Lifta (; ) was a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village on the outskirts of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. The village's Palestinian Arab inhabitants were expelled by Zionist paramilitary forces during the

1948 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

. During the Ottoman period, the village was recorded to have a population of 400 Arabs, all Muslim households. In 1834, a battle took place in the village during the Palestinian Peasants' Revolt. A British 1922 census registered Lifta's population at 1,451, all Muslims. Prior to 1948, the village had orchards, several olive presses, a winepress, in addition to a modern clinic, two coffeehouses, two carpentry shops, barbershops, a butcher, and a mosque. In the 1945 statistics the population of Lifta was 2,250; 2,230 Muslims and 20 Christians. In addition, a small number of Jews resided in the village, and one former Jewish inhabitant described the relationship her family and the Palestinian Arab majority as 'excellent'. During the

, a massacre occurred on 28 December 1947, when a Jewish militia launched a machine-gun and grenade assault on a cafe in Lifa. The

mukhtar A mukhtar (; ) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the mukhtar "for centuries were the central figures". They "were ...

's home was also incinerated by the Zionist forces and 20 buildings were blown up as the village was put under siege. The village's Palestinian Arab inhabitants were expelled, and the abandoned village was later repopulated by Jewish immigrants until 1970s. In July 2017,

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

declared Lifta (called ''Mei Neftoach'') as a national nature reserve. It has been referred to as the "Palestinian

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

History

Antiquity

A perennial spring located in the channel's upper section is believed to be the site where the village first developed. Surrounding this spring, artifacts including a burial cave and pottery shards from the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

II and

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

II periods were uncovered. Archaeological remains dating as far back as Iron Age II have been found in the village.Lifta and the Regime of Forgetting: Memory Work and Conservation
Daphna Golan, Zvika Orr, Sami Ershied, Jerusalem Quarterly, 2013, Vol. 54, pp 69-81Lifta Documentation and Initial Survey (in Hebrew)
2013, Israeli Antiquities Authority]

Biblical identification

The site is considered by some to be identical with biblical ''Mei Neftoach''. It was populated since ancient times; "Nephtoah" (Hebrew: נפתח, lit. spring of the corridor) is mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

tribes of Judah and

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

, and was the northernmost demarcation point of the territory of the

Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

. Other scholars hold the identification to be plausible but by no means certain. Kitchener and Conder found the identification with Nephtoah unsatisfactory, and preferred to identify Lifta with Eleph of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28).Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP III, p
1847
/ref>

Roman and Byzantine periods

The Romans and Byzantines called it ''Nephtho'', and the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

referred to it as ''Clepsta''.

Crusader period

The remains of a court-yard home from the Crusader period remains in the centre of the village.

Ottoman era

In 1596, Lifta was a village in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of

under the ''

liwa' A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomad ...

'' (district) of

, and it had a population 72

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

households, an estimated 396 persons. It paid taxes on

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

s, fruit orchards and vineyards; a total of 4,800

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. All of the revenue went to a

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

. In 1834, a battle took place here, during the revolt of that year. The Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha and his army fought and defeated local rebels, led by Shaykh Qasim al-Ahmad, a prominent local ruler. However, the Qasim al-Ahmad family remained powerful and ruled the region southwest of Nablus from their fortified villages of Deir Istiya and Bayt Wazan some due north of Lifta. In 1838 Edward Robinson noted Lifta as a

village, located in the ''Beni Malik'' area, west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
123
/ref> Robinson hired

muleteer An ''arriero'', muleteer, or more informally a muleskinner (; ;) is a person who transports goods using pack animals, especially mules. Distribution and function In Latin America, muleskinners transport coffee, maize, maize (corn), cork (mat ...

s from Lifta, noting that in Lifta "every peasant keeps his mule and usually accompanies it". In 1863

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

described Lifta as being surrounded by gardens of lemon-trees, oranges, figs, pomegranates, alms and apricots. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 117 houses and a population of 395, though the population count included men, only. The PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' in 1883 described it as a village on the side of a steep hill, with a spring and rock-cut tombs to the south. In 1896 the population of Lifta was estimated to be about 966 persons. In 1907 the German historian Gustav Rothstein was invited to Lifta by his Arabic language teacher, Elias Nasrallah Haddad. Rothstein wrote a 20-pages article describing the marriage celebrations and religious festivals in Lifta.

British Mandate era

In 1917, Lifta surrendered to the

British forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping ef ...

with white flags and, as a symbolic gesture, the keys to the village. In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

, Lifta had a population 1,451, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
14
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census (when Lifta was counted with " Shneller's Quarter"), to 1,893; 1,844 Muslims, 35 Jews and 14 Christians, in a total of 410 houses. During the

1929 Palestine riots The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising (, ) or the Events of 1929 (, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews ove ...

