Palestinians gather near Damascus Gate by the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on April 4, 2022. (Photo: Jeries Bssier/APA Images)
Palestinians welcomed the month of Ramadan over the weekend, the holiest month of the year for Muslims around the world, and millions of Palestinians under occupation.
Ramadan is one of the loveliest times in Palestine, and one of my favorite times of year here. This year marks my sixth year living in Palestine, and seeing the city light up with colorful lanterns and decorations really never does get old.
Ramadan has a very distinct feeling and atmosphere: the sounds of the evening prayers ringing over the Mosque loudspeakers, the smell of home cooking wafting through the air in my neighborhood in the last hour before iftar, and the sights of children playing in the street late into the night.
For this one month of the year, life gets turned upside down, but in the most beautiful way.
Unfortunately, however, the magic of Ramadan, like most sacred and special things in Palestine, is almost always marred by violence and oppression.
The city of Jerusalem, where thousands of Palestinians gather every day to attend prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, witnesses most of this violence.
In the days leading up to Ramadan, Israeli police began their crackdown on Palestinians outside the Old City. In the days since the month began, the violence has only gotten worse, with dozens arrested and even more injured.
Damascus Gate, where much of the violence against Palestinians takes place, is the entrance to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. It’s one of the most significant public spaces for Palestinians in the city, where people of all ages can gather together on the stone steps and, to put it simply, just exist.
It is for this very reason that this area is so heavily targeted by Israeli police, not only during Ramadan, but year round.
Palestinian existence, and any expression of life or patriotism, is treated as a threat that must be quashed with an iron fist. We saw this last year in the lead up to the May 2021 uprisings, when every day, Palestinian youth were brutalized outside Damascus Gate, often times out of nowhere.
Because of its significance to Palestinian life in the city, and to the very fabric of the Palestinian identity, when something happens at Damascus Gate, it affects all Palestinians no matter where they are, or what borders or walls separate them.
In the West Bank, where millions of Palestinians are barred from even going to Jerusalem, the scenes of violence at Damascus Gate play out on the phone and TV screens of hundreds of thousands of people everyday.
When many Palestinians wake up in the early morning hours before dawn to eat their morning meal before the fast begins, their screens are filled with images of beatings, arrests, and persecution that happened in the hours that they are sleeping.
A month that should be filled with happiness, peace, and devotion has unfortunately, in Palestine, become synonymous with occupation, apartheid, and repression.
