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<h1 id="reader-title">Afro-Palestinians talk heritage and
resistance</h1>
August 5, 2017 by <a rel="author"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/profile/jaclynn-ashly.html">Jaclynn
Ashly</a>
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<p><strong>Occupied East Jerusalem</strong> - "It's hard
not to get detained here," 16-year-old Abdallah
Balalawi, an Afro-Palestinian from Chad, told Al Jazeera
from his home in the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/israel-limits-palestinian-access-jerusalem-city-151004052101194.html">Old
City</a>. "I have to be aware of the way I look and
even the way I walk to avoid making the Israelis
suspicious."</p>
<p>Abdallah is one of at least 350 Afro-Palestinians from
<a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/nigeria.html">Nigeria</a>,
Chad, Senegal and <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/sudan.html">Sudan</a>
residing in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, adjacent
to the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/al-aqsa-mosque.html">Al-Aqsa
Mosque</a> compound. The Afro-Palestinian
neighbourhood is not the easiest to find, accessible
only through an <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/israeli-checkpoints-live-colonisation-151129073339365.html">Israeli
police checkpoint</a> where officers interrogate
anyone who is not from the local community. </p>
<p>On a nearly hidden road straddled between two police
blockades, third generation Afro-Palestinian teenagers
tell Al Jazeera about the world they inherited,
characterised by checkpoints, daily interrogations, <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/sweeping-police-raids-target-palestinians-israel-160109032131831.html">night
raids</a> and incessant fears of detention by Israeli
forces.</p>
<p class="ReadMoreContentSeparator"><a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/palestinian-women-lead-resistance-budrus-170201075132592.html">
READ MORE: Palestinian women lead resistance in Budrus</a></p>
<p>Most Afro-Palestinians in this tight-knit community
came to the region as religious pilgrims during the
British Mandate for Palestine, and many have been part
of the Palestinian resistance movement since Israel's
establishment in 1948. Others arrived as volunteers with
the Egyptian army to fight against Zionist militias
taking control of historic Palestine during the <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/10/war-october-2013102172128280627.html">Arab-Israeli
war</a>. </p>
<p>The community has played a pivotal role in the history
of Palestinian resistance. Locals say that the first
Palestinian woman to be imprisoned for a paramilitary
operation against Israel was Fatima Barnawi, a
Nigerian-Palestinian detained in 1967 for the attempted
bombing of an Israeli cinema in West Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Yet decades later, Afro-Palestinian youth continue to
live their daily lives under Israeli control.</p>
<p>At just 17, Abdallah's cousin, Jibrin, has already been
detained five times by Israeli forces, mostly over
allegations that he <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/palestinian-stone-throwers-face-20-years-jail-150721182722412.html">threw
stones</a> at Israeli police and military officers.
While he and his friends face the same harassment as
other Palestinians, he said, they sometimes experience
"double-racism" for both being Palestinian and having
dark skin.</p>
<p>"The soldiers are always cursing at me and
interrogating me when I pass them. They try to provoke
me so that I do something they could get me in trouble
for," Jibrin told Al Jazeera, noting that he has been
beaten several times by Israeli police and soldiers
during detentions.</p>
<p>"Most of those in my generation have the same
experiences," he added with a shrug. "It's routine."</p>
<p>Growing up under the constant presence of Israeli
soldiers, police and checkpoints, Jibrin's sister, Ruaa,
18, told Al Jazeera that the militarisation of the Old
City felt "normal". But watching Jibrin leave home every
day fills her with dread, as Israeli forces "constantly
harass young Palestinian men", she said.</p>
<p>Ruaa, now studying psychology at Al-Quds University,
said that in the future she wants to develop lectures
for young Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, to
teach them how to deal with Israeli police and soldiers
in hopes of preventing their arrest.</p>
<p>Ali Jiddeh, a long-standing leader in the
Afro-Palestinian community, said that Israel's
harassment and routine detention of Palestinian youth
has intensified since a <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/10/palestine-intifada-powerful-151016094419464.html">wave