, according to one Israeli source, some villagers from Lifta were among gangs that participated in a number of robberies and attacks on nearby Jewish communities. In the 1945 statistics the population of Lifta was 2,250; 2,230 Muslims and 20 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
25
/ref> and the total land area was 8,743

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945''. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
57
/ref> 3,248 dunams were for cereals, while 324 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Prior to 1948, the village, with a population of some 2,500 people, had orchards, several olive presses, a winepress, in addition to a modern clinic, two coffeehouses, two carpentry shops, barbershops, a butcher, and a mosque. A small number of Jews resided in the village, and one former Jewish inhabitant described the relationship her family and the Palestinian majority as 'excellent'.

1948 war and depopulation

In the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine Lifta, Romema, and Shaykh Badr which were strategically located on the road leaving Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv, were an operational priority for Jewish forces. Some families had already left the village after a decision had been made somewhat earlier on 4 December, to evacuate its women and children, in order to host a military company, and on 4 December 1947 some Arab families left.Morris, 2004, pp
119120
/ref> By mid-December irregular Arab militia took up positions in Lifta to defend the site. Hagannah patrols engaged in firefights with the village militiamen while

Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...

and Lehi were even more aggressive. On 28 December 1947, the village suffered from what survivors called the “Lifta massacre” when a Jewish militia launched a machine-gun and grenade assault on the café of Salah Eisa. In order to warn residents that they should evacuate, the

's home was incinerated, and 20 buildings blown up as the village was put under siege. The attack left seven dead, and more women and children left the village. The village was suffering from food shortages in the beginning of January. Subsequently, a number of the villagers returned home, with

Benny Morris Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the ...

reporting "some, or most" doing so. Subsequently, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, while visiting the village, ordered the women, children and elderly to evacuate and the men to stay put. On 29 January, a Lehi raid blew up 3 houses in the village. By early February the village was abandoned by the irregular militia.

lists the cause of the depopulation of the village as being a military assault on the settlement. According to one resident, interviewed in 2021, there were are around 40,000 descendants of the original refugee population, dispersed in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan and the

Palestinian diaspora The Palestinian diaspora (, ''al-shatat al-filastini''), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine and Israel. There are about 6.1 million members of the Palestinian Diaspora, most of whom live ...

. Several families still retain their Ottoman period property deeds, attesting to their ownership of parts of Lifta.

State of Israel

After the expulsion of its Palestinian villagers, of Lifta's 410 homes, 60 stone houses, some three stories high, remained, together with its mosque, an olive press, and a tiled pathway to a spring. Gideon Levy, Alex Levac
'The Saddest Village in Israel,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

23 July 2021:’Each floor of the buildings, fashioned from stone and graced with arches, tells the story of a different period and a different style of construction. Lifta is a rare architectural gem, a monument to what was once here in this country, mute testimony to a way of life that was abruptly cut off. A mosque, olive presses and a flour mill, remains of picturesque balconies, a tiled path leading to the spring, which was one the village’s throbbing heart and whose waters are now in use by yeshiva students and “hilltop youth” in the “between the times” vacation that follows Tisha B’Av.’ It is listed by

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

as a potential

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, and in 2018, the World Heritage Fund registered the village among a list of 24 heritage sites that were endangered. Lifta was used for Jewish refugee housing during the war, and following the war the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

and the state of Israel settled Jewish immigrants from

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

and

Kurdistan Kurdistan (, ; ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo- cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. G ...

in the village, totaling 300 families. However ownership of the houses was not registered in their name. Living conditions in Lifta were difficult, the buildings were in poor repair, poor roads and transport, and lack of electricity, water, and sanitation infrastructure. In 1969-71 most of the Jewish inhabitants of Lifta chose to leave as part of a compensation program by Amidar. Holes were drilled in the roofs of the evacuated buildings to make them less inhabitable, so that squatters wouldn't take up residence. 13 families, who lived in the portion of the village close to Highway 1 and didn't suffer from transportation issues chose to remain. In the 1980s, Lifta was declared a municipal

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

under the auspices of the

Israel Nature and Parks Authority The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (, ; ) is an Israeli government organization that manages nature reserves and national parks in Israel, the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank. The organization was founded in April 1998, merging two o ...

. In 1984, one of the abandoned buildings in the village was occupied by the "Lifta gang", a Jewish group plotting the blow up the mosques on the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...

, who were stopped at the gates of the site with 250 pounds of explosives, hand grenades, and other armaments. Following the departure of the Jewish residents, some of the buildings in the village were used for Lifta drug abuse rehabilitation center for adolescents, which was closed in 2014, and from 1971 for the Lifta high school, an open education school, which relocated to

German Colony, Jerusalem The German Colony (, ''HaMoshava HaGermanit'') is a neighborhood in Jerusalem, established in the second half of the 19th century as a German Templer Colonies in Palestine, German Templer Colony in Palestine. Today the Moshava, as it is popularly ...

in 2001.

