Lifta

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Lifta

---

imgsize=250
caption=Derelict houses line the hillside of Lifta
arname=لفتا
meaning=
altSp=Lefta
district=jl
population=2,550
popyear=1945
area=8,743
areakm=8.7
cause=M
curlocl=Western suburb of Jerusalem
date=by February 1948

Lifta ( _ar. لفتا; _he. מי נפתוח "Mei Niftoach", lit. spring of; Aramaic for corridor ) was a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem which existed since biblical times and is named after Pharaoh Merneptah. It was the north most demarcation point of the territory of the Tribe of Judah [http://mikranet.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=9514] . In recent history, the last Arab residents left by February 1948. Located in Israel, the village, which was originally five kilometers west of the Old City of Jerusalem, has been overtaken by the growing city. Its still vacant homes and the spring for which it is named are now a park on the hillside between Highway 1's western entrance into the city and the Romema neighbourhood.

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. [http://www.christnotes.org/dictionary.php?dict=sbd&id=3170] The Romans and Byzantines called it "Nephtho", and the Crusaders referred to it as "Clepsta".

In 1834, there was a battle in which the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha and his army defeated local rebels, led by al-Shaykh Qasim al-Ahmad, a prominent local ruler.

In 1917 the villagers received the British forces with white flags and, as a symbolic gesture, the keys to the village. (Gilbert, 157-168)

On the 28th December 1947 five or six people were shot dead by Irgun or Lehi members in a village coffee house.Fact|date=February 2007 The village was attacked during the next weeks, and by February 1948 the village was completely depopulated, when the villagers left to what would become Jordanian East Jerusalem.

In 1948 the population was about 2,500. There was one school for boys and one for girls in the village, which was mostly Muslim.

Culture

Lifta was known to be among the wealthiest communities in the Jerusalem area, and their embroiderers were reported to be among the most artistic. [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199101/woven.legacy.woven.language.htm] "Thob Ghabani" bridal dresses were very popular in Lifta and in Malha. These dresses were made of "ghabani", a natural cotton covered with gold color silk floral embroidery produced in Aleppo, and were much more narrow than other dresses and with sleeves which were not as wide as normal. The sides, sleeves and chest panel of the dress were all adorned with silk insets. These dresses were normally ordered from Bethlehem by the future bride. (Stillman, p. 42, 44 (ill.)) The married women of Lifta used the distinctive conical "shaṭweh" head-dress [http://www.palestineheritage.org/dec_201.gif] , embellished with their bride-money. Beside being used in Bethlehem, it was only used in Lifta, Ain Karm, Beit Jala and Beit Sahur. (Stillman p.37)

According to Yakov Sapir one Balady citron tree herein, was grafted, and unfit for the Jewish ritual Etrog.

References

*Major Vivian Gilbert: "The Romance of the last Crusade," London, 1936
*Yedida Kalfol Stillman: "Palestinian Costume and Jewelry," 1979, ISBN 0-8263-0490-7

ee also

*List of Irgun attacks during the 1930s
*List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
*Palestinian costumes

External links and references

* [http://www.seamless-israel.org/Lifta-main-interviews-Yakub.html Yakub Odeh: Lifta refugee]
* [http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=186 Remembering Lifta] February 25, 2005
* [http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=451 F.A.S.T. - Lifta Preservation Joint project on the reconstruction of memory and the presrvation of Lifta] May 14, 2006
* [http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=171 Zochrot appeals to the Regional Planning Committee to oppose plans to build on the remains of Lifta]