User:Lifta , Jerusalem , Palestine

Lifta (Arabic: لفتا‎; Hebrew: מי נפתוח Mei Niftoach, lit. spring of the corridor) was an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem East Jerusalem. The population fled during the Arab-Jewish hostilities of 1947/48 and the efforts to relieve the Siege of Jerusalem (1948). The village, which is mainly intact, is located on a hillside between the western entrance to Jerusalem and the Romema neighbourhood. In 2012, plans to rebuild the village as an upscale neighborhood were rejected by the Jerusalem District Court.[3]

History

The site has been populated since ancient times; Nephtoah (Hebrew: נפתח) is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a border between the Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It was the northernmost demarcation point of the territory of the Tribe of Judah.[4][5] The Romans and Byzantines called it Nephtho, and the Crusaders referred to it as Clepsta.[6] In 1596, Lifta was a village in the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Jerusalem under the liwa' (district) of Jerusalem, and it had a population of 396. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, fruit orchards and vineyards.[7] In 1834, the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha and his army fought and defeated local rebels, led by al-Shaykh Qasim al-Ahmad, a prominent local ruler. However, the Qasim al-Ahmad family remained powerful and ruled the region southwest of Nablus from their fortified villages of Deir Istiya and Bayt Wazan some 40 kilometers (25 mi) due north of Lifta.[8] In the late nineteenth century, Lifta was described as a village on the side of a steep hill, with a spring and rock-cut tombs to the south.[9] In 1917, Lifta surrendered to the British forces with white flags and, as a symbolic gesture, the keys to the village.[10] In mid-1940, Lifta was predominantly Muslim, with a population of 2,550. The village had a mosque, a shrine for Shaykh Badr (a local sage), two coffee houses, a social club, and a few shops. It also had an elementary school, one for boys and one for girls. The farmers of Lifta marketed their produce in Jerusalem markets and took advantage of the city's services.[11] In 1947, a Lifta resident who informed Arab forces about the departure of Jewish convoys to Tel Aviv was shot.[11] According to Palestinian historian 'Arif al-'Arif, a coffeehouse in Lifta was attacked by members of the Stern Gang, killing six and wounding seven.[11] In the 1948 war, one of the goals of the Haganah was securing the western exit of the city. Arabs thus fled from villages at the entrance to Jerusalem, among them Lifta. The village itself remained largely intact, with 55 original stone houses still standing, but it was not repopulated.[12]

View of Lifta, 2011 In 2011, plans were announced to demolish the village and build a luxury development consisting of 212 luxury housing units and a hotel.[13] Former residents brought a legal petition to preserve the village as a historic site.[14] Lifta is the last remaining Arab village that was depopulated to have not been either completely destroyed or re-inhabited.[13] During mid 2012 residents living from 1947 till 2012 had received eviction letters,[15] with the claim that residents are not the legal owners of the land.