GONEN

'Gonen' () is a Jewish neighbourhood in southcentral Jerusalem, Israel. The official Hebrew name, "Gonen," has never caught on. Most Israelis continue to call it "Katamon" (Hebrew: קטמון), derived from the Greek ''kata tōi monastēriōi'' ("below the monastery"), as the neighborhood was known before 1948.
Katamon was home to affluent Christian Arabs before it was captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. A central feature of the neighborhood was the St. Simon monastery, on a hilltop to the north. The monastery is now surrounded by a large park.
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 through the streets of Katamon.
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. ^[1]

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Bibliography:

Bibliography:

★ Sakakini, Hala: ''Jerusalem and I'', 1987

★ Karmi, Ghada: ''In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story'' ISBN 1-85984-694-7 Verso 2002

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★ A country of the mind Guardian, Saturday October 19, 2002 (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)

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★ In Search of Fatima Fateful Days in 1948 from Jerusalem Quarterly (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)
Gonen is also the name of a kibbutz in the northern part of Israel near the town of Kiryat Shemona.