The Vanished Building of Negib Berouti in Jaffa

I often spend time comparing present-day aerial views of Jaffa from Google Earth with surveys of the city conducted before 1948. I have long known that many Palestinian homes, and even entire neighborhoods such as Manshiyeh, were demolished after 1948, largely to erase the city’s vibrant Palestinian culture and history. One intriguing contrast I noticed lies at a specific spot beside Emile Berouti’s house, just across the street from Al-Kamal Pharmacy. I’ve been particularly drawn to this corner, knowing that before the Nakba, most members of the Berouti family lived close to one another in the Ajami and Jabal Araktingi neighborhoods.

The image below offers a visual comparison of the spot mentioned above. On the left is a recent satellite image from Google Earth, while on the right is a view of the same section, from a 1944 survey of Jaffa. Emile Berouti’s house, which still stands today, is circled in red on both sides. Interestingly, the structure circled in green, visible in the 1944 survey, no longer exists today.

Side-by-side comparison of a modern aerial view of Jaffa (left) and a 1944 survey map of the same section (right). The green circle on the right image marks the site where Negib Berouti’s house once stood, now visible as an empty lot in the modern image.

Little did I know that, in that exact spot, once stood a building that belonged to Negib Berouti, as I later learned from the Geday family of Jaffa. Below is an old photograph of the building, captured by Dutch photographer Frank Scholten and reproduced in an Arabic-language book about Jaffa by the late Fakhri Geday of Al-Kamal Pharmacy. The caption beneath it reads:

“Najib Berouti’s building, which was inhabited by Francis Jallad, the owner of the wheat mill on the Jerusalem Road. Under Israel, it was converted into a police station. Later, during Lahat’s tenure [Shlomo Lahat] as mayor of Tel Aviv–Jaffa, its demolition was ordered. Its location was at the crossroads in front of Al-Kamal Pharmacy.”

Negib Berouti’s building in Jaffa, demolished by the Israelis in the 1990s. Photograph by Frank Scholten, Palästina, Jaffa 2 (1930), photo no. 137, p. 64.

Sadly, the parcel of land where Negib Berouti’s imposing building once stood now serves as a parking lot, as shown in the image below.

View of the site where Negib Berouti’s grand building once stood, seen from Sha’arei Nikanor Street on Google Street View, August 2022.