Old City, occupied East Jerusalem – On a corner just outside the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem's Old City, 30-year-old Abu Mohammad stands amid the aromas of spices, dried fruits and herbs in a decades-old store. was.
“I've been here ever since I was born. My grandfather also worked in the spice business in Jerusalem's Old City all his life,” the father of three told Al Jazeera.
Until Israel's war began in the besieged Gaza Strip less than 80 kilometers (50 miles) away last October, Abu Mohammad kept his store stocked and brought new produce once a week to meet high demand. had to be shipped. . He hasn't brought any luggage with him since October 7, when the war began.
The Old City is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, one of Islam's holiest sites, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed by Christians to be the place where Jesus was crucified. It's also a place. , and the Western Wall, which Jews believe to be the last remnants of the Second Temple. Therefore, the old town usually attracts a huge number of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world. According to the Jerusalem-based Arab Chamber of Commerce, around 5 million tourists visited the country from abroad in 2019, with Jerusalem being the top destination.
Apart from its importance in tourism, the Old City and its surrounding commercial areas have historically formed the most central market for the 350,000 Palestinians who live and work in Jerusalem.
But since the start of the war, in which more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Israeli military has carried out strict checks on all entrances to the Old City, and residents have described it as a “siege”, leading to Only people with registered addresses were allowed to enter. The city was allowed access.
Numerous Israeli militia officers are manning checkpoints with metal barricades at all open gates of the Old City, primarily those used by Palestinians, Bab al-Amd (Damascus Gate), Bab al-Amd (Damascus Gate), Bab al-Amd (Damascus Gate), As-Zahra (Herod's Gate), Bab al-Asbat (Lion's Gate), Bab al-Jadeed (New Gate).
Abu Mohammad said there was no need to ship agricultural products in the past four months.
“It's not selling at all,” he said.
empty street
The charming narrow cobblestone streets of the Old City, once filled with a steady flow of Palestinians, pilgrims and tourists, are now almost deserted. Gone are the cries of Palestinian vendors calling out to shoppers and the voices of elderly women selling fresh herbs on the steps of the Old City streets.
Abu Mohammad said income from his shop “decreased by 99 percent during the Gaza war.” The only people who visit his shop these days are people who live in the old city.
“We are losing money and have had to throw away a lot of food items because they are expired,” he added.
The Old City of Jerusalem is located in the eastern Israeli-occupied side of the city and has approximately 2,000 Palestinian-run shops, including 450 souvenir shops, 25 restaurants, and 23 supermarkets. A third of them had been closed before October 7 due to Israeli regulations and high taxes.
But at least half of all stores in Palestine have been forced to close completely or partially since the war, according to Ruai al-Husseini, head of the Arab Chamber of Commerce.
“The majority of the shops depend on tourism, and for the past four months there have been zero tourists,” Al Husseini told Al Jazeera.
“Most stores are affected, including bakeries and greengrocers, and they depend on restaurants, and restaurants depend on tourists,” he continued. “It's a production chain. If one part fails, everything fails.”
“Worst state in 40 years”
In another corner of the old city, Tawfik Al Harawani still runs a small shop, with shelves overflowing with chocolate as well as Arabic and Turkish sweets.
His shop, like Abu Mohammad's, is located on the main thoroughfare known as Al-Wad Street, which runs directly from the Damascus Gate, the largest of the Old City's gates, to the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque. , there are few buyers. There are many days when there is none at all.
“I have been working in this store for 40 years. This is the longest and worst condition we have experienced in the old city,” he told Al Jazeera.
“When the war began, we closed our doors, and then we opened them again, but in vain. We neither sell nor buy,” he continued. “In the past 130 days, some stores either didn't open at all or didn't sell anything.”
He says Israeli checkpoints at the entrance to the Old City are “arbitrary, illogical and inexcusable.”
