Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:52:53 IST
From: Shaul Wallach <F66204@BARILVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Jewish-Arab Coexistence Over the Ages


    About a year ago a dispute broke out over Jewish resettlement in
the Arab village of Silwan (the Biblical City of David), south of the
Temple Mount and just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
It seems to me fitting to present here three original texts in
translation which document Jewish-Arab coexistence in Silwan over
the ages.

    The first text relates to the order of the Khalif Omar granting
the Jews permission to settle in Jerusalem to the south of the Temple
Mount near the Pool of Siloam (Shiloah) after the Arab conquest. The
text is a fragment from the Cairo Geniza (T.-S. Arabic Box 6 (1) in
the Cambridge University Library) and was published by Simha Asaf in
"Meqorot u-Mehqarim be-Toledot Yisrael" ("Texts and Studies in Jewish
History"), Mosad Harav Kook, Jerusalem, 1946, pp. 17-23. In the
literal translation from Judeo-Arabic I have been aided by the Hebrew
translation given by Asaf and the English translation given by Norman
A. Stillman, "The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book",
Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1979, pp. 154-155.

    In the text, "Sham" (the Arabic name for Syria including Palestine)
in Jewish usage means the Land of Israel, and "enemies" refers to the
Christians, against whom the Jews had aided Omar in his conquest of
Palestine. Some of the renderings are uncertain, and the interested
reader is referred to the sources cited above.

    "... and the building apprentices (?), unless they come. So
there came every Muslim who was in the city and in the field, and
there came with them a group of the Jews. Then he ordered them to
sweep the Sanctuary and to clean it, and Omar supervised them all
the time. And whenever there was uncovered ... he asked the elders
of the Jews about the Rock which is the Foundation Stone. And one
of the scholars would delineate for him the place until it was
uncovered. And he ordered that there be built the wall of the
Sanctuary and that there be built over the Rock a dome and that it
be overlaid with gold.

    And after this the Jews sent to the rest of Sham to make
known to them what Omar had agreed with them. And they sent to
them, saying, "What will be the number of people moving to the
Sanctuary?" And they came in to Omar. They said to him, "And how
many will the prince of believers command to move to this city
from the congregation of the Jews?" And Omar said, "What will
your enemies say?" "Then speak yourselves, and after that I will
say what will end the dispute between you."

    Then he called the Patriarch and his friends and said to them,
"I have already agreed with these Jews on all of ... will come to
here from them the amount which you say." And the Patriarch said,
"May those who move with their families and children be fifty
households." And the Jews answered them, "We will not be less than
two hundred households." And the negotiation between them was
lengthy until Omar commanded seventy families, and they agreed to
that. Then he said, "Where do you want to dwell in the city?" And
they said, "The south of the city," which is the Market of the
Jews. And their request was to be close to the Sanctuary and its
gates, and likewise the waters of Silwan for immersion. And the
prince of the believers granted them this.

    Then the seventy households with their wives and their children
came from Tiberias and its surroundings, and they built their quarter
with buildings whose remains lasted for many generations. And after
that ..."

                   --------------------------

    The second text deals with the protection of the Yemenite Jews
in Kefar ha-Shiloah (Siloam Village) by an Arab notable during the
riots of 1929 that erupted in the wake of the dispute over the
Western Wall (A two-part article on this is available from the
present writer). A facsimile of the original document together with
a transcription is given by Ben Azzai (Yehuda Nini) in the journal
Shadmot, vol. 46, pp. 28-29 (5732/1971-72). A much clearer facsimile
is given by Y. Haris, "Al Zipornei Nesharim: Kol ha-Emeth Al Parashath
Marvad ha-Qesamim", Torath Avoth, Benei Beraq (5748/1987-88), p. 144.

    The Yemenite Jews were the first to immigrate to the Holy Land in
large numbers in modern times. In response to the rumor that the Baron
Rothschild had bought land for Jewish settlement in Palestine, two
families from San`a came in summer 1881, followed by 26 more families
in the spring of 1882. The Yemenites thus preceded the first Bilu
settlers and far outnumbered them, counting some 200 by the summer
of 1882. At first the Yemenites settled in the Jewish Quarter of
the Old City of Jerusalem, living with the other religious members
of the Old Community. However, due to the cramped conditions, a
number of Yemenites moved out and in 1884 settled outside the walls
of the Old City near the Arab village of Silwan and the Pool of Siloam,
calling their settlement Kefar ha-Shiloah (Village of the Siloam).

    Relations between the Yemenite Jews of the Shiloah and their Arab
neighbors were good up through World War I, but began to deteriorate
under British rule. The Yemenites apparently fled after the disturbances
of 1929, but some returned later. British authorities ordered the
final evacuation of the community in the wake of the Great Arab
Rebellion which broke out in 1936. For further details about the
Yemenite settlement in Silwan see, for example:

    Yehuda Rasahbi. Rishonei Olei Teman be-Aliyat Tarma"v. Mahanayim,
vol. 77, pp. 70-75 (5723/1962-63).

