9] Several famous families, among them the Nashashibis, built homes in the upscale northern and eastern parts of the neighborhood .[9] In the western part, houses were smaller and more scattered.[9]

A Jewish observer at the start of the 20th century wrote of Sheikh Jarrah:

In the past years a whole neighbourhood of our Muslim fellow citizens established northeast of our city, from the field of the Tomb of Simon the Just and eastward — a neighbourhood of large excellent-looking, wonderful, perfectly beautiful houses, without anyone in our city noticing it without going there specially to see it.[10]

At the Ottoman census of 1905, the Sheikh Jarrah nahiye (sub-district) consisted of the Muslim quarters of Sheikh Jarrah, Hayy el-Huseyni, Wadi el-Joz and Bab ez-Zahira, and the Jewish quarters of Shim'on Hatsadik and Nahalat Shim'on.[11] Its population was counted as 167 Muslim families, 97 Jewish families, and 6 Christian families.[11] It contained the largest concentration of Muslims outside the Old City.[11] In 1918 the Sheikh Jarrah quarter contained about 30 houses.[9]

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 14 April, 78 Jews, mostly doctors and nurses, were killed on their way to Hadassah Hospital when their convoy was attacked by Arab forces as it passed through Sheikh Jarrah, the main road to Mount Scopus. In the wake of these hostilities, Mount Scopus was cut off from West Jerusalem.[12] On 24 April the Haganah launched an attack on Sheikh Jarrah as part of Operation Yevusi but they were forced to retreat after action by the British Army.

From 1948, Sheikh Jarrah was on the edge of a UN-patrolled no-man's land between West Jerusalem and the Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus. A wall stretched from Sheikh Jarrah to Mandelbaum Gate, dividing the city.[13] In 1956, the Jordanian government moved 28 displaced Palestinian families here.[14] As permanent ownership transfer was illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the area was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property.[15]

During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah. In 1972, the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Yisrael Committee went to court to reclaim their property in the neighborhood. In 1982, they demanded rent for this property and the Supreme Court of Israel ruled in their favor. The tenants were allowed to remain as long as they paid rent.[15]

Consulates and diplomatic missions

In the 1960s, many diplomatic missions and consulates opened in Sheikh Jarrah: The British Consulate at 19 Nashashibi Street,[16] the Turkish Consulate next door at 20 Nashashibi Street, the Belgian Consulate, the Swedish Consulate, the Spanish Consulate, and the UN mission at Saint George Street.[17]

Tony Blair, envoy of the Diplomatic Quartet, stays at the American Colony Hotel when visiting the region.[18]

Transportation

The neighbourhood's main street, Nablus Road, was previously part of route 60. In the 1990s a new dual carriageway with 2 lanes in each direction and a separate bus lane was built west of the neighborhood, which will be connected to the Jerusalem Light Rail. [19]

Property disputes

Tomb of Simon the Just, 1900

Jewish groups have sought to regain property in Sheikh Jarrah once owned by Jews, including the Shepherd Hotel compound, the Mufti's Vineyard, the building of the el-Ma'amuniya school, the Simeon the Just/Shimon HaTzadik compound, and the Nahlat Shimon neighborhood. At the same time, according to Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, foreign investors from Arab states, particularly the Persian Gulf, are actively seeking to purchase properties to further Palestinian interests.[12]Many offers have been made to families in the neighborhood to sell their property to Jewish and Saudi groups.[citation needed]

In 2001, Israeli settlers moved into a sealed section of the al-Kurd family's house and refused to leave, claiming the property was owned by Jews.[20] In 2008, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Shimon Hatzadik property belonged to the Sephardi Community Committee. The Arab families had protected tenant status as long as they paid rent but several families refused to pay, ending in their eviction. The al-Kurds were evicted in November 2008. Muhammad al-Kurd, the head of the family, died eleven days later. The court ruling was based on an Ottoman-era bill of sale whose authenticity was challenged in 2009 on the grounds that the building had only been rented to the Sephardi group.[21] Fawzieh al-Kurd continued to protest the eviction, moving into an encampment in East Jerusalem.[20][22]

In August 2009, the court evicted the al-Hanoun and al-Ghawi families from two homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Jewish families moved in based on a Supreme Court ruling that the property was owned by Jews. The United Nations coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H. Serry condemned the decision: "These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace."[23] The US State Department called it a violation of Israel's obligations under the Road map for peace.[24] Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "Tonight, while these new settlers from abroad will be accommodating themselves and their belongings in these Palestinian houses, 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep."[23] Yakir Segev of the Jerusalem municipal council responded: "This is a matter of the court. It is a civil dispute between Palestinian families and those of Israeli settlers, regarding who is the rightful owner of this property... Israeli law is the only law we are obliged to obey."[25]

