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All across Europe Antiziganism or Roma-phobia1
is on the rise again. According to human rights organisations Roma
communities suffer from systematic discrimination in many areas, and frequently fall victim to
serious racist assaults of both verbal and physical nature. The
rhetoric used against the communities, including by European
government officials and parties, has changed very little since the
last century that saw manifold attempts by the Nazis and other
fascist movements to annihilate the Roma population.
At the same
time, however, in recent decades a
growing number of institutions emerged, that seek to support the Roma communities,
which also includes an increased effort to conduct systematic
research and documentation of Romani history and culture as a way of acknowledging and preserving Roma cultural heritage.
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Dom people, unknown location, 1899 |
If relatively little is known about the European Roma,
including their numbers, with estimations ranging between 12 and 15
million, even less information is available on the approximately 3 million Dom of
the Middle East and North Africa.
The Dom, just like the Roma, are
said to have originated in India. The term “Dom” meaning “man”
most likely later develop into “Rom” and thus into Roma. While it
is generally acknowledged that the Dom probably have left India and
moved towards the Middle East in the Middle Ages and hence before the Roma,
the exact time and the various reasons for their migration can only
be speculated upon.
Today, the Dom population is scattered throughout
the whole Middle East and can be found in Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The lifestyles of the
different communities vary considerably; while some maintain a
nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, others, particularly those living
in Lebanon, Northern Cyprus and Israel have mostly settled down. The
sedentary lifestyle of the latter group has gradually improved their
opportunities for education and more permanent work, yet illiteracy
and the concomitant poverty are still widespread also in these
communities.
Similar to the European experience, the Middle Eastern
Dom face a lot of discrimination and therefore tend to hide their
ethnic identity and frequently claim to be part of a recognised group
in the respective host country. In Israel for instance
they are inclined to refer to themselves as Arabs or Palestinians, while in
Lebanon many call themselves Bedouins.
The Dom of Palestine and
Israel
Today's number of Dom living in Gaza, the West Bank and
Jerusalem is estimated to be around 10,000, with the vast majority of
approximately 7,000 living in Gaza. The lack of a more exact number
mainly stems from the already above mentioned reluctance of many
community members to identify themselves as Dom. In addition to that, the Israeli Ministry of Interior does
not recognise the community as a separate cultural or religious group
and the Dom are therefore listed as "Arabs".
The little information
that can be found centres around the Dom community in Jerusalem,
which shall therefore also be the focus of this article.
The Dom
people of Jerusalem
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Domari family in Jerusalem |
It is estimated that for more than a century, Dom people have been
settling in Jerusalem, mainly working as blacksmiths, merchants,
horse dealers, but also as musicians and dancers2.
Pre 1948, during the increasing tensions between the Palestinian population,
the British administration and the Zionist movement, the Dom
community mainly remained passive, not taking any side. Yet, there
are also accounts stating that the Dom supported the Arab resistance
by hiding fighters and weapons in their shacks, which reportedly led
the British to order the community to leave the area around Nablus
Road and to settle instead in the Old City next to the Lion's Gate,
which is hence often called the “Gypsy Quarter”.
During what the Israel discourse refers to as the Independence War of 1948, large
numbers of the Dom fled along with the Palestinian Muslim and
Christian populations. Many of them settled in Amman, Jordan, others
went to live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza, where
relatively big communities still live today.
Up until 1967 the
Jerusalem Dom community was comprised of more than 200 families, 60%
of which reportedly fled to Jordan during and after the Six Day War, when Israeli forces occupied East Jerusalem.
Hoping to
improve their lives and to be more accepted within wider society, the
Dom of the Middle East largely have been trying to accomodate their
lifestyles to that of mainstream society and converted to Islam and adopted the respective language
or dialect spoken in their host country. This obviously
led to a decline in the use of their own language and according to
the Dom Research Center, in 1999 it was estimated that only 20% of
the adults in Jerusalem used Domari as the language of daily
interaction in their homes. The number of young Dom speaking the
language is considerably lower and the great majority only has a very
limited inventory of Domari vocabulary.
The same is also true for
many of the distinct traditional practices that are gradually
vanishing, a notion that is also aided by the continuation of the
Israeli occupation and the restrictions of movement imposed on the
Palestinian population, which has been increasingly isolating the
different communities from each other and prevented most forms of
exchange between them.
On the other hand, the assimilation into
Palestinian society has so far not paid off and discriminatory
practices in many areas, particularly in the education system, as
well as in the job market are still commonplace. According to a study
from 2004, over 80% of the community has not continued their
education beyond elementary level and the unemployment rate of the
same group was estimated at 66%.
![]() |
Amoun Sleem in front of the community centre |
"The Jews treat us like Arabs
and the Arabs treat us like gypsies, so we get bad treatment from
both sides", says Amoun Sleem, a woman from the community, who
decided to fight for change and in 1999 founded the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem. As the first organization of its kind in the
Middle East, it is dedicated to advancing the political, social,
cultural, and health needs of the community. Later, in 2005, the
society opened a community centre in East Jerusalem's Shuafat
neighbourhood, which mainly focuses its efforts on the advancement
and empowerment of women and children, providing them with
after-school tutoring, job skills training, literacy courses,
humanitarian aid, as well as programmes that foster cultural pride.
Amoun has and continues to face a lot of obstacles to her ambitious
work, both from within and beyond the community: “Some people think
I’m crazy, and when a woman comes and tries to make a change in our
society, many people would rise against her. But I also think many
believe in their heart that what I do is right”, she was quoted as saying.
Similar to other minority groups in Palestine/Israel, such as the
Samaritans, whose numbers are too small to have any political
influence, the Dom are often caught up between the two sides. In
order to survive, they reportedly try as much as possible to stay out
of politics. However the hardships of the ongoing Occupation do not
differentiate between Dom people and others and many have been
suffering at the hands of the Israeli military.
The Dom do not
consider themselves neither Israelis, nor Palestinians, and according
to Amoun Sleem generally do not think in territorial terms or care
about who the sovereign is, at the same time however, her community
does feel a strong connectedness to and rootedness in Jerusalem and is
intent to hold on to their space within the city.
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The wheel shaped Chakra constitutes the international Roma symbol |
1 The
term Antiziganism derives from the word “zigan“, used in many
languages to refer to Roma people or other gypsies and travellers. Due to the term
carrying with it very derogatory implications, which are thus also
reproduced in the word Antiziganism, many Roma and activists
prefer the term Roma-phobia.
2 According
to a study by Matras, there exists a deeply cultural gap between the
Dom of Jerusalem and those of Gaza, with the former group being
mainly associated with artisanry and craftsmanship and the latter
with occupations from the realm of entertainment, yet obviously
there exist also overlaps.
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