PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 209

19.  Near Jericho, on a sheer cliff, is the Mount
of Temptation where, following his baptism,
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.
20.  A quarter of the produce went to the peas-
ant, three-quarters to the landowner.
21.  The conquest of Qatamun is recounted by
Yusif Sayigh, Arab Economist, Palestinian Pa-
triot, A Fractured Life Story, American Univer-
sity of Cairo, 2015, p. 202.
22.  See Alberto Ambrosio, “A la rencontre du
soufisme, Les mystiques en héritage”, Études
2011/10 (Vol. 415), pp. 351‒360. Tariqas ap-
peared in the twelfth century, but the first men
to experience this spiritual and mystical state
known as Sufism appeared earlier (such as Rabi’a
(801), Bistami (875), Junayd (910), Hallaj (922),
and after Ibn ‘Arabi (1240) and Rumi (1273)).
The first Sufis were called thus because of the
woollen smock that they wore (Sufism comes
from sif, meaning wool), probably to distinguish
them from other believers, to challenge a certain
type of entrenched religious society. A Sufi is
someone with nothing, a beggar, also spiritually.
The intention of Sufism is to submerge oneself in
God to the point of being one with Him. Sufism
is not only a question of poetic writings, but also
an internal process, esoteric and mystical.
23.  The founder of the Tijaniya brotherhood,
Sidi Ahmad Tijani, was born in Algeria, and
the tariqa originally gathered in a place on the
Algerian–Moroccan border. It later moved to
Fez, Morocco.
24.  The Tijaniya gathered either in Jericho or
Jerusalem, on the Esplanade of the Mosques
where a space is still designated for the tariqa
of Al Tijaniya.
25. The hailala is a collective practice without
a religious sermon, unlike Friday prayers in the
mosques. It takes place between two prayers,
the Asr and Maghreb.
26.  A ritual practice known as al wazifa.
27. Henry Laurens, La Question de la Pales-
tine, vol. II, 1922‒1947. Une mission sacrée de
civilisation, Paris, Fayard, 2002, p. 416. The
author reports that the very evening of the pub-
lication of this report, the Kristallnacht (No-
vember 9–10, 1938) happened in Germany; the
Zionists asked the British authorities to allow
10,000 Jewish children from Germany to come
to Palestine, but London refused. In May 1939,
a White Paper was published (pp. 431–434). In
July 1943, the White Paper was shelved and the
idea of the partition of Palestine began to take
shape (pp. 500–505).
28. Jean-Pierre Filiu, Main basse sur Israel.
Netanyahu et la fin du rêve sioniste, La Décou-
verte, 2018, p. 31.
29. Henry Laurens, La Question de la Pales-
tine, vol. II, 1922‒1947. Une mission sacrée de
civilisation, Paris, Fayard, 2002, p. 73.
30.  Between Jericho and Ramallah.
31.  Religious foundation.
32.  The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was es-
tablished in 1901 at the 5th Zionist Congress
in Basel, Switzerland. It allowed the Zionist
movement to develop a plan for land acquisi-
tion in Palestine.
33. Al Hima is at the foot of the Golan
Heights, which is Syrian territory occupied and
administered by Israel since the Six-Day War
in 1967. It is about 135 kilometres from away
from Jerusalem, Beirut, Amman and Damas-
cus. The village is crossed by the Yarmuk River.
It is known for its lush green vegetation, hot
springs and Roman ruins.
34.  The Haganah was a Zionist paramilitary
organization established in 1920 and integrat-
ed into the Israeli army in 1948. At first it was
under the auspices of the Zionist syndicate
Histadrut, and later it was controlled by the
Jewish Agency (the Zionist executive in Man-
datory Palestine). The Haganah then became
the official armed branch of the Jewish Agency,
which was illegal in the eyes of the British man-
datory powers.
35.  For those families able to pay for their chil-
dren’s studies in the region, the American Uni-
versities of Beirut (for medicine and law) and
Cairo (for languages and journalism) provided
the assurance of a modern Western education.
36. Opened in 1930, the King David Hotel
was the scene of an attack on July 22, 1946
by the Zionist Irgun movement (which pro-
claimed itself to be ‘the movement of Hebrew
resistance’) against the British who were then
using the hotel as their headquarters. The at-
tack resulted in 91 dead of whom 25 were Brit-
ish.
37. Heliopolis is a modern residential neigh-
bourhood created in the twentieth century to
the north east of Cairo.
38.  A dish that is part of Palestinian gastro-
nomic culture. Maklubeh (literally meaning
upside-down) is prepared in a large pot in
which layers of meat, vegetables alternate and
are covered with rice, all cooked in a spicy
broth. It is served by turning the pot turned up-
side-down onto a large platter and sprinkling
the dish with fried almonds and pine nuts.
39.  See the chapter about Suhaila Subhi Shish-
tawi.
40.  Michel Aflaq was the founder of the Baath
(resurrection) party in Damascus in the 1940s,
a secular, nationalist Arab party of which he
became the president in 1947. For Aflaq, the
Arabs were a single nation with an inalienable
right to live in an independent State. He joined
the Palestinian front during the Israeli-Arab
war in 1948.
41.  Gaza’s wealth came from its export of or-
anges to Europe.
42. The school’s president was Nihad Abu
Gharbieh, father of Bahjat Abu Gharbieh, one
of the leaders of the 1936–1939 revolt. See Bah-
jat Abu Gharbieh, In the Midst of the Struggle
for the Arab-Palestinian Cause: The Memoirs of
Freedom Fighter Bahjat Abu Gharbieh, 1916–
1949, Beirut, 1993. Published in Arabic.
43. Anne-Claire de Gayffier-Bonneville,
“Culture de guerre du pouvoir égyptien sous
Nasser et Sadate”, Institut de Stratégie Com-
parée, Stratégique, n°103, 2013/2, pp. 37–53.
44. Together with Associated Press, Reuters
and Agence France Presse, United Press was
one of the main news agencies in the world be-
fore disappearing in the 1940s.
45. Valérie Nivelon and Marion Lefèvre,
“Jérusalem 1967: la destruction du quartier des
Maghrébins”, RFI, June 10, 2017. The article
cites Vincent Lemire and explains that the
“massive” destruction of the Moroccan quarter
of the old city of Jerusalem is “unique” in the
Six-Day War. If the Six-Day War is not a “Holy
War”, but a “strategic” one, it nevertheless con-
stitutes a turning point for Israel and Zionism
which ‘gradually begins to orient itself more
and more towards religious and sacred aspects.’
According to the historian, the war of June
1967 was not aimed at destroying this neigh-
bourhood, but it provided Israel with the op-
portunity to accomplish the project, conceived
in the early twentieth century, of opening up a
space for prayer in front of the Wall.
46. Both of Mohammad Tijani’s parents are
buried in the Muslim cemetery at Bab Al As-
bat, Lion’s Gate.
Mohammad
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