Lifta
‘And then Ben-Gurion lays down as policy that we have to demolish [the villages] so they won’t have anywhere to return to… so I mobilized all the engineering battalions of the Central command, and within 48 hours I knocked all those villages to the ground. Period… Without hesitation. That was the policy.’
- Major General Abraham Tamir ,from one of many concealed archival documents on the expulsion of Palestinians in 1947-48. (Source - Haaretz)
We are walking down a steep path toward the ruins of the Palestinian Village of Lifta with Umar of the Israeli NGO Zochrot. The sign points to ‘En Neftoah (Lifta). Umar describes this as Judaization - the replacement of Palestinian names with biblical names that both erase Palestinian history and support the Israeli claim of historic entitlement to this land.
Lifta is a complex of old stone buildings, built 300-400 years ago. You don’t realize from above the extent or size of the homes. In 1947 there were 3,000 residents. By the end of January of 1948 there were none.
Lifta is not alone. There is an ugly truth about the origin of the State of Israel. If one is to have a Jewish state, then there must be a majority Jewish population. This was not the case in 1947, when Palestinians outnumbered Jews. This math of this problem leads directly to its only solution - that of ethnic cleansing.
A conservative estimate is that over 500 Palestinian villages were subsequently depopulated and 700,000 people were sent into exile as refugees. This was accomplished through a campaign of violence and threats, mostly carried out by the Israeli militias, of which the Irgun is the most well known.
But in another respect , Lifta is unusual. Most depopulated Palestinian villages have since been destroyed, either built over with modern Israeli settlements, or declared nature reserves with environmentally friendly plantings. Either way, the physical reminder of what was there has been erased.
Israelis lived in Lifta for 20 years after it had been cleansed of Palestinians. Once they had moved to a newer settlement the ‘6036’ plan was to build on top of these ruins, but a local effort called, ‘Save Lifta’ fought the demolition on legal grounds. This remains in the courts.
In the meantime it is public land. We walk down the rocky ground to the pools created by the springs, the lifeblood of the village. Umar describes to us how the villagers used one pool for cleaning clothes, another for watering their animals. It was a place of community gathering.
Today, we come upon a group of male Hassidic Jews. As incongruous as this sounds, they are in and around the pool, naked except for underwear, their formal clothes strewn around. They are having a good time. This isn’t the only desecration of this place.
Umar takes us to an ancient stone Mosque that dates back to the year 1,200. Clearly it was once impressive, but is now in disrepair. Worse, the walls are riddled with graffiti. Local Palestinians have offered to maintain the Mosque, but have not been granted permission by the Israeli authorities to do so. Clearly, they do not care about the graffiti. Would they permit this to be done to an ancient synagogue?
The experience is one of sadness, but the resistance to the erasure of memory is hopeful. The truth of the past cannot be buried forever under concrete and plants, and until that truth is addressed there can be neither justice nor peace.