By Miri -
Until the end of the 1960s
Palestinian space in Israel was pretty much neglected by the
government and left to the processes of urban
disintegration. With the realisation of the high value of real
estate, coupled with a growing interest of national-religious
settlers to reinstate the Jewish character of the “mixed cities”
in Israel, the Palestinian residents of places like Jaffa, Lydda, and
Acre came under increasing threat to loose their homes and be
displaced once again.
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Old City of Acre |
Acre was formerly a
predominantly Palestinian town of approximately 15,000 inhabitants.
During the war of 1948 the city was almost completely depopulated,
except for some 3,000 Palestinians who sought shelter in the old city
and remained there. Shortly after, large waves of newly arrived
Jewish immigrants mainly from Arab countries were called upon to
settle down in the abandoned buildings, and like in other mixed cities,
transformed Acre into a predominantly Jewish town. By now
Palestinian citizens make up around 30% of the 53,000 inhabitants, yet in the
old city, declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 2001, they
still constitute a 100% majority. Yet, as we will see in the following article the Palestinian presence here is also
increasingly challenged by the twin forces of Jewish
investors/gentrifiers and the settler movement.
Selling Off the Old
City of Acre
In 1967 the Israeli government established the Old Acre
Development Company with the goal of “rebranding”
the old city of Acre. Obviously, the relatively impoverished
Palestinian residents are viewed as an obstacle on the path of
transforming the old city into a picturesque tourist site and
therefore increasing efforts started to be channelled into having them
removed. Due to Israel's Absentee Property Law, which stipulates that
all land abandoned by Palestinian refugees in 1948 should be passed
into the control of the Israeli government, 95% of the residents in
Acre's old city do not own their homes, but rent them from a
government company called Amidar. Amidar imposes severe restrictions
on renovations or any other alterations of the buildings, and is
quick to use any violation of those rules as a pretext to evict the
residents. While Amidar uses a variety of methods to oust the Palestinian residents are from the old city, the company keeps on selling more and more
property to Jewish Israeli investors without even notifying Palestinians of the tenders.
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Khan al-Umdan, Old City of Acre |
Many of those buildings are of historical value, such as the
Efendi Palace, which has already been transformed into a luxurious boutique
hotel. Even the Khan al-Umdan, also
known as the “Caravanserai of the Pillars”, the largest and best
preserved khans in the region, was offered for development as hotel
and commercial space. Until then the khan was used communally by
Palestinian residents as a cultural space for festivals and children
summer camps. Fortunately, a neighbourhood association, which set out
to fight the discriminatory sellout of the old city of Acre, recently achieved a
victory in court and managed to halt the tendering process. Yet as
the association's lawyer Nora Ashqar stated, the threat to the
Khan al-Umdan had been just one example of a wider trend of Israeli
gentrification in the city.
Enter the Settlers...
During the past two
decades West Bank settler movements started engaging in programmes to
"reclaim" mixed cities, such as Jaffa, Lydda, Ramle and
also Acre, in order to strengthen the “Jewish character” of those
cities. In Acre specifically those settlers were spearheaded by a
movement called "Ometz" ("courage"), considered
to be the driving force behind the radical settlers in Hebron.
Settling down in Acre in 1997, “Ometz” has been exploiting the
economic hardship of the Jewish population of Acre in order to
mobilise them against the Palestinian population.
Ometz is reportedly
supported by Acre's chief Rabbi who sees “the creeping Arab
occupation” of the city as “the real problem”. He talks about
Arab conspiracies of conquering the city from the Jews, and
-subconsciously or not - projects the very Jewish settler pattern
upon the Palestinian residents.
Ometz was soon joined by
more national-religious Jews who in 2003 opened the Yeshiva “Northern
Wind” and demanded that the Jewish [sic!] city of Acre needs to be
returned to its former glory. Northern Wind is mainly engaged in
missionary work, and in Judaising the Jewish residents of Acre; its activists
even operate a “Jewish Route” through the old city, a guided
tour, which omits everything but the Jewish history of a town, whose
history goes back to the Bronze Age.
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Palestinian couple in their burnt out home, Acre, 2008 |
Finally in 2008 the
situation escalated during the high Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
After a Palestinian resident of Acre was spotted driving his car
(which is legally forbidden on Yom Kippur), he was fiercely attacked by a group of Jewish youth and could only barely escape by
seeking shelter in a relative's home, which was thereafter besieged
by the rioting youth. After the holiday ended an estimated number of
1,500 Jewish rioters started rampaging the streets of mixed
neighbourhoods of the city, attacking Palestinian cars and passers-by,
and shouting slogans like “Death to Arabs”. Although the Palestinian
who drove the car officially apologised for disregarding the
prohibition on driving on the high holiday, the riots continued for
days and a number of Palestinian homes were set on fire. While the Israeli
authorities failed to contain the riot or to protect the
Palestinian citizens, Amidar and the the Acre municipality took
advantage of the situation and turned the temporary evacuation of
Palestinian families into actual evictions and tried to settle
Jewish families in their homes. Out of 14 Palestinian families, that
had to flee the violence, only three reportedly managed to return to their homes.
Sadly, the hardship of
Acre's Palestinian community is not unique at all, and the twin forces of
Jewish investors and radical settlers, supported by government
bodies, also operate in other mixed cities, such as Jaffa and Haifa.
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