Left: Hanna Basharat with his family in front of the villa he built in Talbiya in #Jerusalem in 1926.
The Zionist Haganah militia took the villa in 1948
In 1960s, Israel's Foreign Minister Golda Meir lived in the villa.
In 1969 she said "There was no such thing as Palestinians"
2\ Hanna tried to reclaim his house in Israeli courts, but to no avail!
In the villa, lived #Israel's labor minister Mordechai Namir, then Foreign Minister Golda Meir, then Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz, Supreme Court Judge Zvi Berenson, & Finance Ministry official Shlomo Arazi.
3\ In 1977, Hanna's grandson Prof. George Bisharat attempted to visit the Jerusalem villa were his father Dr. Maurice was born.
He rang the doorbell & explained the story to the old Israeli woman that answered.
She shrugged "Your family never lived here."
His pain was compounded
4\ George hesitated to argue, lest she denies him entry. He felt anguish by the need to grovel & beg this stranger to let him enter his family's house.
Her husband soon came. It was Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Zvi Berenson.
He briefly allowed him to only see the living room.
5\ In 1958, then #Israel's Foreign Minister, Golda Meir, met with Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General in this very Bisharat villa.
Her security personnel tore down an inscription on the front of the house in Arabic to obscure the signs of Palestinian ownership & identity.
6\ Recently, the Israeli government put a plaque at the house to mark its uniqueness & importance.
It names the original Palestinian owner Hanna Bisharat, but it makes no mention that he was a Palestinian or how the house was taken from him!
7\ In 2011, James Snyder, the Director of Israel Museum gave a gleeful talk about how he found this & made it his home.
Again, no mention of how it was taken away from its original Palestinian owners.
PS. Correction: the picture to the left is Hanna Bisharat's family. To the right is Shukri Al-Jamal's family, owner of the house across the street from Hanna's. Both homes were taken over by Israel. h/t @EveningSends (Hanna's great grandson).
“I shall continue to struggle till the end of my life. You ask me about my future plans. I have none… Our Villa Harun ar-Rashid in Jerusalem has been stolen…”
- a powerful quote from Hanna & picture of him, courtesy of his great grandson @EveningSends
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