by Adam LeBor
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1 http://www.palestineremembered.com/al-Ramla/Imwas/index.html
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1 Ghassan Kanafani, ‘Jaffa, Land of Oranges’, translated by Mona Anis and Hala Halim. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/Jaffa/Story153.html
2 Joseph Roth, What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920–33 (London, 2003), pp. 66–67.
3 Quoted in the Sunday Times, 15 June 1969. The full extract is as follows: ‘… asked whether the emergence of the Fedayeen (Arab guerillas) is an important factor in the Middle East, Mrs Meir replied: “Important, no, a new factor, yes. There was no such thing as a Palestinian, when there was an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state, it was either southern Syria before World War I and then it was a Palestine including Jordan, it was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.”’
4 http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War
5 Morris, Righteous Victims, p 411–412.
6 Ibid., p. 419.
7 Ibid., p. 423.
8 Ibid., p. 437.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
1 As told to the author, November 2004. Curiously, the Israeli diplomat named by the neighbour, contacted by the author, denied all knowledge of Said Hammami.
2 Abu Nidal obituary, David Hirst, Guardian, 20 August 2002.
3 Christopher Hitchens, ‘The Terrorist I Knew’, Observer, 25 August 2002.
4 Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 447.
5 Shlomo Argov remained permanently incapacitated until his death in February 2003.
6 Segev, The Seventh Million, p. 400.
CHAPTER TWENTY
1 Quoted in Zvi Elhyani, Seafront Holdings, in ‘Black to the sea’ (Moria-Klein and Barnir eds.), Catalogue of the Israeli pavilion, 9th Biennale of Architecture, Venice, 2004, pp. 104–116.
2 Yosi is a pseudonym.
3 Elhyani, ‘Black to the sea’.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1 Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 567.
2 According to the Israeli human rights organisation Be’tselem, Israeli security forces killed 1,095 Palestinians between December 1987 and December 1993. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, beatings and clubbings, while between 1987 and 1992, 119 Israelis – both military and civilian – were killed by Arabs in Israel itself and across the Green Line.
3 Morris, Righteous Victims, pp. 578–9.
4 http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/mde15.htm. See also media reports such as at: http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1999/01/990113-israel.htm
5 Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 601.
6 Ibid., p. 606.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
1 A report by the International Monetary Fund on economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, published in 2003, noted: ‘Most of the laws passed by the PLC sat on the desk of President Arafat, and remained there for many years unsigned and therefore ineffective. Progress toward designing a new constitution stalled. The judicial process remained arbitrary and politically motivated. The fiscal process was perceived as extremely opaque, and liable to corruption.’
2 http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/31/waraf31.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/31/ixworld.html
3 Morris, Righteous Victims, pp. 637–8.
4 According to Jewish law, the site is actually forbidden to Jews, as the Temple Mount includes the unknown site of the Holy of Holies, an area of the Temple where only the High Priest could enter. Muslims believe that Muhammad ascended to heaven from here, where the Dome of the Rock, with its famous gold dome, now stands. The Dome of the Rock is the centrepiece of a complex of Islamic buildings which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque.
5 Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power (London, 1998), pp. 58 and 73.
6 Statistics taken from ‘Israel’s Arab Minority’, by Ori Nir. Lecture given at the Carnegie Endowment in April 2003.
7 Yossi Melman, ‘Even the Shin Bet is Against Discrimination’, Haaretz, 25 May 2004.
8 http://www.cbs.gov.il/statistical/arab_pop03e.pdf
9 The author’s own experience confirms this. The son of one Arab interviewee declined to be interviewed, citing his unwillingness to draw the attention of Shin Bet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
1 Passover commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Jews are not permitted to eat any leavened bread during Passover, when all kosher bakeries close. The Israelites ate unleavened bread, known as matzoh, as they fled.
2 The author was struck by a conversation with one young Israeli, who explained that his personal ambition was to invite an Arab to his home for lunch. He explained that the only contact he had had with Arabs so far was during his military service on the West Bank, when he had been in their houses, albeit uninvited.
3 See also Samuel G. Freedman’s article, ‘Drama as a DMZ in Israel’, New York Times, 1 August 2002.
4 See http://www.yeshgvul.org. Every year Yesh Gvul organises an alternative Independence Day celebration, to give a voice to marginalised social groupings, peace activists and Israeli Arabs.
5 The Jenin incursion triggered frenzied international media coverage, with reporters accusing Israel of slaughtering civilians en masse and conducting summary executions, allegations which were later dis-proven. Fifty-six Palestinians were killed, about half of whom were fighters. However, according to Human Rights Watch, the Israeli military committed grave breaches of the Geneva Convention in Jenin, as well as possible war crimes.
6 See Tom Segev’s Elvis in Jerusalem: Post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel (New York, 2003) for a fascinating discussion of this theme.
