The Lost City of Gaza (Part 1)
The Lost City of Gaza (Part 1)
By: Jehad Abusalim
Old cities are the jewels of any society or
civilization. With their narrow alleys, houses, castles, worship places, and markets,
old cities tell whoever walks through many stories, not only about the past,
but also about the present, and the future. While those who built every single
stone of these cities rest in peace under the ground, the ruins they left
behind them stand for hundreds of years to narrate the stories of those who
passed away: stories of love, hatred, peace, war, understanding, etc. Indeed,
these cities in every single part of our world are eternal histories that
should be preserved and protected.
Talking about the value old cities is a long
talk. These places, needless to say, are extremely important not only for their
historical value, but also for their human meanings. What I mean by ‘human
meanings’ here is the valuable heritage of ‘human interaction’ within the bricks
of these cities. In fact, interaction that used to take place within the
context of vibrant cities like Jerusalem, Constantinople, Cairo, or any other city
in the Middle East is very important because such places witnessed the rise and
fall of hundreds of human civilizations.
In historical Palestine, old cities received
their share of suffering due to the ongoing occupation and conflict. In fact, old
cities, like Jerusalem and Hebron are raging centers of conflict between religions,
ideologies, cultures, and identities. I
can understand that such conflicts can erupt due to ideological or religious
tensions related to these places and lead to destroying parts of these cities,
but what is completely not understood for me is how a city like Gaza, with no
conflicts over its old city, had lost the majority of its ancient face during
the Israeli occupation (1967-1994).
Yes. Gaza is neither a refugee camp nor a heap
of cement as always portrayed in the media. On the contrary, Gaza is a historic
city with a 5,000 years old history, making it one of the oldest cities in the world[1]. The
coastal city which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea witnessed continuous
settlement from the Bronze Age[2]. Indeed,
one small piece of writing will never be sufficient to even summarize the story
of Gaza’s history in few lines. Gaza is almost there when we read the history
of every well-known civilization in mankind’s history: Canaanites, Hyksos,
Ancient Egyptians, Philistines,
Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Roman Byzantines,
Arab Muslims, Crusaders, Ottomans and many others.
So, if Gaza has this long history with all
these civilizations passed by, why we only see cement, cement, and cement in
Gaza? Where did the archeological and ancient face of Gaza go? Who is
responsible for losing huge parts of the “old city of Gaza”? What really
happened?
WWI Was the Beginning
The photo below which was
taken between the years (1862-1863) by the English photographer Francis Frith
was a characteristic of walled town during the Ottoman period, with typical
urban components such as the great mosque, churches, baths, and sabil water
sources (free drinking water).
Source: (the New York Public
Library's Digital Library under the strucID 111264)
Until the end of the Ottoman
rule, Gaza relatively remained as it used to look in the photo above. By the
end of WWI, Gaza was included in the British mandate of Palestine. During WWI,
Gaza suffered significant damage due to fighting between the Ottoman and
British forces.
Gaza in the Aftermath of
Ottoman-British Fighting – WWI (Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/americancolony/amcolony-ww1.html)
As can be noted from the
photograph above, Gaza suffered massive destruction due to bombing and
explosions. The great mosque of Gaza lost its minaret besides fatal destruction
of its downtown, including its old souk (old market) which dates back to
the Mamluk era.
Gaza in the Aftermath of
Ottoman-British Fighting – WWI (The destroyed minaret of the old mosque appears on the right)
(Source: Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA)
The minaret was rebuilt after
the war as we can note in a photograph was taken in the 1940s. However, Gaza
did not completely lose its ancient antiquarian face. With its grand mosque stands
in the middle of the Gaza downtown, the historic city was still connected to
its long history.
Gaza between 1940 and 1946-
(Source: Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA)
WWII, the Arab-Zionist conflict, and Egyptian Administration
Luckily, Gaza was a little
far from the fronts of WWII and even the turmoil resulted from the Arab-Jewish
conflict in Palestine. After the end of WWI, Palestine became under British
Mandate. The British were committed to the establishment of a Jewish homeland
in Palestine. A step was not welcomed by the Palestinian Arabs and led to a
long bloody conflict which began with the early signs of the Zionist project in
Palestine. However, the concentration of Zionist colonies and settlements was from
Northern Palestine in the Galilee to Tel-Aviv, the coastal city, which is located
in the far north from Gaza.
Thus, Gaza survived
the fighting of WWII because no direct clash took place in Palestine between any
of the conflicting countries as well as surviving the Arab-Jewish conflict
which ended by the establishment of an Israeli state on 78% of the lands of
historical Palestine in 1948.
In the aftermath of the war, the
West Bank, including East Jerusalem were annexed to the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan, while Gaza was subjected to an Egyptian administration which lasted
until Arab states lost the 1967 six days war.
Gaza in the 1950s-60s under
the Egyptian Administration – No Significant Change in the Old City (Source:
Web)
Gaza Under the Israeli
Occupation: Obliteration of the Historic Face of Gaza
When describing the current
status of the old parts of Gaza city, one word can describe how it looks like:
gray. Gray is the color of concrete bricks and buildings that were built over
the ruins of the old city of Gaza. The city has lost the majority of its
ancient face. One can rarely see brown or yellow bricks that compose old houses
and buildings. How did this happened?
I met a Greek Orthodox Palestinian
man living near the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox church in Gaza,
which recently celebrated its 1,606th year. The church is few minutes far from
the Grand mosque. I asked him how the city lost its ancient face.
“It all happened during the years of the
occupation. Many houses and places were destroyed as a result of orders from
the municipality” he said. The man told me that Gaza municipality couldn’t do
anything as it was subjected to the Israelis. “The alleys were narrow and the
municipality wanted to expand the width of the streets, that’s why old neighborhoods
were destroyed” He added.
According to testimonies by old city residents,
destruction of old face of the city took place during the occupation time, but
on gradual basis. After destroying old houses and expanding alleys, people had
to replace their homes by building concrete houses on the ruins of ancient
Gaza.
The following photographs describe the current
status of old neighborhoods in old Gaza:
This photo was taken by a
friend of mine of in the alley that leads to St.
Porphyrius church in the heart of old Gaza. The two orange lines show an approximate
width of how alleys used to be before the expansion by the municipality during
Israel’s occupation of Gaza. The two buildings on both sides stand on the newly
expanded sides of the alley.
This concrete building (which
is very ugly) stands on the ruins of an old antique house. As we can see, the
house was destroyed in order to expand the street, and the new building was
established on its remaining part.
Remains of an old building:
completely abandoned, ignored, and forgotten. (We are also guilty)
Speechless.
To be continued..
[1] Abu-Lughod, Janet L.; Dumper, Michael (2007), Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5
[2] Filfil, Rania; Louton, Barbara (September 2008). "The Other Face of Gaza: The Gaza Continuum". This Week in Palestine. This Week in Palestine.
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