Israel's attack on Palestinian bread
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| Document: A young strolls via conveying portions of bread as admirers get ready to implore near the Damascus Entryway of the Old City in Jerusalem on July 25, 2014 [Siegfried Modola/Reuters] |
Why the closure of an old Palestinian bakery in Jerusalem matters.
On the rare occasions that the Israeli authorities afford me a permit to go to Jerusalem, my mother always insists that I bring her a stack of "ka'ak al-Quds" (ka'ak of Jerusalem).
Ka'ak is an ovular bread coated during a generous layer of sesame seeds. it's widely available across Palestine and also in Ramallah, where we live. except for most Palestinians, Jerusalem's ka'ak may be a unique delicacy.
Like my mother, I also ask friends who get an opportunity to go to Jerusalem to bring me batches of ka'ak al-Quds - not only because it tastes particularly good, but because it carries with it a neighborhood of Jerusalem's cultural history.
On February 19, Israeli police raided and pack up a 60-year-old Palestinian bakery and arrested its young owner, Nasser Abu Sneina. Anyone who roamed the quarters of the Old City have likely gone by this old bakery and enjoyed the nice and cozy aroma of baking bread emanating from it.
It's near the Bab Hutta neighbourhood, which was a central location during the 2017 Palestinian protests against Israeli surveillance measures. The Israeli authorities claimed that the bakery was pack up because it did not adhere to the specified health standards.
Many Palestinians, however, say the bakery was targeted just because it distributed bread to worshippers heading to al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jerusalem's ka'ak and therefore the bakeries that sell it are - partially - symbols of the city's Palestinian identity.
A Palestinian bakery distributing ka'ak to worshippers on the thanks to the Al-Aqsa Mosque may be a threat to the Israeli authorities because it's an overt demonstration of Palestinian solidarity.
It shows that Palestinians aren't only still at the guts of the town but also are willing to empower one another within the face of Israeli oppression.They remind the planet , and therefore the Israelis, that Jerusalem may be a Palestinian city.
This is the important reason why Abu Sneina's bakery, and lots of other establishments love it , are forced into closure by the Israeli authorities.
More than 50 shops were forced to shut down in Jerusalem in recent years as a results of financial pressures and therefore the constant restrictions on movement that make running a business challenging.
The closure of this bakery was only the newest chapter within the larger, systematic assault on Palestinian presence in Jerusalem generally and within the Old City specifically.
Israel is trying to force all Palestinians out using several methods, from making their day-to-day lives unbearable with the ever present presence of armed soldiers to allowing the settlers overtake the town , quarter by quarter.
Palestinians in Jerusalem live with the constant threat of humiliating body searches, home evictions, withdrawal of residency, or assault from either Israeli settlers or Israeli forces - be it police or army.
Especially within the Old City, on top of the occupation's overt aggressions like arbitrary arrests, superfluous prosecutions, movement restrictions and unjust closures of companies , Palestinians are being forced to navigate a bureaucracy designed solely to offer legal backing to the attempts to kick them out.
The Israeli authorities require Palestinian establishments to accumulate a good range of permits and papers to stay in business. for several Palestinian business owners, however, it's both too expensive and difficult to get these documents.
The unreasonable pressures placed on Palestinians residing in Jerusalem sometimes reach such levels that they're forced to try to to things that folks elsewhere within the world would find hard to believe. Just last month, for instance , a Palestinian man living in Jerusalem demolished his house following an order by the Israeli municipality.
He took the matter into his own hands because he wanted to avoid the exorbitant costs that he would face if he allowed the municipality itself to hold out the demolition.
Israel goes to great lengths to push Palestinians out of Jerusalem due to the importance the town holds for the Palestinian struggle - it not only has religious value, but it's the historical, cultural and political epicentre of Palestinian life.
US President Donald Trump's 2017 decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move his country's embassy there provided some significant political backing to Israeli claims that the town belongs to them.
Nevertheless, Israel knows that it can't declare Jerusalem a solely "Israeli city" while Palestinians still live there and keep the city's Palestinian identity alive.
From the spice and sweet shops scattered round the Old City, to the old cassette shop that has been open since 1973, to the sound of Palestinian children chuckling within the alleyways, Jerusalem remains considerably a Palestinian city.This is why the Israeli authorities are targeting bakeries just like the one owned by Abu Sneina.
We Palestinians, aren't being pushed out of our ancestral lands and cities through demolitions, settlements, arbitrary revoking of residence permits or bullets only. We also are being pushed out by a scientific effort to form it impossible for us to exercise our own ways of living in our own country.
Israel is trying to erase Palestinian culture and identity from the streets, bazaars, bakeries and restaurants.
This has been happening for a really while . Ein Kerem, for instance , was once a Palestinian village in Jerusalem. Today, it's - mostly - home to upper-class Israelis. Walking through it seems like walking through an Israeli settlement, not a Palestinian village.
Of course, Israel knows it cannot erase all of Jerusalem's history and tradition. So sometimes it tries to appropriate aspects of Palestinian culture as its own.
This is why falafel are now being sold as Israel's national snack, albeit the dish is older than the state. And this is often why across the planet restaurants have "Israeli shakshuka" and "Israeli tabbouleh" on their menus.
For outside observers, the labelling of an old Palestinian dish as "Israeli" or the closing down of a bakery for "health and safety" reasons could seem like trivial issues.
However, for us Palestinians, these actions aren't break away home demolitions, displacements, illegal detentions, and curfews. they only represent a special a part of the occupation - these are attempts to erase our culture, our way of life, from our cities and streets alongside our physical bodies.
The views expressed during this article are the author's own and don't necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Source: Al-Jazeera
By mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian American writer based in Ramallah.
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