In Gaza, Napoleon's bedroom still exists at Qasr al-Bacha

It is a little-known episode of the campaign led in Egypt and the Levant by Napoleon Bonaparte.

When the Republican general entered Gaza at the dawn of the 19th century, the gate to Palestine opened before him through a field of olive trees stretching as far as the eye could see.

Today, this same expanse is flanked by a high security terminal, fenced and surrounded by watchtowers.

However, despite the centuries and the metamorphoses of the region, traces of Bonaparte still persist in the conscience and on the walls of the Gaza Strip.

Read also: Bicentenary of Napoleon: May 19, 1798, Egypt in trompe-l'oeil

In February 1799, the one who was not yet emperor crossed the Sinai desert with thousands of French soldiers to take the Gaza Strip, where

“the lemon trees, the olive forests, the unevenness of the land perfectly represent the landscape of Languedoc. ; one believes to be on the side of Béziers ”

, in the south of France, he writes.

"The hills surrounding Gaza are covered with olive trees"

, notes in his memoirs the mathematician Étienne Louis Malus who accompanies the expedition, noting that the French seized Gaza

"without firing a shot"

, before resuming the road for Jaffa , scene of bloody battles and affected by the bubonic plague, and to stumble on the city of Acre, before turning back.

The ephemeral gazaoui castle of Bonaparte

Gaza has changed a lot since then. The vast olive groves are replaced by a forest of greyish concrete buildings, in this small territory controlled since 2007 by the Islamists of Hamas and under Israeli blockade, where two million Palestinians are crowded. But looking at it closely, the mark of Bonaparte remains. In the Qasr al-Bacha, a small ocher-sand stone palace surrounded by palm trees swearing with buildings and creepers of electric wires, shelters the room where Bonaparte would have slept

“three nights”

. On the first and last floor, to the left after a wide external staircase, is a room without a bed, without furniture but filled with objects from the Byzantine period. It is here that Napoleon slept, assures AFP Ghassan Wisha, director of the history department of theIslamic University of Gaza.

Formerly named after Napoleon, the museum was renamed “Qasr al-Bacha Museum”, after the building's name, after a decision by Hamas.

EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP

If the tradition of this brief Napoleonic stay lasted more than two centuries, it has been a few years since the name of the building evolved.

This modest palace built from the 13th century once referred to the name of Napoleon, until the Hamas government transformed it, in 2010, into the

"Qasr al-Bacha Museum"

, named after the building.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, groups of Palestinian schoolchildren visited Napoleon's castle and bedroom, which was an opportunity for them to hear the story of the passage of the future Emperor of France in Palestine.

“At the beginning, we taught that the Egyptian campaign was a French military campaign also with a scientific component. This last aspect was therefore positive. This showed a first, a military campaign different from the others ”

, explains Ghassan Wisha, stressing that

“ specialists in agriculture ”

were notably on the trip. But that initial discourse has changed over the years. Napoleon

“used science to justify the occupation. He lied, ”

he now believes.

“He is a short man but one who has caused great chaos in this region. The people of Gaza today have a dark, negative image of all military campaigns including that of Napoleon, ”

adds Ghassan Wisha.

Read also: The 5 trials of Napoleon

"

The French aggression was worse than the Israeli

"

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel conquered this strip of land from which it withdrew in 2005, but has imposed a blockade there since Hamas came to power.

In Gaza, many Palestinians use the Arabic word

"ihtilal"

(

"occupation"

) to refer to both Israel and the Napoleonic campaign.

“Some say he stayed two nights, others three, it's not 100% clear.

But what is certain is that he occupied Gaza which was then a center for honey, oil, agriculture, it was a strategic point between Asia and Europe ”

, Rashad al-Madani, a retired history professor who taught Napoleon's campaign in Gazan universities, told AFP. What does he tell the students about this expedition to Gaza, Jaffa and Acre?

"That the French aggression was worse than the Israeli,"

he replied dryly, citing the

"massacre"

of around 3,000 people by tricolor soldiers in Jaffa, a city in Israel today known for its beaches, bars and its restaurants.

The hero of the history books in Gaza for this period is Ahmed al-Jazzar. This man deemed

"cruel"

- hence his nickname

"Jazzar"

the

"butcher"

- held Acre for two months against the assaults of Napoleon, before seeing the French forces ebb. Today, the fortress of Acre still stands. A statue of Napoleon on horseback in front of an Israeli flag acts as a tourist attraction and the Al-Jazzar mosque triumphs in the heart of the medina. “

In our history books, Ahmed al-Jazzar is considered a strong character, a hero. But (he was) also a cruel being, an aggressor and, that, several students did not like when I said it

”, Recalls Rashad al-Madani, who prefers to look for positive models among the figures of the French Revolution than in the generals of this first

“ colonial enterprise ”

.