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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">African-Palestinian
community’s deep roots in liberation struggle</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/budour-youssef-hassan"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Budour Youssef Hassan</a></span> <span
class="field field-location"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/location/jerusalem"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype=""></a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-07-10T15:29:00+00:00">10
July 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/african-palestinian-communitys-deep-roots-liberation-struggle/14682">https://electronicintifada.net/content/african-palestinian-communitys-deep-roots-liberation-struggle/14682</a></small></small></b><br>
</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>In early June the African Community Club in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/old-city-jerusalem">Jerusalem’s
Old City</a> was crammed with mourners. They had come to pay
their respects to the late Subhiyeh Sharaf, an amiable woman and
community elder.</p>
<p>The club serves as the headquarters of the <a
href="http://acs-jer.org/index.php?lang=en">African Community
Society</a>. It is a gathering place for the African community
and a social and cultural center for Palestinians, screening films
and hosting debates and other activities.</p>
<p>Outside the club, young men were running to bring tea to every
incoming guest and maintain order. The necessary funds for
Sharaf’s funeral ceremony were raised through donations as is
typically the case during occasions of mourning and celebrations
that take place in the African community here.</p>
<p>This is known as <em>hatita</em>, a longstanding tradition among
Jerusalem’s African-Palestinians, in which community members
contribute a certain sum of money according to their ability.</p>
<p>The tradition mirrors the strong ties and communal solidarity
that distinguish the African community in Jerusalem. Most of this
community, of approximately 350 people, live in the Muslim Quarter
of the Old City.</p>
<p>Interviews with members of the community and the <a
href="http://acs-jer.org/index.php?lang=ar">society’s Arabic
website</a> reveal a rich history. African migration to
Jerusalem dates back to 634 when Omar Bin al-Khattab, the second
Muslim caliph, conquered Jerusalem. But it wasn’t until the
beginning of the 20th century that Africans started settling in
Jerusalem in significant numbers.</p>
<p>Coming mainly from Chad, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sudan">Sudan</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nigeria">Nigeria</a>
and Senegal, Africans flocked to Jerusalem for two main reasons.
The first was religious: some considered Jerusalem the final
destination of their pilgrimage. The second reason was their
willingness to fight along with Palestinians against British and
Zionist colonialism.</p>
<h2>Guardians of mosque</h2>
<p>The Africans who came to Jerusalem were initially scattered
across the city but were in the early 1930s concentrated in two
buildings facing each other, a few meters away from one of the
main gates to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-aqsa-mosque">al-Aqsa
mosque</a>. The gate is known as Bab al-Nazir or Bab al-Majlis.</p>
<p>The neighborhood itself was built in the 13th century and is
characterized by its Mamluk-era architecture. It primarily served
as a resting place for pilgrims and as a shelter for the poor and
the homeless.</p>
<p>During the final years of Ottoman rule, the buildings were turned
into a notorious prison compound where rebels against the Ottomans
were held, including African dissidents. Following the end of
Ottoman rule, the buildings — referred to as al-Ribat al-Mansouri
(or al-Ribat al-Kurdi) and al-Ribat Aladdin al-Bassir — became
part of the Islamic Waqf, a religious trust.</p>
<p>In the early 1930s, Palestinian political and religious leader
Sheikh <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/pappe-reassesses-legacy-palestinian-dynasty/10357">Amin
al-Husseini</a> leased them to Jerusalem’s Africans.</p>
<p>While taking pride in their African roots and trying to preserve
their ancestral traditions, Africans in Jerusalem have largely
integrated with other Palestinians and were woven into the
Palestinian Jerusalemite fabric. This integration was facilitated
by shared religious ties, the sense of belonging that Africans
immediately formed with Jerusalem and the fact that African
migrants could easily interact in Arabic.</p>
<p>The two most powerful manifestations of this integration are
social and political. On the social level, intermarriages between
Africans and other Palestinians in Jerusalem are common,
occasional complications notwithstanding.</p>
<h2>Active in struggle</h2>
<p>This is not to say that racism against African-Palestinians
doesn’t exist. Some Palestinians who are not from Jerusalem
pejoratively refer to the African community as the “neighborhood
of slaves,” for instance.</p>
<p>Mahmoud Jiddah, an African community member and alternative tour
guide, told The Electronic Intifada that “we occasionally face
racism by other Palestinians due to our darker skins, but by no
means can you say that this is a trend. Far from it.”</p>
<p>He added that the main perpetrator of racism is the Israeli
police. “We face a twofold oppression by the Israeli occupation:
first because we are Palestinian; and second because we are
black,” he said.</p>
<p>On the political level, Africans have been strongly involved in
the Palestinian struggle.</p>
<p>Jiddah, whose father migrated to Jerusalem from Chad at the
beginning of the 20th century, said that Africans were
particularly active in the Arab Salvation Army and played a key
role in the Jerusalem battles during the 1948 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a>,
Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In fact, the commander of
the battalion that prevented the fall of Jabal al-Mukabber — an <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/east-jerusalem">East
Jerusalem</a> neighborhood — in 1948 was the Nigerian-born
Muhammad Tariq al-Afriqi.</p>
<p>Africans also suffered their fair share of displacement during
the Nakba with almost one-quarter of the original African
population in Jerusalem becoming <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-refugees">refugees</a>
in neighboring countries.</p>
<p>The role of Africans in the Palestinian liberation struggle
became even more notable following the 1967 occupation of East
Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The very first female Palestinian political prisoner was <a
href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/717/profile.htm">Fatima
Barnawi</a>, a Palestinian of Nigerian descent, who served 10
years in Israeli occupation jails after a foiled bombing attack in
Jerusalem. She was released in a 1977 prisoner exchange and
deported.</p>
<p>During the height of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/first-intifada">first
intifada</a>, a high percentage of the African population — both
male and female — was imprisoned.</p>
<p>The first Palestinian killed during the second intifada was Osama
Jiddah. A member of the African community, he was <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/before-cast-lead/by-date-of-death/wb-gaza/palestinians-killed-by-israeli-security-forces">shot
dead</a> by Israeli forces on 29 September 2000 while on his way
to donate blood in al-Maqased hospital on the Mount of Olives.</p>
<p>These are just a few examples of the active participation of the
African community in the Palestinian struggle for liberation that
belies their relatively small numbers. For the African community,
resistance is not a choice, but an obligation made unavoidable by
living in the Old City.</p>
<h2>Passport racism</h2>
<p>For some people coming from other places in Palestine to pray in
Jerusalem for the first time, it is not obvious that there is a
community that lives a few meters away from one of the holiest
Muslim sites. Their initial reaction when they learn about it is
to say that these people are so lucky and blessed.</p>
<p>For African-Palestinians, however, this can occasionally be a
blessing in disguise.</p>
<p>Living in the heart of the Old City means being a target of
Israel’s constant attempts to drive Palestinians out of this place
and erase Palestinian identity and existence. In this context,
Israel systematically denies building permits to
African-Palestinians living in the Old City.</p>
<p>Even minor restorations or the building of an additional room are
banned, forcing people to smuggle basic construction materials
into the neighborhood. Newly-built <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements">Israeli
settlements</a> in the city are quickly restored and expanded,
while Palestinians are threatened with demolitions if they build
one additional room or restore their houses.</p>
<p>Restrictions on building — combined with high levels of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/poverty">poverty</a>
and <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unemployment">unemployment</a>
— have forced some members of the African community, particularly
the younger generation, to look for residence outside the Old
City. Many have moved to areas like <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/beit-hanina">Beit
Hanina</a> or <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/shuafat">Shuafat</a>
because it is extremely difficult to accommodate a growing family
in the Old City.</p>
<p>This problem is faced by all Palestinians in the Old City. But
one problem unique to African-Palestinians is that — unlike most
Palestinians in Jerusalem — many of them do not have a Jordanian
passport.</p>
<p>“My father carried a French passport which he gave up following
Chad’s independence in 1960,” said Mahmoud Jiddah. “When he
applied for a Jordanian passport — since Jerusalem was under
Jordanian rule then — it took him more than four years to receive
it … But even the fact that my father carried a Jordanian passport
doesn’t mean that I could automatically attain one. I’ve only
received a temporary passport a couple of years ago and it’s about
to expire.”</p>
<p>Jiddah added that he has a list of 50 African-Palestinians from
Jerusalem who are banned from receiving a Jordanian passport. He
explained that this Jordanian policy of refusing to give passports
to African-Palestinians has to do with considering them
“strangers.”</p>
<p>He said: “Imagine — we’ve been living here for our entire lives
and we’ve sacrificed everything for Jerusalem and the Jordanian
authorities consider us strangers. But when they ruled over
Jerusalem in 1948, they suddenly became the kings.”</p>
<p>African-Palestinians are forced to travel using a <em>laissez-passer</em>,
which means they are not allowed to visit Arab countries with
which Israel has no diplomatic relations. Alternatively they are
left with the option of applying for a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority">Palestinian
Authority</a> or international passport which could jeopardize
their residency status in Jerusalem. The other option left is to
apply for an Israeli passport, which the community strongly
rejects.</p>
<h2>Microcosm</h2>
<p>In a sense, the African community in Jerusalem is a microcosm of
the challenges Palestinians in Jerusalem face, and of the
resilience they maintain.</p>
<p>Jiddah was arrested by Israeli occupation forces on 5 September
1968, along with his brother Abdullah and their cousin and comrade
in the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/pflp">Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine</a>, <a
href="http://beyondcompromise.com/2012/10/02/profile-afro-palestinian-activist-ali-jiddah/">Ali
Jiddah</a>.</p>
<p>Mahmoud was sentenced to 25 years in jail, while Ali was
sentenced to 20 for planting bombs. Both of them were released in
20 May 1985 in a prisoner exchange between Israel and the splinter
group <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/pflp-gc">PFLP-GC</a>.</p>
<p>A self-proclaimed Palestinian, African and socialist, Mahmoud,
like his cousin, refused all pressure to deport him from
Jerusalem. The men preferred to spend most of their lives in jail
over leaving Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Mahmoud’s brother Abdullah, though, was deported in 1970, and was
separated from his family and city.</p>
<p>“The first time I saw my brother was in Switzerland in 1993 when
I got an invitation to a human rights conference in Geneva. I will
never forget that moment,” Jiddah said. “The second time we met
after that was in Jordan in 2012, which only makes me wonder: do I
still have 20 years left in my life to see my brother again?”</p>
<p>Mahmoud Jiddah is as old as the Nakba. His community embodies the
Palestinian narrative of uprooting, defiance and survival in all
of its details.</p>
<p><em>Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian blogger and law
graduate based in Jerusalem. Blog: <a
href="https://budourhassan.wordpress.com">budourhassan.wordpress.com</a>.
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Budour48">@Budour48</a></em></p>
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