7 Or Aleksandrowicz makes several controversial claims of some interest to devotees of Chelouche family history. Based on his interpretation of Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, he argues that the original Beit Chelouche was the second family house to be built outside Jaffa and was not constructed until 1893–4, which means it did not mark the foundation of Neve Tsedek. He also argues that Aharon Chelouche was not the only surviving male sibling of Avraham Chelouche, and that he had a brother called Yosef, who was included in the censuses of 1849 and 1855. There is a gravestone in Jaffa’s Jewish cemetery inscribed for Yosef Chelouche, who died in 1865 at the age of twenty, says Aleksandrowicz. It is unclear why Yosef’s existence would be denied by the rest of the family. In addition, family lore says Aharon Chelouche died in 1920, at the age of ninety-one, which means that he was born in 1829. But two Jewish censuses record his year of birth as 1840. Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche also mentions in his autobiography that the family originated in Morocco (not Algeria), and Aleksandrowicz says that Aharon Chelouche made the claim of originating in Oran to obtain French citizenship, which would offer considerable protection from the Ottoman authorities. All of this is disputed by Zvi Pomrock, who stands by the version of family history related here. Nothing can really be proved one way or the other. But the existence of the Chelouche family and all those family members included in this book is indisputable, as is their contribution to Neve Tsedek, Tel Aviv and Israel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
1 The station has an excellent English-language website: http://english.aljazeera.net.
2 http://www.memri.de/uebersetzungen_analysen/themen/antisemitismus/as_almanar_18_12_03.html
3 Wagih Abou Zikra, a columnist for the government daily Al-Akhbar, wrote on 8 November 2002, ‘Israel, and even most of the Jews of the world, carry out the Protocols’ plan, whether they were written by the rabbis or not, whether the Jewish terrorists have read them or not.’ See: http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA11302
4 Extracts can be viewed at: http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=275
5 http://www.memri.org/video
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
1 http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/1910.cfm
2 Shlomo Lahat, ‘Breeding grounds for hatred’, Haaretz, 3 January 2005.
Author’s Note
This book is based on hours of interviews with several generations of Jaffa families, their recollections of parents and grandparents and their memoirs, letters and personal archives, reaching back to the early twentieth century. These are their stories of their lives, as they remember them. This is what they want to say, and the quotes of every interviewee have been checked back with them for accuracy.
Two caveats should be noted here. Firstly, no contemporary issue arouses such furious passions as Israel and Palestine. The authorial opinions and analysis expressed in the book are mine alone. The inclusion of a named person does not mean that they necessarily agree with, or approve of, my observations and conclusions. Nor, of course, does it automatically exclude that possibility. Secondly, in the Middle East, terminology is always a source of dispute. There is an ongoing debate in Israel about the term for the country’s ethnic Arab minority, who are full citizens, in contrast to the Palestinians living beyond the 1967 borders. Jewish Israelis tend to prefer ‘Israeli Arab’ or ‘Arab Israeli’. Nationally conscious Arabs prefer ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel’, or even just ‘Palestinian’. I have used the first three interchangeably, to prevent ungainly repetition, while reserving ‘Palestinian’ for those outside the state’s current borders. The areas under Palestinian rule I refer to as Palestinian territories, for ease of understanding. I also sometimes refer to Israeli Jews as simply ‘Jews’. I hope it will be clear from the context that this means Jews in Israel, and not all Jews living around the world.
A Note on the Author
Adam LeBor was born in London and read Arabic, International
History and Politics at Leeds University, graduating in 1983,
and also studied Arabic at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
He worked for several national British newspapers before becoming
a foreign correspondent in 1991. Since then he has travelled
extensively in eastern and central Europe and covered the Yugoslav
wars for the Independent and The Times. Currently Central Europe
Correspondent for The Times, he also contributes to the
Economist, Literary Review, The Nation, the Jewish Chronicle, Condé
Nast Traveller and the Budapest Sun. His books – A Heart Turned East:
Among the Muslims of Europe and America, Hitler’s Secret Bankers,
Surviving Hitler: Choice, Corruption and Compromise in the Third Reich
(with Roger Boyes), Milosevic: A Biography and Complicity with Evil:
The United Nations in the Age of Modern Genocide – have been
published in nine languages.
A NOTE ON THE TYPE
The text of this book is set in Bembo. This type was first used in 1495
by the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius for Cardinal Bembo’s De Aetna,
and was cut for Manutius by Francesco Griffo. It was one of the types
used by Claude Garamond (1480–1561) as a model for his Romain
de l’Université, and so it was the forerunner of what became standard
European type for the following two centuries. Its modern form
follows the original types and was designed for Monotype in 1929.
