Lament for Lifta

It was a bright sunny morning in May of this year when our tour bus left the Gloria Hotel in the Old City of Jerusalem. We were climbing the hill to the west of the city on Ben Gurion Boulevard, seeing a number of stone houses on the sun-drenched hillside to our right when our bus pulled off the road at the top of the scene and came to a stop overlooking the valley with these houses on the near side.

When we got out, our tour guide explained that the houses that we were seeing below were the remnants of the abandoned village of Lifta.¹ These are the remaining homes of families who were expelled or who fled in April 1948 after the village of Deir Yassin at the top of the hill was massacred.² Interestingly, our tour guide informed us that villagers whose names began with “Deir” indicated it was originally a Christian as opposed to a Muslim village. In a bitterly ironic twist of history, the last big building left standing from the village of Deir Yassin eventually became a mental hospital.

Massacres carried out in this and other villages, even as far north as the Galilee and areas around Haifa, was enough to scare many Palestinians out of their villages, which was the desired effect of the terrorists who were active at the time of the establishment of the Jewish state. The terrorists who carried out this act had even dragged the bodies of their victims behind cars through Jerusalem to further scare Palestinians. In fact, one of their members, Menachem Begin, who later became Prime Minister, has stated that this massacre and evacuation of this village was a pivotal event in being able to move forward to establish the state of Israel.

It can be no wonder that Israel still faces problems with its own feelings of security when it began with such bloodshed. Indeed, as we learned even more of during our tour, keeping their people in a state of fear with the propaganda that they put out is a constant operation of the Israeli government. A Hebrew inscription on a rock at the site was pointed out, expressing the extremist ethnic cleansing views of a certain Rabbi Kahannah (?), stating "They must go," referring of course to the Palestinians.

This area is also one of the few sites of remaining clean springwater within the city. We could also see Jewish homes at the top of the hill. They often announce themselves prominently by numbers of Jewish flags and banners of all types flying from or draped from their buildings. I am not sure whether there was more of this at this time because we were actually visiting during the week when Israel was celebrating Holocaust Day, Memorial Day, when they remember fallen soldiers, and Independence Day. This area, on the peak of the hill, is now referred to as Giv’at Sha’ul.

The government has long wanted to destroy the homes, particularly now as a group of wealthy Jews from Manhattan want to turn the hillside into a housing complex with a shopping center. However, there are a number of forces opposed to this including:

1. Pro-Palestinian Jews who still seek justice for the Palestinians.

2. The Palestinian refugees themselves who now mostly live in areas of the city to the west.

3. A local architectural college which wants the buildings to be preserved because they are such good examples of unique and strong Palestinian architecture from the past.

4. Drug-users (!) who are the only individuals who now actually squat on the land because they feel it is more removed and somewhat of a safer haven than other areas of the city. We did see signs of life around some of the homes, such as more modern attachments and even a vehicle or two.

5. Orthodox Jews who believe they maintain part of their purity by bathing in naturally clean spring water once a week, so some of them like to come here to do that, at least the males.

With respect to point number one above, a Jewish historian at Haifa University wrote "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", which resulted in death threats for him and his family, with the result that they had to flee to England, where he became a professor at Exeter University. With respect to point number two above, it is encouraging to know that young Palestinians who have had enough of nearly 60 years of occupation and harassment are turning their fear into anger and speaking up for justice.

1.     Googling the words “Lifta Palestinian village” netted the writer 16,700 results in 43 seconds. The interested reader can read more at sites such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifta , http://www.haaretz.com/israel-s-last-remaining-abandoned-arab-village-lifta-gets-reprieve-as-judge-voids-development-plans-1.411447 , http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/29/ruined-palestinian-village-lifta-development ,

2.     You can read more about Deir Yassin at http://www.deiryassin.org

The writer was moved enough by the sight of this village and the hearing of similar stories throughout Israel-Palestine, that the following poem was penned a few days later:

Lament from Lifta

It sits

solidly and suitably built

centuries ago

The fruit trees bloom

and bear fruit in their season.

The birds sing and nest

and fly away in their time,

but the homes are empty; the doors are locked.

The owners share none of this

from where they languish under occupation

mere kilometres away,

or in refugee camp or foreign land

key in hand

waiting their return.

Lorne Brandt, 2016-5-16