Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi: Jerusalem’s Cornerstone of Culture and Education Endures despite Challenges

Hind al-Husseini founded the school in 1948 after she came across dozens of girls and boys who survived the Deir Yassin massacre. She took them to live in two rented rooms in the al-Hashr market in Jerusalem’s Old City and then moved them to her family home, which later became the Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi School.

Hind provided the orphans with housing, clothing, and education. Today, the school continues to serve Palestinian orphans in Jerusalem and its environs.

From one house, the school expanded to a complex of six buildings, each a separate institution.

During the 1967 War, Hind turned the school into a field hospital and traveled on the school bus through the city’s neighborhoods to collect and treat the wounded. After the war, she offered free education to many children of martyrs, including those of Jerusalemite Umm Khalil, 78. “After my husband died, I was left with three daughters and two sons, and I didn’t know whom to turn to or what to do. I heard about Dar Al-Tifel, so I went to Mrs. Hind al-Husseini and explained my situation to her. She accepted my daughters as students at the school and took my youngest son into the nursery, all without charge,”2 Umm Khalil said. “She even provided them with clothes. Today, my daughters are all teachers, one is a doctor, and the third is studying at university. All of this is thanks to this wonderful school.”

Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi is situated in a vital and strategic area of great importance in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which is targeted by Israeli authorities who wish to Judaize the area through continuous plans, projects, and court rulings (see Amid Gaza Genocide, Israel Hones in on Sheikh Jarrah). Thus, the continued existence of the Hind Husseini Foundation also helps to safeguard the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Jerusalem’s Palestinian cultural identity. It houses the institution’s Palestine Heritage Museum, which, despite its small size, contains many unparalleled artifacts and collections of Palestinian life in the city. It also includes the Hind al-Husseini College for Women.

More importantly, Mahera explained to Jerusalem Story that because the foundation has become one of the largest women’s institutions in Jerusalem that teaches girls according to the Palestinian Arab curriculum, Mahera and her team are under immense pressure to join the Israeli educational system and teach the Israeli curriculum to receive governmental funding and improve the foundation’s financial situation; however, the foundation is steadfastly refusing to do so.

“We are exhausted; our life with Hind al-Husseini was dedicated to preserving the Arab Palestinian identity of Jerusalem, and we will not give that up, no matter the cost,” Mahera expressed.

Umm Khaled, 34, a Jerusalemite mother of two girls who are enrolled in the Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi School, revealed that the school provides everything she needs for her daughters for free because their father passed away and their family’s economic situation is difficult. “If it weren’t for the assistance I receive from Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, I would not have been able to educate my daughters as I do not have the financial ability to do so,”3 Umm Khaled said. She explained to Jerusalem Story that she also studied at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi and pursued her higher education at Hind al-Husseini College for Girls, which is affiliated with Al-Quds University. As happened with her daughters, the school provided Umm Khaled, as well as many other girls in Jerusalem, with financial assistance. “Without the school’s help, we wouldn’t have been educated or become housewives and employees,” she added.

Fouad al-Daqqaq, a prominent Jerusalemite engineer and public figure in the local community, shared his positive views on Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi. “It represents one of the fortresses of Jerusalem, which has been instrumental in raising and educating our girls to become women of society. During its long journey, which has extended for decades, thousands of girls have graduated and now are teachers, engineers, doctors, housewives, and accountants, and thus, we can’t ignore the important role of this institution and not stand by it during its financial crisis, even if only to repay the debt to this institution and those in charge of it,”4 Fouad said.

Randa Kamal, former director of Birzeit University Library and a former student of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi School, recalled Hind’s views and keenness on educating girls and helping others:

The story didn’t end there; a few months later, Randa revealed that her brother Abdullah was arrested in an Israeli prison and her father had to pay his school fees; however, when Randa’s father went to Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi School to pay the fees, Hind refused to accept his payment and told him that he could pay once his son was released from prison. After seven months, Abdullah was released from prison, and her father paid the fees. Moreover, when Randa’s sister Zuhaira graduated from university and returned to Jerusalem, she began working for UNRWA as a physics teacher. A few months later, their father passed away and Zuhaira went to school to pay for her siblings’ tuition. However, Hind refused to accept the payment and told Zuhaira that she would collect it once her financial situation improved. This generous treatment continued until Randa and her sister Ghadeer graduated from school. In their younger sister Rana’s final year at school, Hind agreed to let Zuhaira pay a small portion of the tuition.

“This is how Hind al-Husseini was, without any obligation, a woman of a message and a woman of principle, with a spirit of belonging and patriotism. She marched in front of us in demonstrations against the Israeli occupier, and she stood before us in the morning assembly doing morning exercises,” Randa said. “From time to time, she would invite the non-boarding students to have lunch with the boarding students to make everyone feel that they were sisters in one house.”

Mazen Sinokrot, a former minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and one of the most prominent figures in Jerusalem, expressed concern to Jerusalem Story about the current financial situation of the foundation because of the lack of domestic funding sources and the foundation’s refusal to teach the Israeli curriculum and thus, accept Israeli government funding. “This venerable institution, which educated tens of thousands of Jerusalem girls and embraced orphans for many years, caring for them in terms of upbringing, education, and health care, is suffering today, as are the rest of Jerusalem’s institutions,”6 he said. “However, it is venerable in its presence and is a representative of Jerusalem culture, and therefore it deserves our support and assistance so that this institution remains a beacon for raising future generations of Jerusalem girls,” Mazen added.