Home UpHebron 3: the Old City's Rehabilitation

For a podcast episode about this place, visit The Places Where We Belong and find Chapter 4, Part 3.

Goaded by Israeli construction in the Old City and fearful that Palestinians would gradually be evicted, the Palestinian Authority with Saudi funding embarked on an immense program of reconstruction in the old city. The work won a major award from the Aga Khan Foundation, and it's easy to see why.

The easy part is fixing the public spaces, like this sign for milk-market street.

Here, on a Saturday morning when things are quiet, a crew was about to resurface the qusseba with stone paving. Goodbye, asphalt.

The heavy work was in fixing up the compound houses so people would once again want to live in them.

This is one of the many alleys off the qusseba that were remortared, plastered, painted, and fitted with electric lighting.

The irregular design is typical of Hebron and perhaps more interesting than the heavily Europeanized designs found in Bethlehem.

An opening for someone to chat with someone in the courtyard below.

This restored hallway, massive as a Crusader fortress, serves several compound houses.

There are no maps of the Old City, apart from a careful drawing done about 1930 by the British. Even with that map in hand, it's easy to get confused.

The following pictures, taken during rehabilitation, give some sense of the unique forms being created in these old buildings. The market here is low-income Palestinian families, but the units are all equipped with completely new facilities, including water and sewage mains, electricity, kitchens and bathrooms.

Utilities are being run. The characteristic ingenuity of local masons is displayed by the improvised stone beams, tying together two buildings abutting at an odd angle.

Stone walls and plastered vaults. Electrical lines are sunk in the plaster, but the stone walls are remortared and even dismantled as necessary.

Doorways are true, but walls are often free form, especially where plaster covers utilities.

Some of the stairs require agility.

Another tricky staircase.

The arches have been left unplastered—a nice touch. Demand for renovated apartments like these is high, and there have been cases where owners have decided to return, years after having abandoned the old family home to tenants. (Caption written before the Second Intifada.)

The renovation work was divided among many different contractors. Some were better than others, especially contractors using impermeable cement instead of lime plaster. Here, a ceiling was already showing signs of damage from water percolating through the massive, rubble-filled walls.