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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
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| East Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim (from Kidron Valley near Gei-Hi•nomꞋ SE of city, looking north) – 1. Ir Dâ•widꞋ & Kᵊphâr ha-Shi•loꞋakh; 2. hâ-Ir hâ-A•tiq•âhꞋ & Har ha-BaꞋyit; 3. Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus; 4. Har ha-Zeit•imꞋ |
2004.04.07 Nadav Shragai, hâ-ÂrꞋëtz, – When the [Tei•mân•imꞋ returned to Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim in 1882 C.E.] 122 years ago and sought to settle inside its walls, the veteran residents doubted they were really Jews. The [Tei•mân•imꞋ], who had walked all the way through the deserts, were bedraggled, dirty, hungry and sick – and were offended by the doubts. But they did not give up their dream of [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. They settled in caves on the slopes of Har ha-Zeit•imꞋ, near [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh]. Rabbi Shalom al-Sheikh described them then as "lost and abandoned in the field, wrapped in hunger large and small, the elderly and babies, without a slice of bread among them."
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 Ir Dâ•widꞋ Model, approx. same view during time of 2nd Beit ha-Mi•qᵊdâshꞋ (base visible at top) |
One [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim Hebrew semi-monthly newspaper, äÇçÂáÇöÌÆìÆú, 1871-1910] wrote about them – and for them. Its editor, Yi•sᵊr•â•eilꞋ Dov ["Bear"] Fromkin, founded the Society to Help, which built what became known as the [Tei•mân•iꞋ] Village of KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh] for them. Rabbi Boaz ha-Bavli donated the first land for the project, some 8,000 square cubits. And in 1885, the first three houses were dedicated. Six years later there were 65 houses. Over the years, more land was bought and the neighborhood grew. The Jews of the [Tei•mân•iꞋ] Village built their homes themselves. "Building stones on camels' backs, water on the backs of camels," wrote Mosheh Yᵊhud, born in [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh], and author Yisrâeil Zarhi wrote about "the builders at work under the moon and the stars, stone by stone, floor by floor."
Simkhah Khazi, 75, whose parents were born in the [Tei•mân•iꞋ KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh], remembers the neighborhood and its alleyways, and the house built by her grandfather, one of the founders of the neighborhood. A few years ago, people from AtërꞋët Kohanim (an Old City yeshivah and settlement group operating in East [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]) approached Khazi, who lives in Rosh ha-'Ayin, and took her to the rubble remains of the [Tei•mân•iꞋ] neighborhood. They asked her to help them map the area. Khazi happily helped out. Most of her friends did the same. She remembers good relations between Jews and Arabs in the neighborhood. She hopes it will be possible to resurrect those days in the future, "maybe after the Arab neighbors get used to the sight of the renewed Jewish presence in the [Tei•mân•iꞋ] Village area," which began last week.
The reality that Khazi remembers lasted in the [Tei•mân•iꞋ] Village until [the Arab riots of] 1929. By 1938, the 40 families that survived the riots were forced out. The British authorities gave the [Tei•mân•imꞋ] documents saying they would be allowed to return when the situation improved. But the situation did not improve, the Jews did not return and the British left, too. Yitzkhaq Bën-Tzvi tried to move Jews back into [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh] and after 1967, Minister Yisrâeil Yᵊshayâhu tried to resurrect the Jewish community there, but then premier Leivi Ëshkol was sympathetic and nothing more.
In a normal situation, the Israeli government should have undertaken the mission as it did other missions in [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim]. But it left the job of settling the difficult and most significant areas of [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] – [hâ-Ir hâ-A•tiq•âhꞋ] outside the Jewish Quarter, [Ir Dâ•widꞋ], [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh], and Har ha-Zeit•imꞋ – to a handful of people obsessed with the issue. They remind us over and over what we have managed to forget: [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] will not be united only by habit and slogans. Those who want the city will have to struggle for it. The Palebanis understood this a long time ago. In the last decade they have campaigned for [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] as a people conducting a war for their identity. On our side, on this point, we are feeble and weak. Too many in Israeli society nowadays are not ready to pay any price for any thing. Too many are ready to pay almost any price, as long as they can avoid difficulty or complications that require meeting a challenge.
In such a society, those ready to sacrifice, suffer and make an effort something that was the province of many appear to be strange. Thus, an act of Zionist settlement, which in the past we would have welcomed and blessed, has been turned into a provocation. Those who oppose dividing [Yᵊru•shâ•laꞋyim] should now support the settlement enterprise in [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh] and Ir Dâ•widꞋ areas, and support Jewish territorial contiguity around [hâ-Ir hâ-A•tiq•âhꞋ]. None of the dire and dark predictions that were made when [Har ha-BaꞋyit] was reopened to Jews or when the new Jewish settlements went up at Har Homa and Ras el-Amud, have come true.
In [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh]'s south, where Jews now live, the opposite has happened. Over the years it has turned out that the reality Khazi remembers from her childhood is possible nowadays and that the face of Jewish settlement in the [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh] area is much softer than in Khë•vᵊr•onꞋ. Relations and bonds have formed between Jew and Arab in [KᵊpharꞋ ha-Shi•loꞋakh] and in the nearby Muslim Quarter. Not much is heard about it, mostly because too detailed a public report of it could harm the Arab side. The fact that the new settlement areas were bought at full price, and not expropriated (as the government does) also contributed to the calm. Only the terror gang from Tunis and the delusional supporters of Oslo have tried undermining that reality, which is being resurrected under much more difficult conditions.
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