History
The Hassan Bek Mosque was built in 1916, by Jaffa's Turkish-Arab governor of the same name. At the time, Arab Jaffa and the recently-founded Jewish-Tel-Aviv were both competitively expanding northwards and seeking to block each other; the mosque was part of Manshiye, Jaffa's northernmost neighbourhood which spread northwards along the Mediterranean seashore.
Some years after its construction, Tel-Aviv's Allenby Street was extended to the seashore some distance north of the mosque, blocking further Arab construction.
According to Yosef Nahmias, former member of the Irgun unit which conquered the area in April 1948, he and his men planted demolition charges in the Hassan Bek Mosque immediately upon its capture and prepared to blow it up, but this was strictly vetoed by his commander Menachem Begin (future Israeli PM ).
Also at various later times there were plans and proposals made to demolish the mosque, but they were never carried out. However, the rest of the former Palestinian houses surrounding Hassan Bek, whose original inhabitants now live in Gaza Strip refugee camps, were all destroyed, some in the immediate aftermath of 1948 and some in the Tel Aviv city renovation plan of the 1960s.
The place of the razed Arab housing was taken by high-rise office buildings and a park, as well as the sea-shore Dolphinarium (used first for dolphin performances, stopped due to protests by animal rights groups, and than transformed into a nightclub - which was to become tragically famous in 2001). The Hassan Bek Mosque - spared due to the state and municipal authorities hesitating to be seen as desecrating a Muslim holy place - remained a single remnant of the area's pre-1948 past.
Read more about this topic: Hassan Bek Mosque
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)