City of Oranges

by Adam LeBor

  CITY OF ORANGES

  Arabs and Jews in Jaffa

  Adam LeBor

  For my mother, Brenda LeBor

  Two important phenomena, of the same nature but opposed, are emerging at this moment in Asiatic Turkey. They are the awakening of the Arab nation and the latent efforts of the Jews to reconstitute on a very large scale the ancient kingdom of Israel. These movements are destined to fight each other continually until one of them wins.

  Arab writer Najib Azouri,

  Le Reveil de la Nation Arabe, 1905

  Contents

  Dramatis personae

  Introduction

  Part One

  1 A Battered Bride

  2 Tel Aviv Is Born

  3 Jaffa Strikes

  4 A Widening Divide

  5 Palestine Beckons

  6 Days of Hunger

  7 The White City Shines

  8 Jaffa Prepares for War

  9 Al-Nakba – The Catastrophe

  10 Jaffa Has New Masters

  11 Sofia-by-the-Sea

  Part Two

  12 Coming Home to Jaffa

  13 New Lives

  14 Repopulating Jaffa

  15 Saving Old Jaffa

  16 Six Days that Shook the World

  17 The Ghosts of Old Jaffa

  18 War, Once More

  19 Talking and Fighting

  20 Seaside Urban Sprawl

  21 Going Home to the Sea

  22 Gaza Comes to Jaffa

  23 Separation

  24 Islam on the March

  25 A Possible Future

  Afterword

  Plate Section

  Maps

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Acknowledgements

  Chronology

  Bibliography

  Notes

  Author’s note

  A Note on the Author

  List of illustrations and Picture Credits

  Further praise for City of Oranges

  By the Same Author

  Dramatis Personae

  ABULAFIA

  Khamis

  Director of the Abulafia bakery, journalist

  ABOU-SHEHADE

  Ismail

  Fisherman in Jaffa port during the 1960s

  Sami

  Grandson of Ismail, postgraduate student at Tel Aviv University

  AHARONI

  Yoram

  Born Yaakov Yosefov in Bulgaria, former member of the Stern Group, owner of Tiv spice and coffee shop, father of Ofer

  Rina

  Wife of Yoram, former Stern Group member

  Ofer

  Lives in Jaffa, veteran of 1973 and 1982 wars

  ALBO

  Sami

  Born in Turkey, Jaffa Jewish community activist

  ANDRAUS

  Amin (elder)

  Leader of Jaffa’s Arabs after 1948, businessman

  Leila

  Eldest daughter of Amin Andraus, administrator at Tabeetha School

  Salim

  Son of Amin Andraus, retired accountant

  Wedad

  Middle daughter of Amin Andraus, teacher at Tabeetha School

  Suad

  Youngest daughter of Amin Andraus, British pro-consul

  Amin (younger)

  Grandson of above, lawyer in Tel Aviv

  Robyn (Amina)

  Sister of Amin (younger), teacher in Jaffa

  CHELOUCHE

  Avraham

  Founder of the Chelouche dynasty in Jaffa. Father of Aharon, Rica, Hannah

  Aharon (elder)

  Jeweller and money-changer in late nineteenth-century Jaffa. Father of Yaakov, Yosef Eliyahu and Avraham Haim

  Aharon

  Former dean of students at Tel Aviv University, great-grandson of above

  Avraham Haim

  Father of David, Marco, Zaki and Simha

  David

  Son of Avraham Haim Chelouche, husband of Julia

  Edith

  Daughter of David and Julia Chelouche

  Jacob

  Son of Shlomo, lives in Tel Aviv

  Julia (nèe Bohbout)

  Wife of David Chelouche, mother of Edith

  Yaakov

  Treasurer of Anglo-Palestine Bank in early twentieth century, father of Shlomo and Gabriel

  Shlomo

  Organiser of emigration to Israel of Moroccan Jews, son of Yaakov

  Mary (nèe Hayon)

  Wife of Shlomo

  Yosef Eliyahu

  Brother of Yaakov and Avraham Haim, husband of Freha, father of seven children. Businessman and community leader

