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Hebron Old City Rehabilitation May 9, 2005
Mr. Nasser Al-Din Al-Mughrabi used to be a gardener at the ancient Ibrahimi Mosque, where it is believed that Prophet Abraham was buried along with his son, grandsons, and wives. His family has always lived in Hebron, but although the family trust owned property in the Old City, he and his immediate family of 12 have always had to meet the costs of renting in various parts of Hebron outside the boundary of the Old City. “You should have seen it before,” says Al-Mughrabi, looking up at the inside of the dome above his beautifully restored living room, “It was in appalling condition.” Families like the Al-Mughrabis had never had the money or the courage to restore the building. For in Hebron, unlike other West Bank cities like Nablus and Ramallah, Jewish settlers are living in the heart of the Old City. It is if the city of Hebron is a microcosm of the conflict in the whole society. Look out of the windows of these Palestinian homes and you see Jewish settlers and soldiers encamped in confiscated houses only meters away. This confiscation can happen on a daily basis.
The Old City of Hebron, originally built by the Canaanites, is included in the Israeli-controlled enclave of Hebron, which arose following the 1997 Hebron Redeployment Protocols. Most Palestinians live in the newer parts of town, but in the Old City, where the most financially marginalized of the Palestinian community try to live, there are Jewish settlers living in expropriated buildings around them. Five main settler enclaves in the Old City, housing only 400 settlers, mean that a direct military presence controls 40,000 Palestinians in the Israeli-allocated area. Settler destruction of the old vegetable market and Palestinian shops has brought the Palestinian Old City economy to a standstill. People are frightened to even continue living in the Old City, for fear of becoming victim to settler attack. While the Geneva Conventions state that an occupying army must protect the occupied population, Palestinians regularly make official complaints that the army is falling far short of fulfilling this role. The Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) was established out of concern over the neglect of the ancient heritage of the Old City through both lack of financial input, and residents’ fear of settlers. Abandoned buildings are easy targets to be occupied by settlers and army, even if Palestinians continue to own the title deeds.
Like other old Palestinian cities such as Jerusalem, the Old City features exquisite examples of Mamluk and Ottoman architecture, but without care and attention these can fall into rapid decay. The physical development of settlements erodes the cultural heritage of the city, a heritage shared by many faiths. The building of Tel Rumaida settlement, for example, violated heritage laws by building concrete structures on an ancient historical site. The height and modern development of tall settlement buildings are also out of keeping with the ancient shape and style of the area. International funding, for example by German and Spanish donors and implemented through international agencies like the UN Development Programme (UNDP), have enabled the HRC to carry out an extensive labor-intensive program that was a success on three levels: protecting cultural and architectural heritage, providing employment in a poverty-stricken area, and addressing the urgent housing needs of the most marginalized in Hebron. “Our key concern is to preserve Hebron as a historic center, a living city,” explains HRC chair Mr Khaled Qawasme. “We want to remind people of their heritage and show that they have something to care for and take pride in,” he said from his HRC headquarters in the Dweik Palace, a building restored and opened two years ago. “We want to convince people to live in these buildings once again, and to take pleasure from the common living that traditional housing designs encourage.”
The buildings restored in the Old City are built around the central feature of a yard with a well and the rooms circling this communal area. “People don’t live this way anymore, and the challenge we face is how to preserve a building with minimum modification to the old style, but suitable for modern living,” says Qawasme. “Many houses are in a critical state of decay. Unfortunately, we are sometimes in a position that financially we could restore the building, but the Israeli military will not give us access. However, at the moment, the demand from the people is higher than the speed we can work,” he said with a smile. The family of Mr. Issam Al-Batsh El-Hussein was already living in their rented Old City home, but it was in appalling conditions unsuitable for his family of six. While restoration was taking place, they moved temporarily next door. Now they are back in their own transformed home. Sitting in the living room, they can look out onto a beautifully formed courtyard area instead of worrying about the paint and dust crumbling off the walls.
The idea has gone down well with many former residents of the city who fled as settlements increased. While the threat from the settlements remains, there will always be caution, but the HRC remains ever hopeful of more peaceful days for the people of the Old City. Many of the people whom they have helped to return, like the Al-Mughrabi family, are actually returning to their own family property, which means that in such hard times they do not have to look for money for rent. Others, like the El-Hussein family, are paying rent in restored buildings, but it is much lower than the equivalent that they would have to pay in the newer areas of the city. The project is helping to reinstall a sense of pride in people’s own family and city history. Qawasme is in no doubt that there is a growing change in attitude on the ground towards the value of restoration and preservation. The HRC work, however, is blighted by regular curfews and closure of the city that prevent access of workers and building materials. Between November 2002 and June 2003, for example, there were around 165 days of curfew. In addition to curfew, soldiers informed contractors that they were not permitted to work in the Old City. However, such orders were never followed up by written decree, so at quieter times the work can proceed. The project made an impact on the dire employment situation, creating thousands of working days for unemployed laborers. There is still plenty more work to be done in the Old City, but several million dollars in aid has enabled a massive project to be undertaken. Not only is the Old City slowly regaining its pride, but the project is addressing a key social issue of inadequate housing at the same time. Click here to watch a presentation on the illegal activity of Jewish settlers in the Old City of Hebron. Resources: External links last accessed January 18, 2005.
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