Erica Silverman/Freelance Journalist
The often insurmountable barriers to prayer at Al Aqsa Mosque and to immediate and extended family members during the holy month of Ramadan illustrate that even in the context of religion and family values, the Palestinian being is determined by the surrounding political climate. As prayers for their Palestinian brethren echoed through the Mosques of Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and throughout the Muslim world during the holy month, Palestinians coped with increased security measures and grieved the loss of their beloved leader Yassir Arafat.
Barriers to Al Aqsa
Heightened Israeli security measures made it difficult or even impossible for many Palestinians from the West Bank to cross the checkpoints, creating a physical barrier between West Bank residents and Jerusalem, where they intended to visit family and attend payer at Al Aqsa Mosque.
Security was even tighter during Juma, particularly in Jerusalem and around the Old City, including an immense, white IDF security camera hovering over the Old City in the sky. Israeli police and security began setting up barricades the night before at the entrances to the Old City and on the surrounding streets in the East. On Fridays each of the seven entrances was heavily guarded by Israeli forces, concentrating on those entering the Muslim Quarter. The main passage ways, such as Al-Wad Street, were lined with soldiers on either side as a steady stream of worshippers flowed swiftly between them along the narrow, curvy stone streets of the ancient walled city toward the Al-Haram Ash-Sharif.
Each Friday Israeli officials issue stipulations as to who may enter Al Aqsa Mosque for prayer, largely determined by who they permit to cross the checkpoints and who is permitted to enter the Old City. During Ramadan the general guidelines for West Bank residents that would be granted access were as follows: males over 45 years of age, women, and children, all of whom must process the requisite identification card. The stipulations varied slightly over the course of Fridays, for example one Friday only men over 50 were granted access and occasionally restrictions were placed upon women as well. Several West Bank residents indicated that the Israeli security was rather lax in enforcing the guidelines, permitting younger men to enter as long as they possessed the necessary identification card. Most Palestinians who wish to attend Friday prayer follow the media for the announcements stating the guidelines made on Thursday and Friday morning, or often just go and hope for the best.
Sameh, a 28 year old man from Nablus, described his journey through a carefully constructed web of checkpoints through the Old City, in itself only a square kilometer, to Al Aqsa Mosque. He explained that the second Friday of Ramadan he had been stopped by Israeli soldiers near the entrance to Al-Haram Ash-Sharif, and lacking an Israeli identification card he was held and was prohibited from entering the Mosque. Undeterred he tried again the following Friday and was successful. In his account, he entered the Old City through Bab As-Sahirah, Herod’s Gate, and was not stopped to present his identification card. He traveled along Al-Wad Street making his way to Al Aqsa, in total about a 400 meter trip from Bab As-Sahirah to the gate to the Al-Haram Ash-Sharif. Even for those who know the Old City well, there is no path unguarded, he explained.
“Soldiers stop people who look different; if you are foreign, from the West Bank, or they think you are not a Muslim,” he stated, adding they can differentiate between those who belong and those who does not [according to the soldiers] by their attire, their attitude, and whether they project a rural or an urban manner. “The trick is to not look afraid,” he counseled.
“I got stopped about 100 meters from the Mosque,” Sameh continued. He said he told the soldier he was from Nablus and he came to pray upon which the soldier became nervous and shouted he must go back. He lamented witnessing several Palestinians from the West Bank, lacking a Jerusalem ID card, being arrested; a crime that can warrant up to three months incarceration.
After taking an alternate path he finally managed to enter the Al-Haram Ash-Sharif. A huge smile creeping across his face, he said he was “So happy to be there, especially being from the West Bank; I felt I was between the hands of God.”
Sameh elucidated the Khutba should focus on a situation affecting the respective community, but acknowledged that the Imams of Al Aqsa generally avoid discussing the political situation. He reasoned when one prays he or she must have an open heart and an open mind, and discussing the situation may incite anger, whereas in the West Bank there is less discretion exercised for there are less Israeli soldiers with whom there could be a potential conflict.
