The Baramski House-Campaign to return it to rightful owners

The Baramki House: The Absent / Present

APJP is supporting the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI's  efforts to return the Baramki House in Jerusalem to its rightful owners, Gabi Baramki and his brother George and Sister Laura

What is the story?

In 1932, the prominent Palestinian architect, Andoni Baramki, built his own breathtaking house in Jerusalem. He dedicated it to his wife, Eveline. In 1948, during the Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign, or Nakba, the Baramki family, like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, were uprooted and ended up briefly in Gaza, and then in Ramallah. The Baramki House was transformed into a military outpost: the Turjeman Post. The building stood on the seam line between what became Israel and what became the West Bank, across from Mandelbaum Gate, the only crossing point between the two sides of the divided city of Jerusalem.

After the 1967 war, Israel occupied the rest of historic Palestine and put the West Bank and Gaza Strip under its military control.  The Mandelbaum Gate was abolished and the military outpost was abandoned. Since Andoni and Eveline Baramki were residents in the now occupied East Jerusalem, they obtained Israeli identity cards from the Israeli authorities. The Israeli army had no more need for the house as a post; so the Baramki family felt their quest to reclaim the House could finally come to fruition. Alas, the family’s request was denied by the Israeli authorities under the racist “present absentee” property law. This infamous law recognizes the presence of Palestinians as “residents or “citizens” of the state of Israel, but absent as far as their own individual property is concerned. Using this law, in clear violation of international law, Israel was able to confiscate thousands of Palestinians’ land plots and homes, even in cases where the Palestinian owners remained in Israel itself and became citizens of the state.

Until his death in 1972, Andoni Baramki made a habit of visiting his precious house on a daily basis. He would walk around the house a few times every day, never given permission to set foot into it.

What can be done? The story of the Baramki House is only one of thousands of similar stories; but this particular case exemplifies the wider injustice. Suggestions for action:

•    Raising the issue of the Baramki House in each architectural and cultural event in which Israel might be present;

•    Stopping Israel from attending any architectural or cultural event unless it returns the Baramki House to its rightful owners, admits and redresses the injustice inherent in the massive property confiscation based on its “present absentee” law, and rescinds this racist law;

•    Exploring all possibilities to hold the von Holtzbrinck family of Germany (Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, Holtzbrinck family Publishing/Stuttgart, Germany Revenues: $2.2 billion Employees: 12,600  www.holtzbrinck.com/eng) complicit in this crime, as this family effectively facilitated the transfer of private Palestinian property to an Israeli cultural institution, in violation of international -- and possibly German -- law. This generous fund by the German company/ family is just one example of how aid to Israel by Germany, Europe or the US, has made these benefactors partners in the larger crimes committed by the state of Israel. That aid to Israel has invariably helped in covering up Israel's old crimes or facilitating new ones;

•    Pursuing all possible legal options available under international law in order to reclaim the House.

1) For more information see, for example, Masalha, Nur (1992) Expulsion of the Palestinians: the Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies._____ Massalha, Nur (1997) A Land Without a People: Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians 1949-96. London: Faber and Faber.Tom Segev, Arlen Neal Weinstein (Tanslator) (1998) 1949 The First Israelis, Henry Holt & Company,