Aref al-Aref House

The story

The Aref al-Aref House stands at the northern corner of the intersection of Herzl and Ha-Atzmaut streets, in the Old City of Beersheba. It was built in the years 1937 to 1938 and served as a private residence for Aref al-Aref, the historian and public figure who served as governor of the Beersheba sub-district in the years 1929 to 1939. Aref bought a plot across the road, opposite the old governor's residence in which the Negev Museum of Art is housed today, and built his house on it. The construction is exceptional in the landscape of the city: the front of the house was built of reddish dolomitic limestone brought from the Jerusalem area, and frames and cornices were picked out in white stone, a manner of building that was common in the houses of well-off Arabs in Jerusalem and not in the old houses of Beersheba, which are built mostly of pale, crumbling stone. The house was surrounded by a low wall. With the outbreak of the Great Arab Revolt suspicions against Aref al-Aref within the administration grew, and in 1939 he was transferred to the Gaza sub-district. After he left, the house was rented to senior figures in the sub-district administration and in the police; in 1948 the commander of the Egyptian force that was stationed in the city settled in it, and after the IDF entered the city it served as a Shekem store. Later the army gave it up, the Beersheba municipality could not meet the price, and the house was bought by a private company that renovated it and restored its old appearance. The building was declared a historic building for preservation by the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, and was restored in 2003. The internal changes included the unification of the space, the demolition of the walls of the living rooms and the turning of the door that led to the diwan into a window.

• British Mandate
• People
• Beersheba