Sheikh Jarrah and the Tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik

Sheikh Jarrah is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, that has become one of the most contested pieces of urban real estate in the world. The neighborhood takes its name from Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a physician and surgeon in the army of Saladin, a 12th-century physician to Saladin who is believed to be buried in a mosque at the heart of the quarter. But it is the Tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik (Simon the Just), a 3rd-century BCE Jewish high priest, located within the neighborhood, that has made Sheikh Jarrah a flashpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Shimon HaTzaddik

Shimon HaTzaddik (Simon the Righteous) was the Jewish high priest who, according to the Talmud, greeted Alexander the Great when he arrived at the gates of Jerusalem in 332 BCE. Tradition holds that Alexander, upon seeing the high priest in his white robes, dismounted and bowed, an act that spared Jerusalem from destruction. The ancient tomb attributed to Shimon HaTzaddik, set in a cave beneath the neighborhood, has been a Jewish pilgrimage site for centuries, with visitors gathering especially on the holiday of Lag BaOmer. Jewish families purchased land around the tomb in 1876, establishing a small community that existed alongside Arab neighbors during the Ottoman period and into the British Mandate era. The presence of this ancient Jewish connection in a Palestinian neighborhood is at the heart of the modern dispute.

The Property Dispute and Its History

The history of Sheikh Jarrah reflects the broader upheavals of Jerusalem in the 20th century. During the Ottoman period and the British Mandate, the neighborhood was home to a mix of affluent Arab families and modest Jewish households living near the tomb. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the area fell under Jordanian control, and Jewish residents were expelled. Palestinian refugee families from West Jerusalem and other areas were settled in homes built by the Jordanian government and UNRWA. After Israel liberated East Jerusalem in 1967, the legal status of these properties became fiercely contested. The eviction cases have drawn international attention and protests, and the neighborhood has become a symbol of the broader struggle over East Jerusalem. The legal and human dimensions of the dispute are complex, painful, and deeply felt by both sides.

In recent decades, Jewish families have returned to properties in the neighborhood based on legal claims tied to the 19th-century land purchases documented above. The return of Jewish residents to a neighborhood with a documented pre-1948 Jewish presence has generated international attention. For visitors, the layers of history in Sheikh Jarrah, from the medieval tomb to the Ottoman mansions to the divided city and its reunification, are best understood with a knowledgeable guide who can present the full picture.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Sheikh Jarrah holds one of Jerusalem’s most important Jewish pilgrimage sites, the Tomb of Shimon HaTzaddik (Simon the Just), set within a neighborhood that tells the story of Jerusalem’s complex modern history. Hoshen Tours visits the ancient tomb and its cave complex, explaining the Second Temple period origins and the neighborhood’s development. The site connects to nearby Ammunition Hill and the broader story of divided Jerusalem visible at Musrara and the Mount of Olives to the east.