Playing with fire in the Ajami mosque

Yesterday morning a group of armed settlers entered the compound of the Ajami mosque (next to the Hasan Arafe primary school) in the framework of their tour of Jaffa.

One wonders about the true purpose of that visit. Was it to repectfully view the grave of Ibrahim Ajami? The ajami mosque, unlike some other beautiful Jaffa mosques, is not of great beauty. Not a place a tourist wold go out of his or her way to visit.

Thus, the armed settlers' visit raises serious questions as to their purpose. A  provocation?

The Jaffa community turned to the police and the municipality for protection against this kind of most unwanted "attention".

Ramadan Karim

The Siksik mosque, originally constructed in the 1880-ies, partially demolished by a bomb during the Naqbe, abused by the Keter Plastic Factory between 1960-2006 and reconstructed by the community in 2009, was inaugurated last wednesday, just before Ramadan.

Jaffa's Palestinian community was deeply involved in the reconstruction and building. At the same time the community was built by the concentrated effort of reconstructing a lovely mosque.

The inauguration was attended by over 500 community members, as well as Sheikh Raed Salah of the northern section of the Islamic movement and knesset member Ibrahim Zarsur of the southern section of the Islamic movement..

The tension which often exists between those two sections was not present. There was a feeling of pride and unity.

Ramadan Karim to the Jaffa community and all those to whom it applies.

Arnon Giladi is at it, once more

Arnon Giladi, likud representative in the municipal council, sent around a hateful letter full of half truths and pure lies concerning the Siksik mosque.

The guy who in the past stated in an interview with "Ha'Ir" that Jaffa should be "judaized" (imagine someone in the states saying the neighborhood should be "whitened") is actively looking for trouble.

His compaints made Gilad Peled, head of the Jaffa governance, the "mishlama leyafo", the mini-municipality so to say, run to the mosque accusing the mosque people of all kinds of crimes aacording to the illegal construction and squatting laws. After all when Arnon Giladi accuses someone, it should be taken seriously.

However, in the end, after having been shown the mosque peoples' paperwork, Peled had to admit being wrong. Giladi has not yet done so.

One wonders what Arnon Giladi's real interest is.

In the mean time, tomorrow, friday, a large group of praying people is expected to attend the prayers at the Siksik mosque, now under full renovation.

I took a little time to go to the municipal archive and dig up some "goodies". There is lots of paperwork showing without doubt the ownership of the "Siksik Waqf", and one presumes Giladi as well as Peled to be aware of that. A waqf cannot legally sell a mosque according to Israeli law, which actually protects the standing of a mosque as a religious building (theoretically at least).

As the municipal papers show without any doubt, the mosque is owned by the Siksik waqf, therefore Giladi should back off and offer his apologies.

The municipality intend to create a public road next to the mosque for which they have appropriated land next to it. On the land are historical buildings. It would be a pity to break down these buildings. The area is very lovely.

BUT the mosque land has NOT been appropriated. Giladi should shut up, in stead of accusing the Jaffa Muslim community of crimes they have not committed.

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.

The "Siksik" Mosque as a point of reference

The old sandstone Siksik mosque in Jaffa's flea market area has recently become the center of a new struggle.
The mosque, constructed in the 1880-ies, consists of a room, an elegant minaret and a lovely sabil. It's located on Siksik street (today's Beyt HaEshel street) .
It was constructed by the Siksik family, still living in Jaffa, next to the ancient khan they owned and operated. Traders on their way to the Jaffa market would stay there during the night, after the walled city's gates had been locked for its citizens' peace, quiet and security.
Up to this very day the mosque is owned by the Siksik family's "waqef" (non profit organization) and under their responsibility. Omar Siksik functions as the mosque's moutawali (caretaker), elected by the family to take care of the mosque.
The family has engaged in legal battles over the years, in order to prevent its demolition and its being taken over by the "Keter" plastic factory located just behind it on what, perhaps, once upon a time, were storage rooms of the mosque and khan. Paperwork possessed by the Siksik family indicates the existence of those storage rooms but does not exactly state their location.

