Yara Saqfalhait was a finalist in the Berkeley architectural essay competition for architecture with the theme of “sacred spaces.” She told me, “Being from the Holy Land, I could have written about a church or mosque, but I chose instead to write about Al-Bireh’s vegetable market, the Hisbeh. Newly under threat of being moved to make way for commercial construction, the Hisbeh has persisted for decades as open space in a city that Yara calls “terrified of the void.”
I had the pleasure of meeting Yara at a creative nonfiction class with Marcello Di Cinto sponsored by Palestine Writing Workshop. She studied architecture in Birzeit University, and now works in an architectural design office while pursuing her passion for writing about local spaces in Palestine “… in an attempt to expand people’s perception of space and architecture beyond the physical dimension.”
I am grateful to Yara for her willingness to share two short excerpts from her long essay, which she agreed to do on the condition that YOU, dear reader, would comment, reflect, share and advise. Yara is one of many young Palestinian writers with important ideas, deep insight, and delicious expression. Enjoy!
Part One: Open space in a city terrified of the void: The case of “Al Hisbeh” by Yara Saqfalhait
Ramallah’s history, in most books, is a poetic narration of the story of a small village plunging into urbanity and becoming a highly acclaimed regional metropolis. As opposed to its fellow historically-rooted opponents in the West Bank—Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron— Ramallah is a young city of ‘emergency solutions’ that still struggles to present an identity of its own. I remember my elementary school books in which the section about Ramallah came after a long list of other Palestinian cities including mention of unfamiliar Ottoman leaders’ names, British treaties, and countless “significant” dates. Not much was included except for mentioning that the central location of the city and its temperate climate have made it a popular summer destination for Palestinians, as opposed to warm Jericho where most went for winter. I used to get amused by the idea that there was a time when Palestinians actually moved in search of convenient weather.
The center of Ramallah is a sea of overlapping situations; signs of proud consumerist dominance, architecture that has clearly lost the battle with the investment market, four very lonely palm trees on which falls all the responsibility to prove that greenery was not completely left out, sidewalks providing much more than just a pedestrian walking place, and spontaneous improvisations ranging from vendors’ striking attempts to personalize what would otherwise be neutral shops arriving to the popular sesame bread trolleys.
In the middle of that chaos, and along the city’s most crowded street, resides the vegetable market, locally known as the ‘Hisbeh’. It’s one of the few features of the city that was not affected — yet — by rising land prices; almost everything around it was dramatically changed through the years, but the market was left to develop according to a pace of its own, as if it was restricted The Latin word is sacer, and translates back to English: sacred.
Starting out as a weekly bazaar and developing into a fixed market, the Hisbeh has managed to persist in the face of a violent wave of construction that the city has witnessed with the breakthrough of the ‘peace negotiations’ in 1993. The prospect of peace caused Ramallah to become a destination, not for summer vacationers this time, but for prosperous investors, mostly Palestinians coming back from the United States after promises of stability appeared on the horizon, as well as for job seekers coming from all over the region. The city’s population almost doubled, and so did construction. What was built during the period from 1994 to 1999 alone was equivalent to 50% of what was built in the city throughout its history. It was then, also, that the first multi-story commercial buildings started to appear, with the first one breaking ground in 1994.
This story will be continued in the next post! With photos!
Dina AK says
Great work, Yara. Can’t wait to read the rest! 🙂
Aya Tahhan says
For some reason I never thought of the Hisbeh as a sacred space and probably took it for granted, yet my point of view has definetly changed now.
When thinking of open spaces in Ramallah, one probably thinks of Al-Manarah and -what is called now- Yasser Arafat Square, neglecting other equally important open spaces that need our attention as well.
In Ramallah, this growing city, people’s interests, priorities and ideas have changed to meet up with the consuming society; that’s why I think we, Palestinians, are in a very critical point, we need to rearrange our priorities. Architecture can tell a lot about a society; when we get our priorities right, architecture would get right as well, and vice versa.
Great job Yara, can’t wait to read the rest of the essay 🙂
admin says
Yara’s discussion of the Hisbeh as a sacred space made me try to see the sacred in all the spaces where I live and move. It’s not always easy to find something sacred in my car or at the kid’s school, but I think looking for it is healthy for me.
Great job Yara! I think this country needs a lot of critical essays like yours, and this topic is just ignored in the city, while keeping people busy with their neoliberal “modern” life. I am waiting to read the rest of the essay. I am really glad we have talented people like you writing about sensitive issues, and PLEASE go on doing this because research in this country is just loosing it’s value since all the research’s incentive is MONEY, not knowledge, neither passion. Good luck and keep the spirit.
Thanks for your feedback Rami. It is a sensitive issue that requires collective effort. I think that in order to reclaim our role the decision making process we should get more involved in understanding our cities and their backgrounds. I agree with you that we have many important issues that are under-researched. Research in Palestine is an important asset for self-directed change; you can’t change what you don’t know enough about. Thanks again for the support.
The American Palestinians were mainly lower to middle class that couldnt really afford to invest in anything outside of a new home for their families. Where the real money and investments came from was from Palestinians in the Gulf – almost all the gated communities and multi-storied commercial buildings are all Gulf investments. You also need to include the influx of the Palestinian Authority and their families -unlike the Palestinains returning from America and Latin America this group was NOT from the West Bank but who moved to the West Bank after 1991 with fancy cars and lots of money and automatic ID cards.
That’s a really good point, Rania. And a lot of people don’t realize that the wealth we see today isn’t wealth at all. It’s borrowed money and people are living far beyond their means. You would think the banks would have learned from the mess they made in the US and Europe, but perhaps not. Must we repeat that horrid history or can we learn to live on what we need and protect our futures?
Rania, that’s an important point that I should include. The sudden influx of investors in the mid nineties has caused random construction focusing on quantity rather than quality and aiming at creating an illusion of stability which has left us with a bubble on the verge of bursting anytime. Thank you for your comment.
I loved your way of expressing thougts yara! Im waiting the other parts as well 🙂
I agree with you, Samar!
Thanks a lot Samar, and I’m waiting to know what you think when you read it.
nice work Yara , and thx for publishing this piece Nora ,,,
waiting for the next part :))
Thanks for reading Kefah. Do you think having read the essay will change the way you see the Hisbeh next time you shop there?
Thank you Kifah. I’m interested to know what do you think about this subject.