JERUSALEM
In the alleys of East Jerusalem’s Old City, brightly festooned with Ramadan lamps, the voice of the misaharaty rings out each day before dawn to remind the neighborhood’s Muslims to take suhoor, the pre-dawn Ramadan meal.
As in other parts of the Arab world, the Misaharaty – who beats a drum and cries out the names of local residents just before dawn – is a centuries-old tradition.
In the Old City’s Bab Hotta neighborhood, the service is provided by Baha Najeeb, 27, and Hussam Gosheh, 26.
“Five years ago, Jerusalem’s streets were mostly empty for Ramadan due to stringent Israeli security measures – especially between iftar [the sunset breakfast meal] and suhoor,” Ghosheh told Anadolu Agency.
“So we decided to become misaharaties and bought traditional clothes and a drum,” he added. “We’ve been doing it ever since.”
Every day during Ramadan – at exactly 2:30am – the pair meets up at the entrance of their neighborhood.
“We pass under each home to make sure everyone is awake,” he explained. “One of us beats the drum while the other calls out the names of our neighbors.”
They wear traditional Arabic trousers, embroidered vests and – in a modern addition – the Palestinian black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, which has come to symbolize the Palestinian national struggle.
“For hundreds of years, Misaharaties have circumambulated the streets of this city during Ramadan wearing outfits like this,” said Ghosheh. “We want to preserve this legacy.”
The Misaharaty typically uses a number of different calls to wake up the faithful for suhoor.
These include “Awake and praise Allah,” “The fast draws near” and “Pray for mercy and forgiveness in the fasting month.”
According to Ghosheh, they aren’t paid for their services.
“We do it for God and the people of Jerusalem,” he said.
Harassment, threats
Like most Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, they are occasionally harassed – even threatened – by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
“Last year, Israeli soldiers fired teargas and rubber bullets at us,” Najeeb told Anadolu Agency. “I was injured in my leg.”
“Jewish settlers, meanwhile, often throw garbage at us when we pass through their areas,” he added.
According to Najeeb, the Misaharaty’s vocation is a “reflection of our ancestors’ history in the Old City” – something, he asserted, they would never abandon.
“The Israeli occupation wants to erase our Arab and Muslim heritage,” he said. “Our duty is to fight back – and what we do as misaharaties is part of that fight.”
- Old memories
Longtime Old City resident Ahmed Abu Sneneh, 70, said he remembered the Misaharaty from when he was a child.
“Waking up for Suhoor to the sound of the Misaharaty reminds me of the old days,” he said.
Kareema Gaith, 85, has similar recollections. She says the Misaharaties’ voices and drum reminds her of what the Old City was like before Israel occupied it – along with the rest of East Jerusalem – in 1967.
“When I was only six years old, we followed the Misaharaty around the Old City each night,” she recalled.
“Back then,” she said, “thousands of Muslims – from all over the world – would visit Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem – and the entire West Bank – during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
East Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the Al-Aqsa complex as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
International law continues to view the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories," considering all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.