The mosque has not functioned as a place of prayer for many years, but is being maintained and safeguarded by the family, until last week.
The southern section of the Islamic movement entered the mosque, cleaned it and exchanged the locks without the Siksik family's permission.
Jaffa has several active mosques and in the flea-market area has become a predominantly Jewish over the years. The problem is not a lack of prayer space. Moreover, the large "Mouhmoudiyeh", Jaffa's main mosque, is a short walk away.

So why did the southern section of the Islamic movement decide to undertake its self appointed and not very necessary mission right now?

One needs to look at the bigger picture: the construction of a hotel on top of the Jaffa "Kishle" (the old Turkish police station and jail), next door to the Mahmoudiyeh mosque.
The whole area of the clocktowersquare, kishle and mosque included, are protected buildings. When the Nakash brothers bought the Kishle building for some 38.000.000 NIS three years ago, they bought it in order to construct a hotel, and apparently they bought it with very generous building rights. Building rights that allow them to build a huge block on top of the old structures, dwarfing them and the lovely surroundings.
The construction will change the Jaffa skyline and the whole area for ever. A barbarous act of destroying cultural heritage for us and the next generations. Something carried out by money hungry, but very blind, people with no respect for another culture, architecture and art. And also lacking all respect for another religion, Islam.
The planned hotel's royal suite has a swimming pool on its balcony, overlooking the mosque's courtyard where prayers take place. How callous can you get?

Constructing a hotel next to a mosque demands a lot of respect and thoughtfulness on the side of those planning the hotel. However, thoughtfulness concerning the mosque's attendees feelings is NOT something the hotel's architects took into consideration (and i went to the city planning office to have a look at the actual plans). The fight against the hotel's construction has been taken up by the northern section of the Islamic movement.
The southern section kept quiet. Although they, as members of the Muslim council (something like the city rabbinate) should have been the first to take up the fight. So the next question should be: why didn't they? How come they did not oppose the building permits actively?
This is where the rumors start: some suggest money was handed over, or in less nice words, bribes were paid.
The southern section kept quiet. But now they must show they DO care about mosques and religion, which may be the reason why they targeted the Siksik mosque for their activity.

Yesterday some 100 people came to pray at the mosque, in order to express their support for the Siksik family's fight to keep it what it is, a mosque, a peaceful place of prayer.

Jaffa for sale

"Keter Plastic" (or the "Keter Group") is one of the world's leading plastic consumers' products manufacturers. Almost completely privately owned, little information is available in the public domain.

"Keter" was (is?) one of the main sponsors of the HaPoel Tel Aviv soccer team. I don't know a thing about soccer, but HaPoel and Bloomfield and Jaffa go together and i do not have to listen to the news to know the outcome of a game: i can hear the shouting and screaming from my home in Ajami, which is not exactly close to "Bloomfield".

"Keter" was started by Sami Sagol's (one of the current owners) father as a small plastic facory in Jaffa, between the flea market , the Siksik Mosque and Jerusalem Boulevard, many years ago.

One of those places providing employment under fair conditions to many of Jaffa's people, from all backgrounds.

Over time the Jaffa premises became too small and new factories were opened all over the country and then the world.

However, so i was told, Sami could not face the idea of sending the workers, who had served his father so well, home, and kept the Jaffa premises open for many years. There was something special between the owner of the huge international plastic conglomerate and the employees of the "old place" that went beyond "employer - employees'" relations.

Over time the employees became old and the factory stopped operating. The store was kept open.

Last week the factory premises were sold for some 27 million $ to developers.

There is something sad about loosing a place of employment. It's even sadder, when that loss adds directly to the current gentrification process in Jaffa.

And what will happen to do "Siksik Mosque located on those premises? It used to belong, and perhaps still does, to the Siksik Waqf, a family run charity. They never sold the mosque.