Lifta (Palestinian village)

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Two-story residential building
Cross-vaulted house (Site 33)
Water basin fed by the spring, excursion destination

Lifta ( Arabic لفتا, DMG Liftā ; Hebrew ליפתא) Is a desolate fallen Palestinian village in Israel , west of Jerusalem . It had to be vacated by its residents in early 1948. The houses in the town center have remained essentially unchanged since then. In 2015, Lifta was registered by Israel on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage as a unique example of a traditional Levantine village .

Names

The village of Lifta benefits from a rich spring. It is assumed that the source of Lifta is identical to the Neftoach source mentioned in the Bible ( Jos 15.9  EU ). In Byzantine times the place was called Nephtho and under the Crusaders Clepsta . The survey carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2008 (see below), according to the final report, did not provide any evidence for the thesis that the Neftoach source mentioned in the Bible was located at this point .

Development of the village

Before the new spring basin was opened to the public, Dan Bahat examined the area around the spring in 1986 and found a grave and ceramics from the Middle Bronze Age II and Iron Age II.

A settlement already existed in the town center in the Hellenistic-Roman times. The ancient ruins were built over during the crusader era. A Franconian estate was created. This was a rectangular, massive stone house on a floor area of ​​15.2 × 18.6 meters. Olive presses also belonged to the Franconian estate.

In the Ottoman period , the large caves in the area were initially expanded for residential purposes. Then houses and agricultural facilities (for example oil presses) were built. The village expanded and the hillside development emerged, which now characterizes the village complex.

In 1596, Lifta is mentioned as a village in the Nahiya of Jerusalem. It had 396 inhabitants and paid taxes on the following agricultural products, among others: wheat, barley, olives, fruit and wine.

Lifta in the 19th century

Titus Tobler described the place as follows: “... a village in the district of Beni Mâlik, a little hour northwest of Jerusalem, lies on the northeast side of a wadi that, running down from the southeast, merges into the great valley that runs from Bêt Hanîna, and the Basically close to the latter. ... Immediately to the southeast the village has a great treasure, a spring that is quite rich even at the end of the rain-free period, which flows from a pipe into a small walled box. ”Thanks to this abundance of water, which was even brought to Jerusalem by donkey, there was in Lifta orchards with bitter oranges , lemons, apricots and pears. “The location of the place means that the houses built of small ashlar stones, more than fifty in number, are stepped on top of each other. At the bottom they form a long, for the most part arched alley. A mosque is a rarity in this village. ”Tobler noticed three layers of ancient masonry at the entrance to the village, which reminded him of the walls of Haram esch-Sharif .

Lifta in the Palestine War

Survey of Palestine (1945), Northwest Jerusalem map sheet (Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, Israeli National Library)

Before the Palestine War, around 2000 people lived in the original 450 houses . It was the largest and most important village in the Jerusalem area. Lifta was already a suburb of Jerusalem in many ways, and economic ties with the city were strong. For the farmers, the proximity to the city brought the advantage that they could offer their products there on the market. They grew grain, vegetables and fruits, olives and grapes.

During the British mandate, the place expanded in a north-easterly direction to close to the old city of Jerusalem, some of the new buildings were built in the middle of the agricultural area.

The exact circumstances when and why the villagers left Lifta during the Palestine War are presented differently.

In his preliminary report on the archaeological survey of 2008, Avi Mashiah gave the following brief information: “During the 1948 war, the village served as a base from which attacks on Jaffa-Jerusalem Street and Jewish residential areas were carried out. Lifta was abandoned in February 1948 after Lechi had carried out retaliatory attacks in the Romema area and on the outskirts (erg. Von Lifta). "

The Israeli NGO Zochrot gives the following details: Right at the beginning of the Palestine War, fighting took place on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. In December 1947, the Hagana secured western access to the city, whereby the Arab residents of Romema and Shaykh Badr had to leave their villages. Shortly afterwards, according to the Hagana documentation, the residents of Lifta also evacuated their village. According to Palestinian historian 'Arif al-'Arif, the Lifta coffee house was bombed on December 28, 1947, killing six people and wounding seven. According to a report in the New York Times , members of the Stern Gang (= Lechi) drove up by bus and opened fire on the coffee house. Most of the villagers left Lifta after this attack, and those who remained followed a little later. On February 7, 1948, David Ben Gurion announced at a meeting of the Mapai that there were no longer any “strangers” in several places, including Lifta.