of violence</a> erupted in late 2015.</p>
<p>"You have to notice these soldiers," Jiddeh told Al
Jazeera. "They focus on the young generation of girls
and boys, because they are the main element of this
uprising. They interrogate them and humiliate them in
front of everyone. Eventually, the youth can't take it
any more, and they explode."</p>
<p>But this generation of Afro-Palestinians is different
from those before, Jiddeh added: "They are watching TV
and constantly browsing the internet. They make
comparisons with what they see in other countries. From
a very young age, they realise life under occupation is
not normal."</p>
<p>For Jibrin, education is the most important tool of
resistance for his generation.</p>
<p>"If I am educated, I can challenge this occupation more
effectively than by throwing stones," he said.</p>
<p class="ReadMoreContentSeparator"><a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/03/al-araj-beacon-palestinian-youth-170307103833988.html">
READ MORE: 'Basil al-Araj was a beacon for Palestinian
youth'</a></p>
<p>However, education in the Old City is far from immune
from Israel's occupation. Most of the youth in the
community attend the nearby Dar al-Aytam school, a
target of <a
href="http://www.civiccoalition-jerusalem.org/uploads/9/3/6/8/93682182/october_2016_dar_al_aytam_school_in_jerusalem.pdf"
target="_blank">frequent Israeli raids</a>.</p>
<p>Saed Firawi, a 17-year-old Sudanese-Palestinian, said
students merely have to "throw a plastic bottle" to
prompt Israeli forces to raid the entire school and fire
tear gas at students and staff. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Saed's cousin, Ali, 18, was detained by
Israeli forces the night before crucial examinations
that determine students' eligibility to graduate;
sleep-deprived and shaken, he ultimately failed.</p>
<p>The Israeli occupation has also ruptured Ali's family
life. At the age of 16, his brother, Mohammad, was
sentenced last year in an Israeli court to eight years
in prison after authorities accused him of dropping a
large rock on the head of an Israeli soldier, paralysing
him. Ali contends that his brother was innocent,
claiming that Israeli forces used the allegations "as an
excuse" to lock up Mohammad for his political activism.</p>
<p>Ali and his siblings have not been allowed to visit
their brother in prison because of what the Israelis
have deemed "security concerns", while the family's home
has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces.</p>
<p>Mohammad Qous, 17, whose father's family migrated to
historic <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/palestine.html">Palestine</a>
from Chad, has big goals for the future, aiming to study
in <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/switzerland.html">Switzerland</a>
in the coming months. Always on edge, Mohammad said, he
must remain calm and collected when dealing with Israeli
forces, since one wrong move could send him to prison
and destroy his future dreams.</p>
<p>One day when Mohammad was late for school, he recalls
rushing past Israeli police, who stopped him to search
his belongings. "They found my house key and began
interrogating me about what I was doing with it, saying
that I could stab someone with it," he said, noting that
the soldiers allowed him to pass only after he showed
them his US passport.</p>
<p>Mohammad's sister, Shaden, 14, said it was difficult to
hold out much hope for Palestine in the years ahead.</p>
<p>"In East Jerusalem, it's different for us," she told Al
Jazeera. "I think Palestinians in other places have more
hope. But we live with the Israelis. It has become part
of our lives."</p>
<p>Still, this has not stopped her from resisting the
Israeli occupation in her own way. Shaden considers the
<em>dabke</em>, a traditional Palestinian dance, to be a
powerful form of resistance to Israel's colonisation.</p>
<p>"It's a creative way of resisting. It keeps our
Palestinian traditions alive, and we all know the
Israelis don't like it," she said with a smile.</p>
<p>A member of the el-Funoun Palestinian dance group,
Shaden and her fellow members also attempt to boycott
Israeli products in occupied <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/east-jerusalem.html">East
Jerusalem</a> whenever possible.</p>
<p>Her brother, meanwhile, echoed the feeling of despair
expressed by numerous youths in the Afro-Palestinian
community: "We've been resisting Israel since 1948 and
nothing has changed," Mohammad said. "Nonviolence hasn't
worked; violence hasn't worked. I really don't know what
any of us should do any more." </p>
<p><span>Source:</span> <span>Al Jazeera</span></p>
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