Gaza, Palestine 1862-1863 (Photo: Francis Frith /Source: New York Public Library’s Digital Library under the strucID 111264)
This is crossposted at The Palestine Project
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 above 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).
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: Library of Congress )
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 . . .
Notes
[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-
[2] Filfil, Rania; Louton, Barbara (September 2008). “The Other Face of Gaza: The Gaza Continuum”. This Week in Palestine. This Week in Palestine.
Requiring that streets be expanded is not exactly tyranny.
How come they rebuilt with gray cinder blocks? Couldn’t they paint the cinder blocks, or reface them with siding?
Other than that, great history.
I love how amidst the mess israel and the internal division there are ppl like Jehad who still do not get distracted by that and still draw our attention to such important issues. I can’t wait for part 2.
Thank you, Jehad. Very informative article. Americans need to know this kind of information. We already have Shoah museums all over America and in every school book.
An ancient synagogue mosaic from the Byzantine period found in Gaza in 1965 prominently displayed David wearing a crown and playing a lyre. A Hebrew inscription identifies the biblical king. Shortly after the mosaic’s discovery, David’s face was gouged out. When the Israelis captured the area in the 1967 Six-Day War, they brought what remained to the Israel Museum.
The Great Mosque of Gaza was originally built as a Crusader church and later converted into a mosque. Some of the upper columns were taken from an ancient synagogue. We know this because on one of these columns were engraved Jewish symbols, the same ones that appeared on the mosaic floor of the Jericho synagogue…. enclosed in a circular wreath near the top of the column was a three-footed menorah, a shofar and a lulav. Below the wreath was a Hebrew and Greek inscription memorializing a donor to the synagogue…. “When I visited the mosque in 1973, this was all still on the column.… When I returned to Gaza in 1996, it had all been erased and the stone smoothed over. This could not have been done easily; it obviously required great effort….”– Hershel Shanks, “Holy Targets – Joseph’s Tomb Is Just the Latest,” Biblical Archeology Review, January/February 2001
Uhh…. Maybe the roads were widened in Gaza to allow for automobile traffic?