Cultural Amnesia in the Holy Land

Cultural Amnesia: Tel Aviv
Never much thought of the process of anthropology as a political process. However, in Israel like most places it is all political. Lovely afternoon traveling through Old Jaffa. The city port that has been home to prehistoric events, biblical Jaffa one of the sons 0f the bible
Strange the quote, these who forget history or doomed to repeat it. This seems to be the case with Israel. All these marvelous lessons of war, conquest, loss, and destruction. All empires repeat the same cycle, going from inception, conquest, and ultimately destruction. In the old city of Jaffa, the first building by the harbor appeared like a mosque, a customs house. The sign-out side said it was a police station. Strange, it did not look like a police station. Perhaps customs house from its location. However, it looked like the interior of a mosque. Around the corner on the same block was the Sabel, a water fountain. I met a Mr. Pinto a barber born in Jaffa in 1947 and he grew up in this neighborhood.
Mr. Pinto corrected many of my historical conjectures, The Sabel or water fountain we were standing in front of he said it was from the Ottoman Ruler Abou Saidd, I have to check the names. To me, the inscription looked like Suleiman or perhaps I misunderstood. That classic scripture from the Suleiman dynasty or was it one of his children? The Sahel looks much older. Mr. Pinto said that part of this Sahel; the marble column is from Caesarea. Strange. I am having memories of having been in this area in a previous life or did I overdose on falafel. He said the gate by his barbershop is the Jerusalem gate from the 1800s but the gate its looks much older. The arches appear as if they original part is at least from the 15oos. Nevertheless, he was sure of his knowledge and as he has lived in this same neighborhood for the past 50 years, I am sure he has more of an answer than I do. This Sabel is very similar in some ways to the one on Sugar Street in Old Cairo, but that one is clearly from the 1800s.
Old Jaffa is an amazing accretion of architecture that is quickly being lost. This Islamic town erased clean of its cultural past. The new Mosque is a sterile, contemporary structure with a tiny interior space for prayer. Today, the men are on the porticos praying and lounging. I find it curious and refreshing that some men after they pray they stretch out and take a nap. All the previous history of the old mosque is locked inside. There is a real estate development sign on that and several historic areas. A group of square grey Soviet style apartment building is near the sea. This principle port area is underdevelopment, with no apparent regard for the history of the area. Strange. Though old Jaffa is a tourist area because of the funky oldness, with coffee shop in old Ottoman shops, unless it is boutique or café, it is surely under the wrecking ball. The area seems to have the predilection for taking over the old historical sites. The Hammam or Turkish baths that were central to the community, as this is where men and women went to bathe, has bee turned into a wedding hall. The old buildings dating back to the 1400s. The Mosque some 4oo meters from the Ocean, looks to my eyes to date from the 15the century the locals tell me it only goes back 15o years. Sorry, my eyes tell me something very different. In addition, in that a number of the buildings in this area have a lot of similar correspondence to buildings in Old Cairo. I can see the dates and knows the dates of the various mosques and public buildings, both by the architecture and the inscriptions and style of writing.

In a city like Jaffa, that has had a lot of historical turbulence and change in the last fifty years, much of the history has made way for development. My question is – Is this removal of history and especially the Islamic history a way to wipe clean the slate the presence of Muslims? If we remove the buildings, change the historical accuracy we then can shape history from our perspective. Is this a conscious process? On the other hand, is it that there is so much historical work that needs to be saved that this relatively recent period is overlooked? I think it is more that there is a desire for a historical amnesia. Old Jaffa from the time of the Mamluk to the Ottoman a period of some 6oo years and the museum information had one sentence about the presence of the Islamic presence. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful conversation with the director Dr.Naama from Yemen about the museum and she was gracious enough to show me the upper rooms, with its pottery from the Iron Age period, other samples of pottery lined up in the storage rooms above. There is a lack of students and interns to assist in the catalogue. This vast treasure trove of materials about the history of the area is locked up in boxes. But the greater tragedy is all these old buildings from the port on up that area falling apart and half in ruin. Generally from other areas I know there had been a question of ownership with buildings, who has title and who doesn’t and is the deed lying in a basement in an old government building in Istanbul> I did pose that question to Dr.Naama and wasn’t sure if I got the answer I needed or wanted, but she was most gracious with my questions, and if you know of a bright young student interested cataloguing pottery and historical artifacts, then contact Dr.Naama. I know as a kid I would have loved the opportunity to do something like this.
Her story as a Yemeni Jew, with her father from Prague and mom from Yemen, was engaging because of my history in Yemen, living in the Jewish Quarter of Saana. I told her of the metalworkers and jewelers, she said her grandfather was a metalworker. and I spoke of even today Yemenis marvel of the Jewish metalworkers and still talk of a piece of metal, sword, etc. made from these artisans. She also spoke of her doctoral work on the families and the women of the Yemeni quarter in Tel Aviv. Though when I went there I didn’t see any overt signs of Yemen. I would imagine the real Yemeni quarter would have those marvelous mud houses, and coloured windows that you find in Sanaa.
The streets of Old Jaffa for this Islamic archeology buff were a feast. I love seeing and imagining how streets were put together. What the streets were of say the Crusaders and then what were streets, the fountains, mosques of the Muslim rulers. I walk through the streets, I step back and look at this one building, on its walls, one section is from the 16oos, another section a bit older, another repaid made in the l800s, a section of brick and mortar from another building, a bit of stucco, and then this mosaic appears. What century could you say this building was from? When the first stone was laid? I love how even in looking at the side of this one building with its hundreds of years of history you can read the entire story of a neighborhood, through war, poverty, and the hundreds of changes in between.
I fear that the desire to erase the history of the long and often positive Arab/ Muslim/ Palestinian heritage will rob Israel of its richest treasures, its true cultural legacy. It is country made up of hundreds perhaps thousands of cultures and each has contributed. I fear that it is an attempt to mimic "The Museum of Extinct Races" in Vienna.