List of Illustrations
and Picture Credits
Jaffa and Tel Aviv Then
The port of Old Jaffa and the house of Simon the Tanner in 1921. (Postcard: Jamal Bros., Jerusalem)
The new Jewish city of Tel Aviv, 1909. (Postcard: Zoltan Kluger, Bauhaus Centre, Tel Aviv)
The Families Then
The Aharoni family in Pazardijk, Bulgaria, c. 1930. (Aharoni family collection)
Yoram Aharoni as a member of the Jewish youth group, Maccabi. (Aharoni family collection)
Hanneh Andraus, wife of Amin. (Andraus family collection)
The Andraus family socialising. (Andraus family collection)
Frank Meisler with his mother Meta. (Meisler family collection)
Frank Meisler and his father Misha. (Meisler family collection)
The Hammami family in 1947. (Hammami family collection)
Two of the Hammami brothers with friends. (Hammami family collection)
The Families Then
Aharon Chelouche, the great family patriarch, and his wife Sarah. (Chelouche family collection)
Avraham Haim Chelouche, his wife Sarina and their family. (Chelouche family collection)
Julia Chelouche (née Bohbout), wife of David Chelouche. (Chelouche family collection)
Zaki Chelouche. (Chelouche family collection)
Yosef Pomrock and his wife Simha, daughter of Avraham Haim Chelouche. (Pomrock family collection)
The Mandate Begins to Crack
Arab demonstrators in Jaffa’s Central Square, October 1933. (Palestine Remembered)
British military engineers blow up a large swathe of Old Jaffa during the Arab Revolt in 1936. (Palestine Remembered: picture 1215)
Amin Andraus leans against a pillar of his former car showroom, the morning after the British blew it up as a punishment. (Andraus family collection)
Businessmen…
Yaakov Chelouche sitting at his desk in the Anglo-Palestine Company bank in Jaffa, c. 1900. (Chelouche family collection)
The door of the first branch of the Anglo-Palestine Company. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Amin Andraus and several of his friends on a shooting party in the 1930s. (Andraus family collection)
… and Shopkeepers
Dr Fakhri Geday at the counter of his pharmacy shop at 65 Yefet Street. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Yoram Aharoni in Tiv, his spice and coffee shop on Raziel Street. (Aharoni family collection)
The Abulafia bakery, by Clock Tower Square. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Al-Nakba – the Catastrophe
The wreckage of Jaffa’s New Seray after it was blown up by the Stern Group in January 1948. (Palestine Remembered)
Hasan Hammami with his classmates on a course in first aid. (Hammami family collection)
Two members of the Haganah in action on the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. (Getty Images)
Palestinian refugees fleeing from Jaffa to Gaza in May 1948. (Palestine Remembered)
Independence
Yoram and Rina Aharoni, 1947. (Aharoni family collection)
Youssef Kamel Geday, father of Dr Fakhri Geday. (Geday family collection)
David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. (Zoltan Kluger, Israeli Government Press Office)
Cheering citizens gather in Tel Aviv as the State of Israel is declared. (Hans Pinn, Israeli Government Press Office)
Exile, War and Intifada
Suad Andraus standing next to Kamal Nasser, a Palestinian poet, in the village of Bir Zeit. (Andraus family collection)
Hasan Hammami on his wedding day in 1956. (Hammami family collection)
Tank crews in southern Israel during the Six Day War. (Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office)
Ofer Aharoni as a young conscript at the Suez Canal, c. 1970. (Aharoni family collection)
Egyptian Mig shot down during the Yom Kippur War. (Ron Ilan, Israeli Government Press Office)
Israeli units moving into battle on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War, 1973. (David Rubinger, Israeli Government Press Office).
Palestinian youths hurl rocks and stones at Israeli troops during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. (Getty Images)
Jaffa Today
The Clock Tower. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
The Old Seray. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
The façade of the New Seray being rebuilt in the summer of 2003. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
A row of shops and houses on Raziel Street, formerly Nagib Bustros Street. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Neve Tsedek as seen from the roof of Beit Chelouche. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
The alley known in the nineteenth century as Sharia Serafeen, street of the
money-changers. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
The Families Today
The Andraus family. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Julia Chelouche. (Chelouche family collection)
Frank Meisler, with his sculpture of King David and Bathsheba. (Meisler family collection)
Hasan Hammami, his sister Fadwa and daughter Rema on the beach at Jaffa in 1993. (Hammami family collection)
Yoram and Rina Aharoni. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Sami Abou-Shehade and his grandfather Ismail. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Shlomo Chelouche at home in Tel Aviv. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Jaffa and Tel Aviv Today
The hotels and urban sprawl of Tel Aviv, looking north from Jaffa. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
The view of Jaffa from the promenade above Tel Aviv’s beach. (Adam LeBor/Northfoto)
Further praise for City of Oranges:
‘Outstanding … a clear-eyed study of one of the great cities of the eastern Mediterranean… LeBor uses the recent fortunes of Jaffa as a magnifying lens through which to explore the entire knotted history of Israel and Palestine in the twentieth century… an excellent and courageous book’ Mark Cocker, Guardian
‘The curious reader with no ideological axe to grind, but an interest in the people and their fate, could do no better than start here… we need to listen to what they have to say – about their own lives, and their own histories… It is in the stories that the future lies, and Adam LeBor has magnificently, and sympathetically, told them’ Linda Grant, Independent
‘The extent of Adam LeBor’s research cannot be contested… He delves into the layers of history and human experience that saturate his subjects… LeBor is an unusually skilful collector of tales, an abundantly empathetic listener. Like a good saga, City of Oranges draws the reader in to know the fate of each of the families… this is a rare opportunity to hear relatively unmediated voices from both sides’ Esther Solomon, Haaretz
