By Huda Imam
JERUSALEM: “Another Palestinian symbol is being demolished today in Jerusalem!”
It’s an early Sunday morning in January, misty skies cover Jerusalem and my son wakes me up saying: “Mama, they are demolishing the Shepherd Hotel.”
I was born and continue to live on a quiet residential street of Sheikh Jarrah, Baybers Street (which references the Mamluk Al-Thaher Baybers). As a child, I remember my father’s story about the Muslim conqueror Salah Eddine Al-Ayyoubi who asked his surgeon who lived in this neighborhood, across the street from our home, to cure Richard the Lion Heart. That was in 1187 in Jerusalem. Amazing, how they were enemies at war and yet… This story about Salah Eddine always impressed me, probably because of the thirst Palestinians have today for a brave, yet kind and humane leader to rescue Jerusalem and its people from bulldozers.
Walking along the road in this once safe, residential Palestinian quarter, named in honor of Sheikh Jarrah, I recall other family stories of Issaf Nashashibi, who invited the likes of al-Rasafi, Khalil Sakakini, and Touqan to cultural evenings in his blue mosaic palace. I remember where Musa Alami, a brilliant Palestinian who played a key role under the British Mandate, also spent his days in the Mashrou’ al-Inshai’, with judge Nihad Jarallah, and the antiquary Victor Hallak and even more Palestinian Jerusalemite legacies.
Today, as I walk along the streets of Sheikh Jarrah, I spot huge ugly buildings: Israeli police headquarters built on the skeleton and foundations of a hospital, along the typically Jerusalem slope where we used to sled as children when it snowed.
The quiet of morning is broken by the sounds of Israeli intelligence officers coming from the home they confiscated as an office in 1967. The house belongs to the Murad family, and was rented by the Saudi Arabian consulate. Another conquest, another property and again — as in 1948 — the “absentee law” is applied even when owners are present.
What’s left of this neighborhood? A few Palestinian families who every day fear being thrown out, together with the nine “loyal” consulates: the French, Belgian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Italian, British, US and Swedish, respecting the city’s “corpus separatum” — and let’s not forget the symbolic office of the European Union.
What’s a Palestinian state worth without the people of Sheikh Jarrah, Wadi Joz and the Mount of Olives?
What is its capital worth when the Old City is full of Jewish settlers? When extremist Jewish families are invited to dance in the streets of Tariq al-Wad, Souq Aftimos and Bab Khan al-Zeit to celebrate “Yom Yerushalayem” (“Jerusalem Day”) when Palestinians who happen to live in Gaza and the West Bank, today the suburbs of Jerusalem, cannot even dream of reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Sept il-Noor (Saturday of Light) or the al-Aqsa Mosque on Lailat al-Qadr (Night of Power)?
What’s a Palestinian state worth when its capital’s university is beyond two walls?
What’s a state worth without freedom of education and or freedom of movement?
What does a Palestinian state mean to Jerusalemites obsessed with keeping their blue Israeli identity cards that actually only give them the “privilege” to be considered “tourists” or temporary residents in their own city?
Despite all this injustice on the ground aimed at deleting Palestinian-hood and the identity of the past and present, with a Museum of Tolerance being built on a seventh century Islamic cemetery — where Jamal Eddine my grandfather is buried — with house demolitions, identity and land confiscations practiced every day, I want to believe in a better future!
Despite the exhaustion of peace initiatives and the compromises made by the Palestinian leadership, the Arab Peace Initiative is a unique opportunity. The fact that Israel did not grasp it proves that neither its government nor its people have the good will to live side-by-side with Palestinians. Instead, Israel acts to try to make peace with the Arab world, secure its borders and develop its economy, casting Palestinians aside.
It requires bravery and humanity to bring justice, equality and freedom — this kind of peace begins with a Palestinian state in Jerusalem.
Huda Imam is general director of the Center of Jerusalem Studies, al-Quds University. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with bitterlemons-api.org
