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Professor Itamar Rabinowich
President
Tel-Aviv University
Dear Professor Rabinowich,
We are writing you with a rather unusual request. As you are undoubtedly aware, the campus of the Tel-Aviv University was built on land belonging to the village of Sheikh Muwanis. With the development of the campus, there is almost no sign of the village, with the salient exception of the Green House, which has become the University's clubhouse in Marcel Gordon's name. We ask you to modestly commemorate this erased past.
This letter is signed by employees and students of Tel-Aviv University; by descendents of the Palestinians who lived in Sheikh Muwanis until 1948; and by members of the "Zochorot" Foundation, whose goal is to bring up the Palestinians’ life in the period before 1948 to the consciousness of the Israeli people. We all believe that only by true and brave historical recognition will it be possible to build a just future in this torn country. Being a historian, you‘d probably agree with us that a first rate cultural institution such as Tel-Aviv University should give an example of historical recognition.
Our request is that Tel-Aviv University would contribute to this historical recognition. We thought of the following ways for proper remembrance, but we would be happy to discuss with you other possibilities:
1. An explicit mention of the Palestinian past in the manifesto that describes the ‘Green House’, and on a plaque to be hung on one of its walls. The present manifesto blurs this past. Regarding the relevant years, it is mentioned that since 1924, parts of the village's lands were sold. Right after that we learn that in 1948 a Lechi camp was set up in the village, and that after the State was established, housing was set up for Machal and Air Force personnel in the village. Nothing is mentioned about what had happened to the Palestinian residents, and in fact their very existence is not mentioned explicitly. Academic research carried out at Tel Aviv University itself fills in the missing details, and it should therefore be easy to briefly mention them in the University's Club manifesto. A note on the sign that is placed on the building, stating that it was established on the grounds belonging to Ibrahim Abu-Cachil from the village of Sheikh Muwanis should also be added. The current manifesto, as well as the present sign, show the historical facts in a warped fashion, which does not become a respectable institution such as Tel Aviv University.
Placing a memorial sign in a central position in the University campus that will mention that it was built, at least partially, on lands belonging to the Palestinian Village of Sheikh Muwanis.
In many cultural sites throughout the world it is customary to put up memorial signs of the kind suggested above, specifying the history of the place. Denial and suppression of the past would yield bitterness and rage. The way to reconciliation goes through acknowledging memories.
Eitan Bronstein
ZOCHROT
Zochrot: The disaster (El-Nakba) of the Palestinians is silenced and absent from the physical and cultural view of Israel. The aim of Zochrot is to recognize the moral debt for the wrong doings caused to the Palestinian people by the Israeli state and its institutions. We organize activities such as posting signs at demolished Palestinian villages, the study and translation to Hebrew of the history and geography of the Nakba, the creation of a data base and the collection of maps of the demolished villages and cities, as well as developing educational materials about the Nakba in Hebrew. We believe that the presence of the Nakba in the Hebrew language, accessible for Israeli Jews, will change the political discourse in the region and allow progress towards a just solution.
Write to:
Professor Itamar Rabinowich
President
University of Tel-Aviv
P.O. Box 39040
Tel Aviv 69978
ISRAEL
or e-mail: please BCC all e-mails to SheikhMuwanis@yahoo.com
page last updated 18 February, 2004