Catherine Berouti and Elias Gelat’s house in Jerusalem
Elias Gelat was a successful real estate contractor in Jerusalem. He married Catherine Berouti on May 9, 1926. That same year, he built a majestic home for his family in the Talbiyeh neighborhood of West Jerusalem, designed by architects Spyro Houris and Nikephoros Petassis. The Armenian tiles adorning the top of the house were the work of famed Armenian ceramicist David Ohannessian, who brought the Kütahya style of Ottoman ceramics to Jerusalem.
Below are a few photos of the house, sourced from Wikimedia Commons, where you can find these images and many others.
The following photograph shows Catherine Berouti with her four children (Antoine, Gloria on the right of the picture, Vivianne on the left, and Norma on her mother’s lap), captured on the stoop of their house. The exact date this picture was taken is unknown. However, judging by the apparent age of the youngest daughter, Norma, who was born in late 1935, it was likely taken around 1936 or 1937.
Another photo of Catherine and Elias’ children, this time inside the house, is shown below. It appears to have been captured on the same day as the photo on the stoop, as the children are wearing the same clothes in both images. The large tree in the background also indicates that the photo was taken during Christmas, most likely in 1936.
Today, Elias Gelat and Catherine Berouti's stunning Palestinian mansion is being used as a high-end vacation rental, with its homepage advertising the stolen property as “The most beautiful rentals in Jerusalem Israel”.
Tarek Bakri’s website has a webpage dedicated to Beit Gelat, including a before-and-after (the Nakba) slider of the above family photograph. This picture, taken on the stoop of one’s house, is a permanent reminder among countless others of the dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land.