Israeli police threats to arrest and fine a Jerusalem musaharati for doing his traditional Ramadan job aims at ending the Palestinian presence in the occupied city and change its traditions and culture, today said the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
Israeli police prevented this morning the Ramadan musaharati, the person who wakes people up before dawn to eat in order to start the day-long fast, from doing his traditional job in Jerusalem and threatened to arrest him.
“These threats are an extension of the open war by (the Israeli) occupation on the holy city, its citizens and its cultural identity, and an attempt to end the Palestinian presence in it while turning it into a Jewish Israeli city by changing its characteristics and push its citizens to leave it,” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“The recognition of Jerusalem by the (US President) Trump administration as the capital of the occupying power and the transfer of the US embassy to it is a green light for the occupation authorities to boost settlements and judaization of occupied Jerusalem, including continued provocative attacks against Islamic and Christian holy sites,” it added, stressing that all these Israeli measures are null, illegal and illegitimate.
The musaharati is one of the oldest Ramadan traditions. It is the name given to the person who walks the streets in residential areas before dawn and beats a drum to wake up people to eat their sohoor meal before they begin their sunrise to sunset fast.