  Zaki

  Architect in 1930s Tel Aviv

  Marco

  Brother of Zaki

  Pomrock, Simha (née Chelouche)

  Wife of Yosef, mother of Zvi

  Pomrock, Yosef

  Husband of Simha Chelouche, father of Zvi

  Pomrock, Zvi

  Chelouche family archivist, son of Simha Chelouche and Yosef Pomrock

  GEDAY

  Youssef Kamel

  Pharmacist from old Jaffa family, father of Fakhri

  Fakhri

  Pharmacist, son of Youssef Kamel

  HAMMAMI

  Shaker

  Textile merchant in early twentieth-century Jaffa, father of Ahmad, grandfather of Hasan

  Ahmad Shaker

  Worked in citrus industry, left Jaffa in 1948 with wife Nafise and nine children including Hasan, Mustafa and Fadwa

  Nafise (née Shattila)

  Wife of Ahmad

  Hasan

  Former manager with Procter & Gamble, lives in Florida, father of Rema

  Mustafa

  Brother of Hasan, lives in Toronto

  Hasna, Fadwa (née Hammami)

  Sister of Hasan, widow of Suleiman Fadwa, lives in East Jerusalem

  Rema

  Professor of anthropology at Bir Zeit University, Palestinian Territories

  Said

  PLO ambassador to London, assassinated 1978, cousin of Hasan

  MEISLER

  Frank

  Born in Danzig, architect and sculptor

  Michal

  Daughter of Frank

  OTHERS

  Moyal, Mazal

  Grandmother of Julia Chelouche

  Nachmias, Yoseph

  Irgun veteran of the April 1948 battle for Jaffa

  Topaz, Moris

  Doctor, treats victims of suicide bombings

  Buchbinder, Behira

  Jewish resident of Ajami, community activist

  Bohbout, Josef

  Jewish businessman in early twentieth-century Jaffa, father of Julia Chelouche

  Ezraty, Igal

  Director of Local Theatre, Hebrew language company at Jaffa’s Arabic-Hebrew Theatre

  Jahshan, Adib

  Director of El-Saraya, Arabic theatre company at Jaffa’s Arabic-Hebrew Theatre

  Goughti, Ali

  Teacher in Jaffa

  Kaldes, Yaron

  Chief of Jaffa’s detectives

  Lahat, Shlomo

  Mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa 1974–93

  NB: to ease the reader’s path through the narrative, not all children, siblings and wives are included above, only those who play a part in the book.

  Introduction

  One of my favourite places in Jaffa is a bench on the walkway overlooking the beach. To the right stretches the expanse of Tel Aviv – a jumble of tower block hotels shimmering in the summer heat, the city sprawling inland behind them. To the left, an older and more soothing vista: the sandstone buildings of the Jaffa seafront, the minaret of the Jami’a al-bahr, the mosque by the sea, and the tree-lined slopes that stretch from the top of Old Jaffa down to the water. There is always something to watch: the
turquoise waves topped with white as they break on the sand and rocks; a flotilla of small fishing boats bobbing in the distance; the slim man practising Tai-chi for hours; a class of Arab schoolgirls wearing modest headscarves, traipsing across the sand, past the archaeological excavation of the old Ottoman seawall.