The historian Benny Morris gives the following account, also based on sources: The Hagana patrols had been instructed to put up posters on the outskirts of Lifta - probably with warnings not to use force - but not to enter the village. Occasionally there were firefights with the village militia. Irgun Zwi Leumi and Lechi were more aggressive from the start. From mid-December militias from neighboring villages had taken up positions in Lifta. At the turn of the year the inhabitants suffered from a lack of bread; Women and children have left the village. In mid-January ' Abd al Qadir al Husseini visited Lifta and ordered the evacuation of women, old people and children; the men should stay. On January 29, Lechi attacked the village and destroyed three houses. In early February, most of the residents arrived in Ramallah as refugees.

Lifta (1964)

The land in the village was confiscated by the Israeli state. The two Israeli settlements Me Niftoach and Givat Shaul were built on the agricultural land of the village.

By order of the Jewish Agency , Jewish immigrants from Yemen and Iraq moved into the vacant houses in 1951. Years later, in order to get them to move out, the government had holes blown in the ceilings of the houses. The Yemeni Jews moved out, but the Jewish-Kurdish immigrants from Iraq stayed. In 2008, the authorities told them to leave the village; they lived there illegally and were not entitled to any compensation. A legal battle began. The State of Israel officially admitted for the first time that the government was responsible for the settlement of Mizrachi immigrants in abandoned Palestinian houses. From this a claim for compensation was derived for the Jewish residents of Lifta, whereupon they moved out in the summer of 2017.

Current condition

The deserted village is close to Highway 1, which connects Jerusalem with Tel Aviv , which corresponds to the historic Jaffa-Jerusalem road. There is no driveway, as the modern infrastructure is fully geared towards the new development areas. The houses are in various stages of decay. They are built of natural stone, on a square floor plan, some are two-story. The former gardens with pomegranate, almond and fig trees are still in a wild state.

One large building (site 33 of the survey) has a cross vault and is classified as older than the rest of Lifta's residential buildings.

The mosque is still preserved, the cemetery can be seen next to it. This mosque (site 10) is a one-story building divided into two wings. The western area has a mihrab and was used for prayer - the village population was almost entirely Muslim - while the eastern area is believed to be used as a madrasa or meeting room.

Ancient foundation walls were found in a large building from the Ottoman period (sites 11-13), and in some cases blocks with bosses can be seen . The archaeologists suspect that the building from the time of the Crusaders, known from the sources, was located here.

In the higher part of the village are the ruins of elegant two- and three-storey buildings, while in the vicinity of the spring the remains of simpler houses can be found, which were built without foundations and without the use of cement. The latter have partially collapsed. Hewn stones, some of them old, have been identified in secondary use in the masonry of the houses.

Lifta is a popular hiking and excursion destination for the residents of Jerusalem. Points of attraction are the pool of the spring, in which one can swim, and the diverse flora and fauna of the surrounding landscape. The former Palestinian residents of the village (Liftawis) also meet regularly in Lifta.

Construction plans and citizens' initiative "Save Lifta"

According to plans by the Jerusalem city administration, Lifta and its surrounding area are to be developed as a residential area. An apartment complex with 268 residential units, shops, public facilities, a hotel and the necessary road network are to be built here while preserving and protecting the historic center. An archaeological survey was carried out in 2008 in preparation for this construction project. The archaeologists recorded the historical structure of the Palestinian village. It turned out that the center of Lifta is much older than previously assumed, and that there were underground rooms whose existence was unknown.

A Jerusalem court temporarily stopped the large-scale construction project in 2012. A coalition of former Lifta residents, both Palestinian Liftawis and Jewish-Kurdish immigrants who had moved into some of the vacant houses since 1951, Israeli architects, peace activists and conservationists are trying to prevent the conversion into a residential area. This citizens' initiative is coordinated by Daphna Golan, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem .

Justification of the World Heritage application

In connection with the planned urban development, the entry of the village is also on the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Israeli government, as the applicant, stated in 2015 that Lifta was the only historic, intact Palestinian village. It is typical of mountain villages in the eastern Mediterranean. Just as it was left in 1948 (“as a result of historical events”), it has been preserved to this day. The building fabric of the houses is unchanged, without any newer additions. There is no new infrastructure, no added buildings, no traces of modern life at all.

Lifta is a witness of traditional village life and traditional agriculture, which means that the place fits perfectly into the landscape. But the authentic historical site is endangered today "under the historical circumstances and by the pressure of recent developments."

literature

  • Henning Niederhoff: Trialog in Yad Vashem: Palestinians, Israelis and Germans in conversation (= German-Israeli Library. Volume 4). 3. Edition. LIT Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10226-3 , pp. 107-109.

Web links

Commons : Lifta  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Othmar Keel, Max Küchler, Christoph Uehlinger: Places and landscapes of the Bible . tape 2 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1982, p. 790 .
  2. ↑ Avi Mashiah: Lifta. A Preliminary Urban Survey. In: IAA Conservation Department. Israel Antiquities Authority, 2008, accessed on November 3, 2018 (English): “Archaeological remains of the settlement Mei Niftoach, which dates to the First Temple period, were found in Lifta. This settlement is mentioned in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, as the northern border of the Tribe of Judah. The village was destroyed during the Roman invasion led by Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian. During the Byzantine period a settlement by the name of Nephtho was located there and in the Crusader period there was a village called Clepsta, from which an impressive building has survived near the village core. "
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Yehuda Dagan, Leticia Barda: Jerusalem, Lifta, Survey (Final Report). In: Hadashot Arkheologiyot. Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority, December 26, 2010, accessed November 3, 2018 .
  4. ^ Adrian J. Boas: Domestic Settings: Sources on Domestic Architecture and Day-to-Day Activities in the Crusader States . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 154.344 .
  5. ↑ a b c Dov Lieber: Remarkably kept, ancient village faces future as another kind of ghost town. In: The Times of Israel. July 2, 2017, accessed on November 3, 2018 (English, with video: Brief history of Lifta).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Lifta. In: Zochrot. Retrieved November 2, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Titus Tobler: Two books Topography of Jerusalem and its surroundings . tape 2 . Berlin 1854, p. 758-759 .
  8. ↑ a b Henning Niederhoff: Trialog in Yad Vashem: Palestinians, Israelis and Germans in conversation . S. 108 .
  9. ↑ a b Avi Mashiah: Lifta. A Preliminary Urban Survey. In: IAA Conservation Department. Israel Antiquities Authority, 2008, accessed November 3, 2018 .
  10. ^ Benny Morris: The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-00967-7 , pp. 120 .
  11. ↑ a b c d Inge Günther: Together for Lifta. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. May 6, 2017, accessed November 3, 2018 .
  12. ^ A b Nir Hasson: Defeated in Court, Lifta's Last Families to Leave Their Jerusalem-Area Homes. In: Haaretz. July 22, 2017, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Henning Niederhoff: Trialog in Yad Vashem: Palestinians, Israelis and Germans in Conversation . S. 107-108 .
  14. ↑ Henning Niederhoff: Trialog in Yad Vashem: Palestinians, Israelis and Germans in Conversation . S. 108-109 .
  15. ^ Nir Hasson: Israel Moves to Turn Deserted Palestinian Village Into Luxury Housing Project. In: Haaretz. January 21, 2011, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  16. ↑ a b c Permanent Delegation of Israel to UNESCO: Liftah (Mey Naftoah) - Traditional mountain village, Ref. 6061. In: Tentative Lists. UNESCO, February 5, 2015, accessed November 2, 2018 .

Coordinates: 31 ° 48 '  N , 35 ° 12'  E