Baka Jerusalem – Baka neighborhood, Derech Beit Lehem, corner of Yiftach Street, 1948.
The Baka neighborhood in southern Jerusalem was established at the end of the 19th century near the Jerusalem train station which is located on David Ramez Street, in front of today’s Khan Theater.
The first buildings built at the end of the 19th century were simple and basic buildings, used by the workers who built the train station.
At the beginning of 1920, the old buildings used by the builders of the train station were demolished, and the beginning of construction of today’s Baka neighborhood began.
The neighborhood was established as one of the few Arab neighborhoods established outside the walls of the Old City, and most of its residents were affluent families who left the walls of the Old City, Muslims, Christians, Armenians, and Orthodox Greeks.
The new residents built spacious houses of one or two stories, in an architectural style that combined Eastern and Western schools of construction –
High ceilings, arches, stone coverings in varying textures, painted floors, and spacious yards.
Even back then, the proximity to the train and the transport routes was a real estate advantage and brought with them affluent and well-off populations.
Most of the area of the neighborhood is designated for agricultural crops, because of the flat topographical area, which is why the neighborhood was called Baka-
A valley between the hills that surround the area.
On the eve of the War of Independence, about 1,200 residents lived in the neighborhood in dozens of luxurious houses of the wealthy Arabs of that time.
As the battles of the War of Independence drew to a close, the Arab residents fled to Jordan, and the neighborhood was abandoned, becoming the urban border line between occupied Jerusalem and the territories of the Jordanian kingdom, territories that waited patiently until the Six Days War, in which the city was unified.
In the historical photo from 1948, at the corner of today’s Yiftach Street, the neighborhood and the spacious houses that were abandoned by the newly formed IDF and the military governor of the southern region of that time were fenced off, and the fence ran along the street through Bethlehem.
Later, Jewish refugees who fled the Jewish Quarter settled in abandoned houses, and new immigrants who had just arrived in Israel, refugees from the horrors of the war in Europe, found a safe haven.
We will expand on the continued construction of the neighborhood and the transformations that have taken place over the years on another occasion.
This is our Jerusalem-
Workers who built the railroad and the train station of Jerusalem, magnificent houses full of grandeur, built by Christian and Muslim residents who left the Old City and abandoned their homes during the war, which were later inhabited by Jewish refugees who fled the Old City.
A game of musical chairs in a city that never rests for a moment, passing between conquerors and conquered, wars, occupation, refugees, and blood for 3,000 years, until the establishment of the Jewish Home in the Land of Israel.
Shabbat of peace far and near from Jerusalem
Photo – The National Archives.