Oddly, at the Kalandia checkpoint, a more unsightly physical barrier between northern Jerusalem and Ramallah, the spirit of Ramadan continued. Vendors selling gifts and fresh produce greeted Palestinians entering Ramallah. “Ten shekels now; fifteen after Iftar,” a vender admonished those passing through. Heading the other direction toward Jerusalem, families on their way to breakfast with friends and relatives, often previously unacquainted, begin doubling up in cars in order to save time and make their may through the increasing traffic. Coloring books were passed around to the children to occupy their time while they waited, for it can take several hours to cross. This tiring process through mud and barbed wire has become “normal” for those who cross frequently, and daily.
The Political Climate
Despite the grief and the bursts of violence surrounding Yassir Arafat’s death the festivities of the Eid continued, although less so in the West Bank. After Arafat was laid to rest on Friday afternoon in the Muqata, his battered compound in Ramallah, businesses were closed and the streets remained quiet, in contrast to East Jerusalem where shops were open and the streets were filled with people. The Friday of his funeral, November 12, there were only an estimated 15,000 worshipers in attendance for juma at Al Aqsa due to increased security concerns emanating from him death. In contrast on November 9, Laylat-al-Qadr, there were an estimated 500,000 worshipers in attendance at Al Aqsa despite the violence that erupted on Salah Ed-Din Street and around the Old city near Bab Al-Amoud and Bab As-Sahirah after Arafat’s death was presumed.
At three and four in the morning Israeli security bang on the doors of hotels in East Jerusalem, including those with tourists, demanding entrance to search the rooms for those who may be staying as illegal guests from the West Bank, a common practice increased during Ramadan. A 25 year old hotel employee who was taken from his room at the Ritz Hotel at four in the morning said the police did not want to arrest the group of men they assembled, but instead wanted to ensure each individual had a “clean record.” He reported that he was permitted to go to the store and to stop and pray during the hour long ordeal outside the hotel.
Palestinians from Jerusalem reminisced about the pre-Antifada days of Ramadan, in which juma brought hundreds of thousands of worshippers from all over the region. The proprietor of a shoe store on Salah Ed-Din Street, a main, commercial thoroughfare in the East leading directly to Bab As-Sahirah, spoke of the time when it would take one hours to reach the gate from his store due to the sea of worshippers.
The Spirit of the Eid in East Jerusalem
Well dressed families, couples, and friends strolled down Salah Ed-Din Street through the city center of East Jerusalem welcoming the visions of Ramadan. The shops, open late into the evening, were bustling with customers purchasing last minute gifts for the Eid El-Fitr. Smoke from the fireworks lingered in the air, mingled with the charming aroma of fresh popcorn and warm cotton candy, laced with sweet perfume. Children, all smiles, surrounded a colorful clown on stilts who leaned over to say, “Ahlan wa sahlan.” A little girl with a brown pony tail trailed her mother, one hand gripping mom’s long gelbab and the other the strings to a family of shiny animal balloons.
Just a week ago the very same street at this time was dark and ghostly quite, but as the end of Ramadan approached the anticipation was building. The trail of people continued to Bab Al-Amoud, Damascus Gate, where there were numerous vendors calling out prices and offering last minute deals. Above the gate hung stands of yellow and orange lights adorned with bright crescent moons and stars that illuminated the Ramadan nights. Tables offered warm, sweet corn on the cob, smoldering skewers of meat, katayef, barazek na’mine, bottles of liquorice, carob, and bitter almond, amongst other traditional fare.
Traffic was heavy, but not even a car accident dampered the mood of the cool evening air. Old friends greeted one another and groups of teenagers laughed and joked with each other. There was a traditional beauty to the evening, lacking the commercialism and conspicuous consumption associated with most gift giving holidays. Toward the end of the evening the streets were filled with debris and cleaning crews swept into the wee hours of the night.
Around 4 a.m. one can hear the sound of drums moving through the Eastern streets, waking Jerusalemites for an early meal. In a few hours it will all be a faint memory as the day breaks and the fast of Ramadan begins again.
The streets of Palestine do not decelerate during the days of Ramadan in the same way that is customary in other places. Eating, drinking, smoking, and other pleasures are unacceptable in public in East Jerusalem, and even more so in the major cities of the West Bank. In East Jerusalem an old canon fires a single shot at sunset signaling the break fast, and the evenings of the Eid ushered in young men on horseback riding gallantly through the streets, and a series of celebrations that have finally slowed the pulse of the city, but only for the duration of the feast. As is the case in many circumstances, it seems that Palestinians have adapted to difficult circumstances while maintaining the best of their identity.
