Help save the Palestinian village of Lifta from total destruction
By Guest Post • Nov 26th, 2009 at 23:18 • Category: Action Alert, Culture and Heritage, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Petitions, Zionism
Lifta, a most picturesque Palestinian village, lies on the slopes of West Jerusalem below the highway linking it to Tel-Aviv. It has been abandoned since the invading Hagana underground forces backed by the Stern Gang drove the last of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948 during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
It was the one single event which changed the nature of the place and the whole region. Although dozens of houses were destroyed, many of them still remain poised on the landscape.
Lifta is considered by many as a rare and fine example of Palestinian rural architecture with narrow streets aligned with the slopes of the mountains around it. Its cubist forms are a wonderful manifestation of the mastery of the Palestinian stone masons who were the indigenous owners and builders of these houses.
Today Lifta is more or less a ghost town suspended in space and remains deserted despite the fact that most of its original Palestinian inhabitants live in the surrounding communities. The Israeli authorities refuse to allow them to return.
Now the Jerusalem Municipality has produced plans to turn Lifta into a luxurious and exclusive Jewish development – reinventing its history in the process.
The Plan, numbered 6036, was designed by two architectural offices: G. Kartas – S. Grueg and S. Ahronson, as part of the “local space planning of Jerusalem”. The plan was submitted on June 28, 2004, and according to its title refers to “The Spring of National”. The plan, submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality Planning Committee in 2004, was approved by a regional committee.
In 2005, objections to the Plan were raised by several groups, including Bimkom (alternative center for Israeli planning) and the representatives of the regional committee of the organization and construction for the Al Quds-Jerusalem area.
Main Issues:
• The original Palestinian inhabitants of Lifta, their memories of the village, their exile and longing to return to Lifta are not mentioned, or even considered by the Municipality Master Plan.
• Lifta captures the moment of destruction of Palestinian life in 1948. Its 3,000 original inhabitants fled – mostly to East Jerusalem and to the Ramallah area. However, unlike many of the 530 Palestinian villages and towns conquered and bulldozed during the war of 1947/48, a few of Lifta’s houses remain almost intact, yet deserted and declared ‘officially’ resettled.
• These set of circumstances have placed Lifta in a unique position: its original inhabitants are still around, living in the OPT and the Chicago area with a desire that the injustices done in 1948 be acknowledged and repaired.
• In Israel, renovation projects are frequently used to build a national narrative, ignoring the deep contradictions between planning and human rights that inevitably arise out of such initiatives.
• With Lifta, we have a place where a new national transformation results in the erasure of another’ people’s memory as evidenced in the new Masterplan.
• Lifta is a tangible embodiment of the larger context of events in the region during 1947/48. Lifta can be a vital place for contemplating and understanding the concept of historical continuity.
• Lifta’s heritage is a story of a multicultural society, embracing a strong sense of an ethnically and religiously diverse community of Muslims, Jews and Christians which encapsulated a healthy civil equality amongst its inhabitants and the neighbouring communities. If Lifta were to be rejuvenated with due care to preserving its memory, it could offer a unique opportunity for the start of a new dialogue towards a conciliatory outcome.
Petition’s Aim:
This petition aims to save Lifta through the World Monuments Fund , amongst others, and to draw attention to this site which has been threatened by neglect, vandalism and forced occupation by extremist settlers.
Sign the petition
Please also visit the sponsor: http://www.1948.org.uk/
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Bimkom's full name is Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights. It's mission is to advance human rights in the field of planning in Israel and the OPT.
LIFTA <3
I sincerley hope and pray that the City of Lifta will be left untouched and preserved as this is unique city and opportunity to allow people's hearts to heal and to enusre this unique city is protected by UNESCO as a city that cannot be changed and that it is preserved and the inhabitants are allowed to return to their homes to be healed from the torments caused by the Zionist oppressors.Please let the UNESCO air their disgust and resentment of this idiotic plan of changing the face and history of this unique city.
What a shame on the oppressors trying every move to change the history of this holy land.If South Africa could be changed and handed over to its indegenous people so can change take place in the holy land for existence of its population of indegenous people and the real owners of this land and allowing all other races to exist and live in harmony.
UNESCO this is your chance to prove that you care.Please help in ensuring this is achieved by exposure to the rest of the world that this rogue regime in the Holy Land has to go and new Government takes its place.
Amen.
EAPPI's new podcast looks at ongoing ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem. It didn't all end in 1948 – http://www.eappi.org/en/photos-videos/photos.html. Also sign up for Tweets – http://www.twitter.com/eappi.
I really wish and pray for the palestinian people that they can have their land back en return to a normal life without any agression
We shall never forget. Lifta is a perpetual reminder for the invaders that those who inhabited these homes shall be back .
Israel must adhere to democratic principles and face any criticism without resorting to calling their critics anti semites. I am a Jew and I criticize Israel and I am NOT an anti semite !!!!!!
No peace without justice!
Shame on the democratic civilized human countries that are dictatorial, barbaric and inhuman to the core. Peoples and countries that believe they are above the law and no one can make them pay for their crimes have not studied history (recent and old) and out to be reminded of :
"Those who put their privileges above their "principles" will soon lose both."
no peace and no end to terrorism unless israeal stop their criminal acts against the palestenian peaple and return the loccupied land based on resolution 238 and 242 that was adopted by united nation in 1967. It is time for the world leaders to really wake up and stop the agressive behavior in the middle east