Lawyers for the Jewish families argued that documents from the Ottoman Empire originally used to prove that a Jewish Sephardic organization had purchased the land in question in the 19th century are indeed valid, while Palestinian lawyers claimed that they had a document from Turkish archives indicating that the Jewish organization that claims to own the land only rented it, and as such was not the rightful owner.[26] Moreover, the Palestinian families and their supporters maintained that Ottoman documents that Israel's Supreme Court had validated were in fact forgeries, and that the original ruling and therefore evictions relating to that ruling should be reversed.[27][28] The lawyer for the Israeli families emphasized that the land deeds had been checked by many courts and found to be authentic,[26] and indeed, the Court's decision preceding the aforementioned evictions found that the document presented by the Palestinian side is in fact a forgery, while the document proving Jewish ownership is authentic.[29]

The dispute has prompted a weekly solidarity protest by young Jews. Noticing that settlers used Friday prayers as an occasion to mock the Palestinian holdouts, Jewish activists organized rallies in support of the Palestinians. Many Palestinians perceive the case of Sheikh Jarrah as a double standard based on ethnicity as Jews are given the right to claim property lost in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence; however, Palestinians, who lost the right to their properties located in Israel, due to Israel's Absentee Property Law, are not permitted to reclaim lands they lost in the same war. The Israeli police have declared the rallies in Sheikh Jarrah illegal.[30]

Landmarks

St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital

The St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital is an institution of The Order of St John that provides eye care in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Patients receive care regardless of race, religion or ability to pay.[31]The hospital first opened in 1882 on Hebron Road opposite Mount Zion. [32] The building in Sheikh Jarrah opened in 1960 on Nashashibi Street.

St. Joseph's French Hospital

The St. Joseph's French Hospital is situated across the street from St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital and is run by a French Catholic charity. It is a 73-bed hospital with three main operating theaters, coronary care unit, X-ray, laboratory facilities, and outpatient clinic. Facilities in internal medicine, surgery, neurosurgery, E.N.T., pediatric surgery and orthopedics.[33]

Shrines and tombs

Tomb of the Kings

The Jewish presence in Sheikh Jarrah centered around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, one of the last members of the Great Assembly, the governing body of the Jewish people after the Babylonian Exile. According to the Babylonian Talmud, Shimon HaTzadik met with Alexander the Great when the Macedonian army passed through the Land of Israel and convinced him not to destroy the Second Temple. For years Jews made pilgrimages to his tomb in Sheikh Jarrah, a practice documented in travel literature. In 1876, the cave and the adjoining land, planted with 80 ancient olive trees, were purchased by the Jews for 15,000 francs. Dozens of Jewish families built homes on the property.[34]Other landmarks in Sheikh Jarrah are a medieval mosque dedicated to one the soldiers of Saladin, St. George's Anglican Cathedral and the Tomb of the Kings.

Shepherd Hotel

Aerial view of Shepherd Hotel, 1933
Demolition of Shepherd Hotel, January 2011

The Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah was originally a villa built for the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The mufti, who never lived in it, transferred property rights to his personal secretary, George Antonius and his wife, Katy.[35] After the death of George Antonius in 1942, his widow Katy invited many of Jerusalem's elite to her house, though only one Jew. While living in the house, Katy Antonius had a highly publicized affair with the commander of the British forces in Palestine, Evelyn Barker. In 1947, the Jewish underground Irgun blew up a house nearby. Antonius left the house, and a regiment of Scottish Highlanders was stationed there.[35] After the 1948 war, it was taken over by the Jordanian authorities and turned into a pilgrim hotel. In 1985, it was bought by the American Jewish millionaire Irving Moskowitz and continued to operate as a hotel, renamed the Shefer Hotel. The Israeli border police used it as base for several years.[35] In 2007, when Moskowitz initiated plans to build 122 apartments on the site of the hotel, the work was condemned by the British government.[36] In 2009 the plan was modified, but was still condemned by the U.S. and U.K. governments,[37] Permission to build 20 apartments near the hotel was given in 2009, and formal approval was announced by the Jerusalem municipality on March 23, 2010, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama.[38] The Haaretz reported that, "an existing structure in the area will be torn down to make room for the housing units, while the historic Shepherd Hotel will remain intact. A three-story parking structure and an access road will also be constructed on site."[39] The hotel was finally demolished on January 9, 2011.[40]