  Was I sitting in Jaffa or Tel Aviv? I couldn’t be sure. There is no formal boundary or demarcation. The two cities are neighbours, and Jaffa has now been absorbed into Tel Aviv. But history and memory are more enduring than the decision of municipal bureaucrats. The relationship between ancient Jaffa and twentieth-century Tel Aviv is a metaphor for that between Israel and the Palestinians. As much as and perhaps even more than Jerusalem, Jaffa has played a central role in the history of Israel and Palestine. Jerusalem was Palestine’s spiritual capital, but Jaffa, known as the ‘Bride of Palestine’, was its political and cultural centre. It is ironic then that Tel Aviv, the modern Hebrew city, was founded as a suburb of Jaffa in the early twentieth century. The early Zionist pioneers saw Jaffa as crumbling and unhygienic. The answer, they decided, was to build new European-style settlements on its fringes to house the Jewish immigrants pouring in from Russia and eastern Europe. By the 1920s the new Jewish suburbs of Neve Tsedek, Neve Shalom, Ahuzat Bayit and others had evolved into a fully-fledged city. Tel Aviv was no longer the child of Jaffa, but its sibling rival. Its very architecture was a political statement. The ‘White City’ soon enjoyed the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. Their clean, ascetic lines, and open-plan design were a response, even a challenge, to the oriental maze of Old Jaffa – a statement that in the heart of the Levant it was possible to live a ‘modern’, European lifestyle.

  But Tel Aviv did not have the only claim on modernity. Jaffa too boasted newspapers, cinemas, theatres, a radio station, cultural and literary associations, even boxing and other sports champions that were the pride of Palestine. Its oranges, especially the sweet and juicy Shamouti, were famed the world over, and kept many thousands in gainful employment, including the Jewish traders who bought and sold the fruit. All that came to an end in a few days in April 1948, when the Irgun launched a ferocious mortar bombardment against Jaffa. By 13 May, when Jaffa surrendered, just a few thousand of its original population of about a hundred thousand remained. Almost the entire city had fled, either on land to the West Bank or Jordan, or by boat to Gaza and Lebanon.

  The Bride of Palestine was swiftly abandoned. Most of Jaffa’s inhabitants believed they would be back in a couple of weeks, once the fighting was over and the Jews defeated. They were wrong, and few have ever returned. Jaffa herself has paid the price. The beautiful Ottoman villas of the Ajami and Jebaliyyeh quarters crumbled into disrepair. Hundreds of homes were eventually demolished, and the rubble dumped on the beach. Tel Aviv thrived and expanded many miles inland and up the coast, while Jaffa decayed. At least the ancient heart of the city, dating back to the Biblical era, was saved from the wreckers’ balls and restored. Old Jaffa is now home to trendy art galleries and smart jewellery shops. Better renovated than demolished, yet even Old Jaffa’s inhabitants admit there is something unreal about its spotless, shiny alleys, bereft of their original inhabitants.

  There are libraries full of books on the Israeli-Arab conflict. But none so far has focused primarily on the human story, on the lives of real people from both sides. Of course no single work can capture the intricacy of a century-old struggle, but I hope the people featured in this book give a sense of its complexity and its human dimension. They are Muslim, Christian and Jewish. They are middle class and working class. They are artisans and intellectuals, artists and businessmen. Some are left-wing, others right-wing. In short, human beings, in all their variety and contradictions.

  Jaffa is a comparatively small place, with a population of just over 45,000, of whom about two thirds are Israeli Jews and one third Israeli Arabs. It can be walked from end to end in an hour. As I explained what I was attempting to do, friends introduced me to friends, and many doors opened in both communities. On the Arab side, my starting point was to find families who had lived in Jaffa since before 1948. Almost all of Jaffa’s once prosperous middle class had fled, but the Geday and Andraus families had remained. Fakhri Geday’s pharmacy shop on Yefet Street is a Jaffa institution. The Gedays can trace back their roots in Jaffa for eight generations. Fakhri, born in 1927, still lives in the spacious stone house built by his ancestors in the nineteenth century, and is a fount of memories of pre-1948 Jaffa. A short drive away, on the outskirts of the city, live the Andraus sisters, Suad, Leila and Wedad, in a beautiful 1930s villa overlooking the sea, built by their late father, Amin. Stepping inside the Andraus home is like travelling back in time to the days of Mandate Palestine. Courteous and welcoming, the Andraus sisters, all in their sixties, are living testimony to the legacy of their father. Amin was born in 1898 and educated at the Schneller German boarding school in Jerusalem, and his self-reliance and strong moral sense helped him take on the role of community leader after 1948. Amin sent his children to Jordan for sanctuary, but stayed on in his house, together with his mother, Haya, surrounded by sandbags. When Jaffa finally capitulated, he was one of those who signed the surrender agreement with the new Israeli authorities and negotiated supplies of food and water, as well as security, for the few remaining Arabs.

