GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – The large 500-year-old brick walls of the al-Kamalaia School slowly emerged from years of accumulated rubbish while grassroots preservers began the long process of restoring it to its former glory.
Located in the heart of the old quarter of Gaza City, the Mamluk-era building is part of a growing number of historic structures at risk of demolition.
“I was in a very difficult and pitiful state. It was a dump, ”said Abdullah al-Ruzzi, an artist and an important volunteer.
Al-Ruzzi and other artists launched the Mobaderoon program, or Initiators, seeking to save abandoned houses and buildings from two periods in Gaza’s history: the Mamluk Sultanate and the subsequent Ottoman Empire.
In the old section of the Palestinian enclave, less than 200 houses from those times are partially or fully standing, according to tourist authorities. They are threatened by abandonment, decay or even demolition by new urban development.
“The lack of public awareness and economic considerations on the part of the owners are the biggest threats to these buildings,” said Ahmed al-Astal, director of Iwan, the Islamic University of Gaza’s history and heritage institute. “These houses are our identity, but ignorance leads to their destruction.”
Because the Gaza Strip is small, with 2 million people living on just 300 square kilometers (115 square miles), experts and volunteers fear that the structures of past centuries will disappear, like those of much older civilizations.
Population growth, conflict with Israel and mismanagement by Hamas, the militant group that has governed Gaza since 2007, have contributed to erasing many signs of Gaza’s five millennia of history. The territory was enriched by its privileged location along the route that connected ancient Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia. For example, Hamas bulldozers destroyed large parts of a rare 4,500-year-old Bronze Age settlement to make way for a housing project.
Mobaderoon is one of the few organizations that seek to preserve the ancient sites of Gaza City. But their efforts are usually limited in scope and lack systematic plans.
The team took two weeks to remove the rubbish from the al-Kamalaia school, which is named after a Mamluk sultan. Every day, boys and girls gather there, sweeping the dusty floor, brushing the bricks and supporting the windows with wooden frames.
Once the renovation is complete, al-Ruzzi says the goal is to make the building a place for cultural and artistic activities, because there are few such facilities in Gaza.
“This is the only school that still maintains its architectural stance, it still has classrooms. Of course, this school was used until recently in the education and memorization of the Koran because it is in the old city, ”said Jamal Abu Rida, director of the archeology department at the Gaza Ministry of Tourism.
Gaza residents are concerned about financial problems, battling a 13-year-old Israeli-Egyptian blockade and battling a coronavirus outbreak that has affected the health system. Campaigns to protect heritage and archaeological sites are not the top priorities, but they are welcome.
“The initiatives are very important because they aim to preserve the cultural legacy,” said al-Astal.
A few blocks from the school, a different team is working on renovating a house, the Ghussein palace, named after the family that has owned it for 200 years. Workers scraped the bricks to remove layers of dust that hid their features. Others took measurements for the door frames.
The works started in this house in August and are scheduled to be completed in January. “It has been left for a long time and has many cracks and problems,” said Nashwa Ramlawi, the architect who led the restoration. “The place has great heritage and cultural value. We will dedicate it to anything that serves the community; a cultural, service or social center open to all. “