Notable residents

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sheikh Jarrah.
  1. ^ Zirulnick, Ariel. Bryant, Christa Case. Five controversial Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem Christian Science Monitor. 10 January 2011
  2. ^ Medding, Shira. Khadder, Kareem. Jerusalem committee OKs controversial construction plan CNN 07 February 2011
  3. ^ Oesterreicher, John M.; Sinai, Anne (1974). Jerusalem (Illustrated ed.). John Day. p. 22. ISBN 0381982661, 9780381982669. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  4. ^ Marim Shahin (2005). Palestine: A Guide. Interlink Books. pp. 328–329. ISBN 156656557X.
  5. ^ a b Hawari, Mahmoud (2007). Ayyubid Jerusalem (1187-1250): an architectural and archaeological study (Illustrated ed.). Archaeopress. ISBN 1407300423, 9781407300429. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  6. ^ Necipoğlu, Gülru; Bailey, Julia (2005). Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World, Volume 22. BRILL. p. 110. ISBN 9004147020, 9789004147027. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  7. ^ Ma'oz, Moshe; Nusseibeh, Sari (2000). Jerusalem: points of friction, and beyond (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 9041188436, 9789041188434. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  8. ^ a b Winter, Dave (1999). Israel handbook: with the Palestinian Authority areas (2nd, illustrated ed.). Footprint Travel Guides. p. 189. ISBN 1900949482, 9781900949484. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e Ruth Kark and Shimon Landman, The establishment of Muslim neighbourhoods outside the Old City during the late Ottoman period, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, vol 112, 1980, pp 113–135.
  10. ^ Ruth Kark an Michal Oren-Nordheim, Jerusalem and its environs; Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages 1800-1948, Hebrew University Magnus Press, 2001, p. 120.
  11. ^ a b c Adar Arnon, The quarters of Jerusalem in the Ottoman period, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 28, 1992, pp 1–65.
  12. ^ a b Shragai, Nadav (2009-07-27). "The Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik Neighborhood". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
  13. ^ Kai Bird's 'Gate': One Foot In Israel, One In Palestine
  14. ^ Lidman, Melanie; Izenberg, Dan (29 September 2010). "Sheikh Jarrah Palestinians fear new evictions". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  15. ^ a b Phillips, Melanie (2009-08-04). "The British decide that Israeli law is 'unacceptable'". The Spectator.
  16. ^ United Kingdom - Consulate General in Jerusalem - Our offices in Jerusalem, retrieved 2011-01-23
  17. ^ List of embassies and consulates in Israel, retrieved 2009-11-07
  18. ^ The Englishwoman who ran an oasis in the heart of the conflict - Haaretz - Israel News
  19. ^ "The Jerusalem Light Rail Map", Citypass, retrieved 2009-11-08
  20. ^ a b Elder, Akiva (2008-07-27). "U.S. protests eviction of Arab family from East Jerusalem home". Haaretz.
  21. ^ Levy, Gideon (2008-12-27). "Twilight Zone / Non-Jews need not apply". Haaretz.
  22. ^ Hasson, Nir (2009-03-19). "Turkish documents prove Arabs own E. Jerusalem building". Haaretz.
  23. ^ a b Palestinians evicted in Jerusalem BBC News. 2009-08-02.
  24. ^ 50 Palestinians evicted from Jerusalem homes Israeli police then allowed Jewish settlers to move into the houses MSNBC. 2009-08-02.
  25. ^ East Jerusalem evictions condemned Al-Jazeera English. Al-Jazeera and Agencies. 2009-08-02.
  26. ^ a b http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072208.html
  27. ^ http://www.countercurrents.org/cook250309.htm
  28. ^ http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1249275679490 [dead link]
  29. ^ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132678
  30. ^ Sheikh Jarrah: a just struggle for a just Jerusalem
  31. ^ ""St John Eye Hospital". Retrieved January 23, 2011. {{cite web}}: Text "Improving Sight, Changing Lives"" ignored (help)
  32. ^ Kroyanker, David (Revised edition (November 1, 2003)), "Jerusalem Architecture [Hardcover]", Vendome Press, ISBN 978-0865651470 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  33. ^ BioJerusalem - Hospital database
  34. ^ Jerusalem Issue Briefs
  35. ^ a b c File of old letters and photos shows Shepherd Hotel is no stranger to scandal
  36. ^ Britain protests to Olmert about illegal settlement Donald Macintyre, The Independent, May 5, 2007
  37. ^ Israel's evictions upset even its friends, Ian Black, The Guardian, August 4, 2009
  38. ^ New East Jerusalem homes approved hours before Netanyahu-Obama meet, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, March 23, 2010.
  39. ^ Israel to U.S.: Latest East Jerusalem building okayed last year, Nir Hasson, Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies, Haaretz, March 24, 2010
  40. ^ Matthew Lee (Jan 9, 2010). "Clinton slams Israeli demolition of historic hotel". Associated Press. Retrieved 8 January 2011.

31°47′40.50″N 35°13′54.75″E / 31.7945833°N 35.2318750°E / 31.7945833; 35.2318750

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sheikh_Jarrah&oldid=432102564"