Community involvement at the Jaffa Siksik mosque

The Siksik mosque is being renovated by the Jaffa community, in order to safeguard it as a place of prayer. It's not clear how the Keter Plastic factory, apparently at some point in the 1960-ies, managed to take over a large part of the Siksik khan and mosque, but that's what happened. They had little regard for the place and over time turned it into... a mess of partially destroyed ancient walls, new constructions out of asbestos and flimsy wooden platforms. Some of the old vaulted rooms with thick sturdy walls still stand. A 1964 report by the ministry of religion describes the building as being sound and still in use as a mosque.

The Keter founders appear to donate to the Israeli opera, culture lovers, so to say. Yet they had little regard for the lovely old mosque and khan, owned by the Siksik waqf managed by a Palestinian family still living in Jaffa.

However, the Siksiks, in cooperation with the community, are cleaning, rebuilding and repairing the mosque. Five times a day prayers are held under difficult conditions. However, each day something in the ,mosque is changed, cleaned, repaired. I think something in the community is repaired as well, through this joint effort.