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San Simon monastery in Katamon

Katamon (Hebrew: קטמון‎) is a Jewish neighbourhood in southcentral Jerusalem, Israel. The official Hebrew name, "Gonen," never caught on, and is only used in municipal publications. Most Israelis continue to call it "Katamon," derived from the Greek kata tōi monastēriōi ("below the monastery"), as the neighborhood was known before 1948.

Katamon is bounded by the neighborhood of Talbiya in the north, and the German Colony and Greek Colony to the east. The two main streets are Rehov Rachel Imanu, which runs through the neighborhood from east to west, and Rehov Kovshey Katamon, which runs north-south. These streets connect to Emek Refaim and Rehov Palmach.^[1]

Katamon was home to affluent Christian Arabs before it was captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. A major site in Katamon was the St. Simon monastery, on a hilltop to the north. The monastery is now surrounded by a large park in the neighborhood known as Givat Oranim.

During the Siege of Jerusalem (1948), the neighborhood was an Arab salient between two beseiged Jewish neighborhoods. A fierce battle ensued over control over the monastery that left many dead and wounded on both sides.

On September 17, 1948, UN Mediator Folke Bernadotte and UN Observer André Serot, were assassinated by members of the Jewish underground while driving on Rehov Palmach.

In her autobiography, Palestinian author Ghada Karmi describes growing up in Katamon, from which her family fled in 1948. Arab scholar and poet Khalil al-Sakakini also fled Katamon at this time. His daughter Hala wrote about revisiting the neighborhood in 1967.^[2]

The neighbourhood was home to the Hapoel Jerusalem football club from its foundation in the 1930s until it moved to the YMCA Stadium in the 1980s. In 2007, several dissatisfied Hapoel Jerusalem fans formed a new club, naming it Hapoel Katamon after the club's former home, although the new club does not play in the neighbourhood.^[3]

• Sakakini, Hala: Jerusalem and I, 1987
• Karmi, Ghada: In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story ISBN 1-85984-694-7 Verso 2002
  • A country of the mind Guardian, Saturday October 19, 2002 (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)
  • In Search of Fatima Fateful Days in 1948 from Jerusalem Quarterly (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)

Coordinates: 33°07′N, 35°39′E

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