The story of Maria, the fair-haired child found recently with Gypsies in Greece, has exacerbated the already negative reputation of Europe’s Gypsy minority, which suffers from poverty and lack of education and now has to thwart accusations of child trafficking.

“This is just an opportunity to attack the whole community,” said a member of Israel’s Gypsy community of some 2,000 people.

Story by Roi Mandel

Photo: shows Amoun Saleem, founder of the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem – source: www.domarisociety.wix.com

Amoun Saleem, the founder of the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem, was less surprised by the hostile reaction that greeted the sensational international story of the girl whose Bulgarian Roma mother gave her away to another Roma couple four years ago. The case is still unfolding.
“We were treated with hostility in Europe even before the story of Maria,” Saleem said. “Without really knowing what happened, they accuse [the adoptive parents] of abduction and abuse. I’ve suffered discrimination and prejudice all my life as a Gypsy. I’m afraid it’s a part of our lives.”

Gypsies originate from India, and it is assumed they reached Europe and the Mideast in several waves of immigration. Noga Buber-Ben David, who has studied Israel’s Gypsy community, said Gypsies in the Mideast settled in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

For more than 400 years, Jerusalem has been home to a few hundred families from the Middle East branch of Gypsies, known as the Domari. In the 1800s, they lived mainly in tents in the Wadi Joz neighborhood, just outside the ancient city walls. Over the past century, however, many gradually moved inside the Old City, to the Burj Laq Laq neighborhood, near the Lion’s Gate. Today, the Old City’s Domari community consists of some 150 families, or 2,000 individuals, who live in low-standard housing.

Meanwhile, other Domari families have resettled in Arab villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem and in the West Bank and Gaza. By now, most have traded in their tents for homes, albeit cramped ones. They usually live with their extended family, which can include several generations under one roof.

The Gypsy community in Israel today is made up of three central families: Saleem, Nadeer and Nuri. Over the years the community has assimilated in Arab culture, and most are Muslim by faith.

Even within the local Arab community, the Gypsy community suffers from prejudice and humiliation. They are sometimes offensively referred to as “Nawari” — “black” or “dirty” — and suffer from misinformation at best and racism at worst.

“Even if there are mixed marriages, it’s usually with low-income families,” Buber-Ben David said. “In east Jerusalem, marrying a Gypsy is not exactly something to be proud of.”

The Jerusalem municipality in recent years has been committed to raising the Gypsy population’s educational, financial and social profile. “We were in bad shape,” said Abed Saleem, mukhtar of the community. “But we got a lot of help with actual budgets, reading and writing courses, and community centers.”

The mukhtar used help from the municipality to promote children’s education and encourage women to go out and gain employment.

The new reality, says Buber-Ben David, created a paradox. “On the one hand, women have realized that the way to break the cycle of poverty is to go out and become educated. On the other hand, this creates a society in which more and more educated women are not interested in marrying inside the Gypsy community.

“Either way, the Gypsy community in Israel is going through a very impressive change — from a poor, unemployed community to a hotbed of cultural, educational, musical and social doing. I doubt there is another Gypsy community in the world that went through such significant changes in such a short while.”

Link: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/70016/gypsies-in-israel-struggle-to-rise-above-circumstances/