Orient House
The Orienthaus ( English Orient House , Arabic بيت الشرق, DMG Bait aš-Šarq ) is located in East Jerusalem in the American Colony district at Abu Ubaida street 8. From 1983 to 2001 it was the headquarters of the PLO in Jerusalem.
history
The house was built in 1897 by Ismail Musa al-Husaini, whose father Musa Kazim al-Husaini was Mayor of Jerusalem from 1918 to 1920 , in the Arabic style. The respected Husaini family repeatedly hosted important guests, such as the German Emperor Wilhelm II on his Palestine trip in 1898 or the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (1936).
In 1945 Ismail Husaini died and bequeathed the house to his son Ibrahim, who transformed it into the hotel "The New Orient House". It was one of the first hotels in East Jerusalem. From 1949 to 1950, it housed the UNRWA quarter for the Jordan-occupied part of Jerusalem. After the Six Day War in 1967 the hotel was closed, the house was used privately, one floor was sublet and deteriorated more and more.
In 1983 Faisal al-Husaini opened the Arab Studies Society in the house, which collected statistical data on the Palestinians. In 1988 the Israelis closed the house "for security reasons" because of Hussaini's activities for the PLO and the First Intifada .
It was renovated in 1992 and reopened on October 26th of the same year. The building then took on an important diplomatic role again, also for the peace process . Before the introduction of Palestinian autonomy, Sari Nusseibeh was given an office there for his working groups to prepare the future ministries.
Faisal Husaini became the official representative of the PLO and the Orienthaus developed into the secret town hall of East Jerusalem and the secret representation of the PLO in Jerusalem. From the summer of 1999, Israel intensified its efforts to end the illegal activities of the Palestinian Authority in the Orient House. Foreign diplomats were asked to stop using the house for meetings. There were repeated attempts to officially close the house, demonstrators gathered in the courtyard and diplomats then demonstratively drove up.
Faisal Husaini died on May 31, 2001. In response to the suicide bombing in the Pizzeria Sbarro which left 16 dead during the second Intifada , the Orienthaus was closed by the police on August 10, 2001. It was searched and Faisal Hussaini's computers, files and personal belongings were confiscated.
Since then there have been repeated efforts to reopen the Orient House, but Israel refuses to consent. In November 2008, the EU also started an initiative with a corresponding demand on Israel. In January 2010 there was also a decision by the Middle East Quartet to ask Israel to allow the reopening.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Israel closes the Orient-Haus In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger .de, July 10, 2001, accessed on August 2, 2018.
- ↑ EU / French Foreign Ministry paper "worries" ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Haaretz article dated December 1, 2008.
- ↑ Quartet suggests reopening PLO institutions in East ... ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Haaretz article from January 17, 2010.
Coordinates: 31 ° 47 ′ 20.2 " N , 35 ° 13 ′ 48.3" E