In 2011, plans were announced to demolish the village and build a luxury development consisting of 212 luxury housing units and a hotel."Israel moves to turn deserted Palestinian village into luxury housing project"
Haaretz.com, 21 January 2011. Former residents brought a legal petition to preserve the village as a historic site. Lifta was the last remaining Arab village that was depopulated to have not been either completely destroyed or re-inhabited. In 2012, the plans to rebuild the village as an upscale neighborhood were rejected by the Jerusalem District Court.Stefanie Glinski
'‘We will return’: the battle to save an ancient Palestinian village from demolition,'

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

29 July 2021 By 2011, three books about the Palestinian village history had been published. In June 2017 the last Jewish residents left the village following a settlement with the government who acknowledged they were not squatters but rather resettled in Lifta by the appropriate authorities.Defeated in Court, Lifta's Last Families to Leave Their Jerusalem-area Homes
Ha'aretz, 22 June 2017 In July 2017 Mei Neftoach was declared a national nature reserve.According to the law of nature: four new reserves in Israel
Yisrael Hayom, 4 July 2017 55 out of 450 pre-1948 stone houses are still standing.Esther Zandber
Unofficial monument to a decisive time in history
Haaretz.com, 25 November 2004; accessed 2 September 2015. In 2021, the

Israel Land Administration The Israel Land Administration (ILA; ; ) was an Israeli government authority responsible for managing land in Israel which is in the public domain. It manages 93% of the land in the country. As a result of reforms enacted by the 2009 government, ...

, without informing beforehand the Jerusalem Municipality authorities, announced on

Jerusalem Day Jerusalem Day (, ) is an Public holidays in Israel, Israeli national holiday that commemorates the "reunification" of East Jerusalem (including the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967, which s ...

that it was reported to be preparing a tender for the construction of a luxury neighborhood on the village's ruins, projected to consist of 259 villas, a hotel, and a mall. On 11 August 2022, the plan to demolish Lifta and build luxury housing was shelved, with new

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Moshe Lion Moshe Lion, or Moshe Leon (, born 6 October 1961), is an Israeli politician who is currently the Mayor of Jerusalem. He previously served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Chairman of t ...

seeking to preserve the village of Lifta and transform it into a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. The previous

Mayor of Jerusalem The Mayor of the City of Jerusalem is head of the executive branch of the political system in Jerusalem. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within Jerusal ...

, Israeli businessman and politician Nir Barkat, had initially approved the plan for Lifta's demolition before changing his mind, opposing the development plans after visiting the site. Currently, Lifta is still on the list of

's tentative

World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

Archaeology

In 2010, an archaeological survey was conducted at Lifta by Mordechai Heiman on behalf of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA).

Arab traditional dress

Lifta was among the wealthiest communities in the Jerusalem area, and the women were known for their fine

embroidery Embroidery is the art of decorating Textile, fabric or other materials using a Sewing needle, needle to stitch Yarn, thread or yarn. It is one of the oldest forms of Textile arts, textile art, with origins dating back thousands of years across ...

''Thob Ghabani'' bridal dresses were sewn in Lifta. They were made of ''ghabani'', a natural cotton covered with gold color silk floral embroidery produced in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, and were narrower than other dresses. The sleeves were also more tapered. The sides, sleeves and chest panel of the dress were adorned with silk insets. The dresses were ordered by brides in

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

. The married women of Lifta wore a distinctive conical ''shaṭweh'' head-dress, that was also worn in

, Ayn Karim, Beit Jala and

Beit Sahour Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur (; Palestine grid 170/123) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank in the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian Nat ...

.Stillman, 1979, p
37
/ref>

Notable people

* Rasmea Odeh * Yahya Hammuda

References

Bibliography

* * (p
544
* * (no. 293, pp
436
��437) * (plat
LVIII
* * * (p. 900) * Gilbert, Major Vivian (1936): ''The Romance of the last Crusade'', London, UK * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (A catalog of th

(

Museum of International Folk Art The Museum of International Folk Art is a state-run institution in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. It is one of many cultural institutions operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. History The museum was founded by Flor ...

at Santa Fe's) collection of Palestinian clothing and jewellery.) * (pp
758-60
cited in Pringle, 1997, p
66
*

External links

palestineremembered.com; accessed 2 September 2015.
Lifta
Zochrot

''The Ruins of Lifta'' (2016)
Israel Antiquities Authority
Jerusalem, Lifta, Survey (2010) * Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAA
:File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.17.jpg, Wikimedia commons
Lifta in Antiquity
Archaeological Survey of Israel
F.A.S.T.-Lifta Preservation Joint project on the reconstruction of memory and the preservation of Lifta
archive.org, 14 May 2006. * , jalili48.com; accessed 2 September 2015.

by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.
Lifta
zochrot.org
Return to Lifta
13 May 2006, zochrot.org
Lifta Society website
liftasociety.org
Lifta website
schulen.eduhi.at
3D models of different houses in Lifta
sketchfab.com; accessed 2 September 2015. {{Authority control Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Hebrew Bible places Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem Ghost towns in Asia