French Hill
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French Hill (Hebrew: הגבעה הצרפתית) is a neighborhood in north-central Jerusalem. It is located in territory captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.
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[edit] History
Under Jordanian rule the area housed a military outpost. [1] After Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, the area was included in the expanded Jerusalem municipality (defacto annexed in 1980), and French Hill was founded in 1969. Its location was chosen in part to create contiguity with the university complex on Mount Scopus, which had been an Israeli enclave in Jordanian territory before the war.
It was named after either the British General (later Field Marshall) French or an earlier French church[2]. The official name for the neighbourhood is actually Givat Shapira (Shapira's Hill), of which French Hill is one of two subsections, the other being Tzameret HaBira (Top of the Capital). However, French Hill is the more common name for the entire area. The Hebrew name of French Hill is a mistranslation. HaGiva HaTzarfatit means the Hill of the French instead of French's Hill[3]. The Givat Shapira area was hurriedly built in order to ensure access to Mount Scopus in the event of a settlement with Jordan. Tzameret HaBira was built by an independent group of people, mainly American immigrants, a fact apparent in the nicer apartments and the existence of private homes.[1]
[edit] Demographics
Prior to the 1967 war, the area was lightly populated by Palestinians from Lifta who arrived after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[2]
Today French Hill's population is approximately 6,631 persons living in approximately 2,106 dwellings, with the two neighborhoods having quite different population densities. French Hill (Givat Shapira) has a population density of 10.9 persons per dunam, while Tzameret HaBira is populated more sparsely at 4.7 persons per dunam. The population is overwhelmingly Jewish, including many South American and CIS immigrants, but no statistics nor reliable estimates are available to identify the breakdown, nor the size of the Palestinian Arab population that lives there.[3]
French Hill has 9 synagogues, of which at least 3 are Orthodox and at least 1 is a Conservative synagogue (Kehilat Ramot Zion), as well as a ritual bath. It is the site of the first Conservative elementary school in Israel, the Frankel School. The founding of the Frankel School led to a new series of schools in Israel, called "Tali" (officially, secular schools with added religious studies).
There is also a large secular population.
Many Hebrew University faculty workers and students choose to live in French Hill due to its proximity to the Mount Scopus campus.
[edit] Terrorism
The French Hill neighborhood has been a target in a number of attacks by Palestinian terrorists. Especially targeted has been the French Hill Junction, which interconnects Northern Jerusalem to Maale Adumim and the Dead Sea.
A US News and World Report Article entitled: "Jerusalem's Violent Crossroads" explains that "The busy thoroughfare, which divides the Jewish neighborhood of French Hill from the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat, is the most accessible corner in the city for a West Bank terrorist looking for a crowd of Israelis." [4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2002-2003. Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. ISSN 0333-9831
- ^ Khalidi, Walid All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992
- ^ Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2002-2003. Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. ISSN 0333-9831