  Most of those who stayed were not part of Jaffa’s haute bourgeoisie. Ismail Abou-Shehade, born in 1924, was a mechanic. In fact he had originally wanted to be a qadi, an Islamic judge, but the outbreak of war in 1939 prevented him from studying in Cairo. Ismail later thrived financially, and opened a fishing business in Jaffa’s port. I found Ismail after I had read about his grandson Sami, a student at Tel Aviv University, in the Israeli press. Sami is part of the new generation of Arab Israelis who call themselves Palestinians. Eloquent and confident, he uses the freedoms of Israeli democracy to articulate the Palestinian national cause. Sami is now a fixture in Jaffa, as he organises regular walking tours, recounting the city’s story from the Palestinian perspective.

  Here, then, were those who stayed. But most of Jaffa’s Arab population did not, and the experience of exile and dispossession is central to Palestinian history. My search for a family who fled in 1948 led me, through various journalist contacts in Jerusalem, to Rema Hammami, a professor of anthropology at Bir Zeit University. Rema sent me first to her aunt, Fadwa. As Rema promised, Fadwa was ‘full of Jaffa lore’ and told me much about her childhood before 1948, the trauma of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe, and the years afterwards. Fadwa in turn led me to her brother, Hasan, Rema’s father. After a successful career at Procter & Gamble, Hasan had retired to Florida. We began a lengthy correspondence by email and eventually met in Budapest. Hasan’s moving memories range from those of his days as a small boy in Jaffa – when the Andraus sisters were forbidden from playing with him as he was thought too boisterous – to his years working across the Arab world, studying in Britain, and eventually settling in the United States. They include a fascinating, if depressing, interlude in Gaza, when he tried unsuccessfully to bring his business expertise to the Arafat regime.

  The Geday and Andraus families are Christian, the Hammamis and Abou-Shehades Muslim. For the Jewish families I also sought a mix that represented different aspects of Jewish and Israeli history: Ashkenazi, eastern European Jews who had fled the Holocaust; Sephardic and Arabic-speaking Jews; those rooted in Ottoman-era Palestine and comparatively recent arrivals. I began with the Chelouches, one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. Together with his family, Avraham Chelouche arrived in Jaffa from north Africa in the mid-nineteenth century. The Chelouches soon prospered. They used the profits from their jewellery and money-changing business to finance the building of the first Jewish suburbs of Jaffa, which eventually led to the establishment of Tel Aviv. Arabic speaking, Oriental in their culture, the Chelouches were an organic part of the Middle East. Avraham’s descendants, such as Aharon and Shlomo, helped to build up both the Yishuv – the Zionist
state-in-waiting – and Israel itself after 1948, becoming part of the country’s civic and business elite. In many ways, their story encapsulates that of Israel and its relations with both its Arab minority and its neighbours.

  Like Fakhri Geday’s pharmacy, Yoram Aharoni’s coffee and spice shop Tiv – ‘quality’ – was also a Jaffa institution, open for fifty years. Yoram fled Bulgaria in March 1941, the night the Nazis invaded, arriving in Palestine after a perilous voyage. Arrested immediately by the British authorities, he joined the extremist Stern Group on his release in 1942, and lived underground for almost six years, fighting the British. With the war over, Yoram and his father Shabat opened their shop. Tiv’s stocks of coffee and spices reflected Jaffa’s waves of Jewish immigrants after 1948. The Balkan Jews who poured into Jaffa bought paprika and black pepper, but when the Jews from north Africa began arriving in the 1950s, Yoram soon became expert in grading cumin, cinnamon and the fiery red peppers used in Moroccan cuisine. Decades later, Yoram’s son Ofer returned to Jaffa, not to work, but to live, one of a pioneering wave of renovators who rebuilt the crumbling houses from the Ottoman era.