The Nabi Musa Festival with Awad Halabi

02/23/22 • 74 min

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The Nabi Musa festival dates back centuries, an Islamic celebration of the Prophet Moses that started at the end of the Crusader period. While the festival was abolished by the British during the Mandate it had been revived later under the Jordanians and more recently under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority. The festival is deeply connected with Nabi Musa, the alleged tomb of Moses and developed through the centuries as a display of local Islamic and then civic identity of Palestine. In this episode Awad Alaby tells us everything about Nabi Musa and the festival, its origin, development and sadly its end. With Awad, we also discussed his family history and how important will be in the future to develop a strong family history of Palestine, a way of preserving Palestinian heritage and celebrate life. In the end we also discussed the question of the podcast as a public history tool, one that can discuss the complex history of Jerusalem and its people without making it simplistic.

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/jerusalemunplugged.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

The deal of the century? Cemal Pasha's attempt to sell the Western Wall in 1916

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In this special episode of Jerusalem Unplugged with no guest, I will tell you the story of a neglected and forgotten event that took place during the First World War in Jerusalem and might have changed the course of the city's history. In 1916 the Ottoman Military Governor and Commander of Syria and Palestine, Cemal Pasha, offered to Albert Antebi, a local Jewish representative (well respected and openly anti-Zionist) the possibility to purchase the area in front of the Western Wall and to demolish the houses owned by the local Moroccans. In this podcast I will recount the story of the offer and the subsequent debates amongst the member of the Zionist organization. While the money to complete the purchase was collected, many in the Zionist camp were not so eager to move forward and eventually the combination of this factor with a change of mind by Cemal Pasha, the affair did not materialize. Zionist leaders swore to keep the story secret and the story did indeed remain buried in the archives for a long time. While the documents were available, no historian of Zionism ever reported this. It is hard to speculate 'what if' the Western Wall had been sold during the war, what would have happened may not have an easy answer, but if anything else this event tells us that there is a lot more we don't know.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/jerusalemunplugged.

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Next Episode

A view of Jerusalem from the Hebrew University with Abigail Jacobson

In the last episode of season 2, Abigail Jacobson, Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University, shares with us the view of the city from Mount Scopus. The Hebrew University has in the last decade or so diversified its student population, yet the various communities may not necessarily coming together and the only experience is of sharing the same space. Abigail, the author of two amazing works, one on Jerusalem during World War One and the other on the relationship between Oriental Jews and local Arabs, takes us then through the street of Jerusalem during the war discussing the question of a city changing hands. Lastly, while discussing her more recent work, she tells us about a new project that will look at Musrara and its post 1948 history.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/jerusalemunplugged.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.