AFRICAN-PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY IN JERUSALEM It took me 2 hours to locate a place i had walked past its entrance times, solely because it is not on the map of Jerusalem. Babel Majles, Jalia Africia or the African quarters is a section of the old city in Jerusalem where African Palestinians live. It was established and built 900 years ago as hospitality measures by the then authorities to host those from far when they were traveling for Hajj. During the Ottomans rule, the quarters were converted into prisons; the other for those sentenced to life in prison while the other side for those on death sentence. Then came Jordanians, Brittish and now the Israeli occupiers. During this era, Afro-Palestinian community soared and expanded. Coming from Chad, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan: African decided to stay in Jerusalem. But the number further increased in 1948 when most came with Egyptians during the war, and many more remained. There currently is roughly 40 families living in these quarters, being the second and third generations. The newly weds are forced to move out due to obvious reason: the occupation makes it very hard for non Israelis to built anything so the quarters are over populated, there is no work or business opportunities in these quarters since they are closed off for tourists, there are fines for no given reasons for people who live around the African Quarters. The Black Palestinians say theirs is worse: not only are they descriminanted against for being Palestinian Muslims but also for being blacks. Alli Jiddah, a well known local leader of the African community say it has always been the case for decades. we are called Kushi, meaning Negro. The same is the case with our brothers from Ethiopia who reside and serve Israel, they are called Shulffiah he said. it is funny because they are aware of the discriminatory term; THE ONES FOR US BUT NOT WITH US, it means the ones who are working on establishing the Zionist state but are not pure enough to be the chosen ones. This mainly refer to Black Africans. Alli Jiddah(with your truly in the picture hereby attached) was arrested in 1968 and remained in prison for 17 years until the famous 1985 prison exchange with the Israeli. He is a respected figure equally amongst the Afro Palestinians and indigenous Palestinians and hated by both Israelis and settlers. for further readings please check out the web blog formSowetotoHebron.word press
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 07:12:55 +0000
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