“They are preventing people from praying and shopping in the Old City. We are at a point below zero, even though we continue to pay taxes and spend a lot of money to keep the stores open. , no one buys anything,” Al Harawani said.
Many of the shop owners Al Jazeera tried to interview, including an elderly man, refused to speak out of fear of being arrested or punished by Israeli police.
One shop owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera with great persuasiveness: “I am a son of Jerusalem and live in the Old City. Given the situation we are in, I am afraid to speak out.”
He said there has been an increase in violence and harassment by Israeli forces at checkpoints set up around the Old City, particularly against young Palestinian men, which is further discouraging Palestinians from coming to pray and shop. he pointed out.
“Our sons are being beaten, assaulted, kicked and spat on,” the shopkeeper said. “If we tried to complain, the police would say, 'So what?' But if we looked at settlers the wrong way, the police would detain us,” the man said.
“When a girl wears a keffiyeh, you see them humiliating her, taking her phone away, and within minutes handcuffing her and taking her away,” he continued.
“My friends ask me, “Why do you close your store on Friday?'' I told them, “There are no people, there are no admirers.''
“We close our shops most of the week. It's not just me, it's everyone. Unless provoked by the settlers, it's [Israeli-controlled] The Jerusalem municipality, if not the municipality, then the police or the army,” he said. “Since the war in Gaza, their hatred has become very clear.”
“They want us to close our doors.”
The eastern half of Jerusalem was militarily occupied and illegally annexed by Israel in 1967. At least 350,000 Palestinians currently live in occupied East Jerusalem, including approximately 220,000 illegal Israeli settlers in heavily fortified Jewish-only settlements. .
Approximately 86 percent of occupied East Jerusalem is under direct control of the Israeli government and settlers. The annexation of East Jerusalem is not recognized by any country in the world except the United States because it violates international law, which states that an occupying power may not have sovereignty over the territory it occupies.
Local NGOs and rights groups have long pointed to various Israeli practices and policies in Jerusalem, saying they are aimed at changing the population ratio in favor of Israeli Jews, and that their goal is is stipulated to “maintain a strong Jewish majority within the city.” His 2000 Master Plan for Municipalities.
According to rights groups, the expansion of illegal settlements, the systematic demolition of Palestinian housing, and severe restrictions on Palestinian urban development are some of the main tools used to achieve this goal. That's what it means.
Shop owners in the Old City say they believe the closure of shops is just another means of displacing Jerusalem's Palestinians.
“They want us to close our doors. They want the old town to remain as empty and manageable as it is now, and for the settlers to roam around as comfortably as they like. ” said Abu Mohammad.
The Chamber of Commerce's Al-Husseini said these restrictions were aimed at “affecting Jerusalem's demographic structure” in the long term.
If the closure continues for a long time, “the situation for Palestinians in Jerusalem will be similar to the situation in the West Bank.
“We will be a cheap source of labor for the other side, just like workers in the West Bank who work in illegal settlements or inside Israel,” he explained.
“Over time, the Israeli identity will be more and more imposed on us, and the demographic identity and composition of Jerusalem will change. Businesses will close and people will invest money or open factories. People will no longer even think about it, and there will be no development in the city,” Al-Husseini said.
Despite the day-to-day hardships involved in running a Palestinian vendor business in the Old City, many shop owners are aware of Israel's grand goals, especially since the start of the Gaza war. He says that it means his determination to resist it.
Sheikh Hassan Tawfik is a gentle 80-year-old man sitting at the entrance of a small shop just meters from the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque. He sells Islamic items such as prayer beads and rugs in a 50-year-old store he owns with his son.
“We open and close every day with zero income,” he told Al Jazeera. “There are no tourists, there are no worshipers. In fact, we are losing money paying rent and electricity to keep our shops open.”
Still, he says opening a store means more than just business.
“We open to protect Al-Aqsa” [from the Israeli occupation]We are open so that people can continue to come to the old city and the old city can continue to live,” Tawfik said. “We must endure. We must be patient.”