![]() ![]() Almost 33% of the land in West Jerusalem in the pre-mandate period had been owned by Palestinians, a fact which made it hard for the evicted Palestinians to accept Israeli control in the West. Īrabs living in such western Jerusalem neighbourhoods as Katamon or Malha were forced to leave the same fate befell Jews in the eastern areas, including the Old City of Jerusalem and Silwan. In December 1949, it was officially decided to transfer the institutions of the Government of Israel to Jerusalem. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine planned a " corpus separatum" for Jerusalem and its environs as an international city. Palmach soldiers attack Arab positions at St Symeon ("San Simon") Monastery in Katamon, Jerusalem, April 1948 (battle reconstruction) Many were taken from the homes of Palestinian writers and scholars in Qatamon, Bak'a and Musrara. The battalion commander, his deputy, they all failed in this regard.” Īfter this widespread looting, Israeli institutions managed to gather in around 30,000 books, mostly in Arabic, dealing with Islamic law, Qur’anic exegesis and translations of European literature, together with thousands of works from the holdings of churches and schools. I got control of myself in time and shackled my desire …. It’s hard to imagine the great riches that were found in all the homes …. This rapaciousness attacked me as well and I could almost not hold myself back …. ![]() Every home was scoured and searched, and people found in some cases produce, in others valuable objects. The greed for property encompassed everyone. ![]() “Everyone was swept up, privates and officers alike …. Moshe Salomon, a commander with the Etzioni Brigade’s Moriah Battalion, described the massive looting that took place in the Arab middle-class quarter of Qatamon: The Jordanians expelled a Jewish community of some 1,500 from the Old City. Following the war, Jerusalem was divided into two parts: the western portion, from which it is estimated 30,000 Arabs had fled or been evicted, came under Israeli rule, while East Jerusalem came under Jordanian rule and was populated mainly by Palestinian Muslims and Christians. By the end of hostilities, only approximately 750 non-Jews remained in the area's Arab sector, mostly Greeks in the "Greek colony" neighborhood. Prior to the 1948 Palestine war, the area of West Jerusalem held one of the wealthiest Arab communities, numbering some 28,000 people, in the region. Map illustrating Jewish proposals for partition of Jerusalem, presented to the 1938 Woodhead Commission. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |