TO THE EDITOR:
Justus Reid Weiner tells us that Edward Said invented a home in Jerusalem.
I would like to suggest that this phenomenon may be more common among
Palestinians than the one example given by Mr. Weiner. If my conjecture is
correct, we may conclude that the Palestinians' yearning for the past, real
or imagined, is so deep-seated emotionally as to make sense of Said's
invention.
I have owned a house in West Jerusalem, in a neighborhood
known as Neve Bezalel, since the late 60's. One fall morning in the early
70's, I found an Arab man at my door. He was well-dressed, spoke English
though with an accent, and was accompanied by two teenagers, who spoke good
American English. The man, in his late 40's, said he would like to show his
children the house he grew up in.
I was dumbfounded. My house is in a neighborhood that
never had Arab homeowners or even lodgers. Before purchasing and restoring
it, I had traced its ownership back to 1910, when it was built. There had
been only one family there before me, and it was definitely Jewish.
At a loss, I invited the man and his two children to
come in; he showed them the house, explaining the function of each room before,
he said, he had been forced to leave. Very strange! Most of the house did
not exist in 1948. When I purchased the property, the original floor space
was 500 square feet in all and now it is 1,800 square feet. Originally there
were two rooms on one level and now there are seven rooms on two-and-a-half
levels.
The man was polite and graceful, and his children listened
in rapt attention to his "history." I was amazed at the detail in his
descriptions of rooms that were not there in his time.
The experience was unsettling but now-in light of Said's
similar invention - I find it easier to accept.
ROBERT WERMAN
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
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TO THE EDITOR:
Let me add to Justus Reid Weiner's fine expos?. Edward Said has claimed (in
an interview quoted by Mr. Weiner) that in 1947 his family was forced to
flee its home in the Talbieh section of Jerusalem by "a Jewish-forces sound
truck warn[ing] Arabs to leave the neighborhood." I too lived in Talbieh
in 1947 and can report that this allegation is totally untrue.
At that time and throughout the entire year of 1948 I was an editor of the
Palestine Post in Jerusalem. From September 1947 until May 1948, when my
wife and I were compelled by constant Arab sniping and shelling to leave
the neighborhood, we resided in a ground-floor apartment on what is now Hovevei
Zion Street in the heart of Talbieh.
Our landlord was a fine Arab physician named Dr. Jamal. He lived around the
corner and was the first to visit me after I was hurt in the car-bombing
of the Post on February 1, 1948. During the bitter winter of 1947-48, when
our supplies were cut off by Arab forces who laid siege to the Jewish area
of Jerusalem, he supplemented our meager food with fresh eggs and vegetables
from Arab markets, and refused to take compensation.
One morning in April 1948, Dr. Jamal woke us to say that the Arab Higher
Committee (AHC), led by the Husseinis, had warned Arab residents of Talbieh
to leave immediately. The understanding was that the residents would be able
to return as conquerors as soon as the Arab forces had thrown the Jews out.
Dr. Jamal made the point repeatedly that he was leaving because of the AHC's
threats, not because of the Jews, and that he and his frail wife had no
alternative but to go.
At least until a month or so before the British left Palestine in May 1948,
Talbieh was a tightly-controlled military zone. During that period, when
I would return home in the early morning hours after putting the newspaper
to bed, I had to show my entry permit and my U.S. passport to Arab guards
serving the British. They were stationed at the corner of what are today
Jabotinsky and Alkalai Streets. A barbed-wire fence ran the entire length
of Jabotinsky Street, the east-west artery running through the
neighborhood.
Under these circumstances, and particularly with British military and their
Arab guards on hand, it would not have been possible for Jewish forces to
rout the Arab population of Talbieh. Nor was it the policy of the Jewish
leadership in Palestine to do so.
MARLIN MOSHE LEVIN
Jerusalem, Israel |