    Zion Madmuni. Hithyashvuth Shel Yehudei Teman be-Kefar ha-Shiloah
(The Settlement of Yemenite Jews in Silwan). In "Peraqim be-Toledoth
ha-Yishuv ha-Yehudi bi-Yerushalayim" ("Chapters in the History of the
Jewish Community in Jerusalem"), ed. Yehuda Ben Porat et al., Yad Izhak
Ben Zvi, Jerusalem (5733/1973), pp. 250-259.

    The following is a literal translation of the letter of thanks
given by the Yemenites to Haj Muhammad Jozlan for his protection
during the riots of August 1929. The Scriptural references, which do
not appear in the original, follow the text.

                        "To Tell Man His Honesty (1)

    We the undersigned, residents of Kefar ha-Shiloah, do make known
openly before the people that we are obligated to express thanks to
the dear man, of a pure heart, the honored master, Haj Muhammad Jozlan,
one of our honored Arab brothers, residents of Kefar ha-Shiloah,
Silwan, and his friends, of good heart, who displayed a humane
relationship out of the ordinary towards their Jewish neighbors,
residents of the neighborhood of the Shiloah, during the days of the
riots of Av 5689, and did not let the bands of rioters who went around
our settlement the Shiloah to touch us for evil, notwithstanding the
isolation of their settlement and the distance that was between them
and the city of Jerusalem. And today as well such a relationship
prevails between us and these neighbors of ours, "There is no breach
and no going out, and there is no outcry in our streets" (2). And who
may give that from them our Arab brothers dwelling in the other places
in the Land of Israel may learn to nurture a relationship of friendship
between them and their Jewish neighbors, in order that they may see a
blessing in the deeds of their hands.

    In particular, how nice was it for these neighbors of ours to
fulfill themselves the saying of Shelomo the King, may peace be unto
him, "It is an honor for a man to stay away from dispute" (3), and at
the time that others were brought in multitudes to the prisons, they
stayed in their homes and delighted over great peace.

    Behold, we hope that such a relationship may prevail between us
and them for the length of days, and faithful is the good God to reward
all those to do good according to their action, according to the saying
of the pleasant Psalmist of Israel: "He shall not withhold good from
those who go uprightly" (4).

    In the entreaty of the signers in blessing and in feelings of
gratitude in the name of the residents of Kefar ha-Shiloah and the
members of the Israelite Yemenite Committee, here in the holy city of
Jerusalem.

Declares  Yosef Sa`id Madmuni       Declares  Aharon Malih
Declares  Shelomo Yosef Hazi        Declares  ... (illegible)
Declares  Ya`ish Malih              Declares  Yahiya Qara
Declares  Sholom Yishaq Madmuni     Declares  Salih Salim Ya'ud
Declares  Ya`aqov Sa`id Madmuni     Declares  Shelomo Maimoni"

1. Job 33:23    2. Psalms 144:14    3. Proverbs 20:3   4. Psalms 84:12

                   --------------------------

     The last text is a literal translation of an article in the
January 21, 1992 issue of Ha'aretz on a joint tree planting ceremony by
religious Jews and Arabs in Silwan, on the 15th of Shevat, the Jewish
Arbor Day. The ceremony followed the dispute which broke out over the
reacquisition and resettlement of Kefar ha-Shiloah by religious Zionist
Jews a year ago.

             "RELIGIOUS JEWISH DOVES AND ARABS PLANT TOGETHER

                          OLIVE TREES IN SILWAN

                     By Lili Galili and Eitan Rabin

     A group of activists from the religious peace movement "Netivot
Shalom - Oz We-Shalom", together with Palestinians, residents of the
village of Silwan, observed yesterday the ceremony of the 15th of Shevat,
in the course of which they planted together 40 olive trees. Among the
participants were the mukhtar of the village, Siyam Latfi, Yusuf Mahmoud
Qar`ani among the members of families in whose homes the settlers took
residence, and `Abd Abu Diya`b, head of the Silwan Council.

     Television networks and photographers from the whole world
documented with their cameras the event in which Jews in skullcaps and
Arabs covered with kafiyyas planted couples of olive trees in the ground
in dispute. The Arab residents prepared in advance the recesses in the
ground, and the Israeli participants brought with them the seedlings.
Yohanan Flusser, one of the leaders of the movement, said that the action
was aimed also to protest against the uprooting of trees by the settlers.

     Yusuf Qar`ani said: "The tree planting was indeed done by the
religious Zionist movement, but it is different from the religious Zionism
of the settlers. Those who came to plant trees with us show that not all
the religious Zionists are chauvinists. The Palestinians and the Israelis
stand now before a tragic problem, and we will overcome it only through
cooperation."

                   --------------------------

    In these days of Hanukka, which commemorate our forefathers'
victory against Greek cultural imperialism, it is perhaps best
to quote the closing words of the Rambam (Maimonides) in his
Laws of Megilla and Hanukka (4:14):

   "Great is peace, for the whole Torah was given to make peace in
the world, as it is written, 'Its ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all its paths are peace'" (Proverbs 3:17).

Shalom,

Shaul Wallach