I was born in al-Mughrabi neighborhood to a Jerusalemite mother who went through the 1967 setback
Aisha Al-Maslouhi ... a Moroccan guarding the Al-Buraq Wall for 54 years
Children and grandchildren rally around Hajja Aisha in her room.
Emirates today
Moroccan Jerusalemite in front of her room in the corner of the Moroccans.
Emirates today
picture
On the southwestern side of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, south of the Al-Buraq Wall, in the middle of a small room dating back hundreds of years, its ancient stones embrace the narrow alleys adjacent to the Mughrabi Gate, one of the main closed doors to Al-Aqsa, and in the corners of this room is the link between the Jerusalemite Aisha al-Maslouhi, a Moroccan of Moroccan origins. On the Temple Mount for 54 years.
The room of Aisha al-Maslouhi (Umm Samir) is located in the corner of Sidi Abu Madin al-Ghuaza, which is famous for the Maghreb corner, as its windows directly overlook the Al-Buraq Wall, the rest of the Mughrabi neighborhood and Gate, and the Al-Qibli prayer hall in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. It has remained on the Temple Mount to this day.
In the vicinity of the holy sites, Umm Samir Al-Maslouhi - 75 years old - who comes from the town of Tamsluh near the city of Marrakesh in the Kingdom of Morocco, is the oldest Moroccan guarding the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Al-Buraq Wall adjacent to the Mughrabi Gate, despite the occupation's control over them since 1967.
Deep-rooted assets
Aisha Al-Maslouhi was born in the Al-Mughrabi neighborhood in the Holy City of Jerusalem in 1946, to a Moroccan father and a Jerusalemite mother, and between its ancient walls lived her childhood and life stages, and grew up, and witnessed all the events in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem, and all the calamities that befell the Holy City, since its occupation in 1967.
Moroccan Jerusalemite says while in the middle of her room, wearing the traditional Moroccan dress (the caftan and the jalabiya), which she still keeps to this day: “My father’s family used to live in the Maghribi neighborhood west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, along with 135 families who came from the Maghreb countries to the city of Jerusalem before Hundreds of years, as Moroccans used to visit it with large delegations, and permanently during the seasons of Hajj, to pray in the first Qiblah and the third of the Two Holy Mosques, and to seek knowledge, and jihad for the sake of God, in support of the holy city during the reign of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi.
Al-Hajjah Al-Maslouhi added in an exclusive interview with Emirates Today, recalling the stages of his life in the Al-Mughrabi neighborhood: “My father worked as a guard for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards for 42 years, and my brother also worked as a guard after him, and I had 10 brothers, all of us were born and grew up in the Mughrabi neighborhood. And we were raised to love Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, as my mother used to always attend us to visit the sanctuary and pray in it. ”
Al-Maslouhi is proud of her deep-rooted Moroccan origins, despite her birth and spending all stages of her life in the enclaves of Jerusalem, adding: “Whoever denies his origin has no basis, and I am proud that my roots are from the Kingdom of Morocco, and at the same time I am a Palestinian Jerusalemite, who was born and raised and married in the holy city of Jerusalem, next to the mosque. The Blessed Aqsa ».
Displacement and return
Despite the smallness of her room, Aisha Al-Maslouhi remained inside her stationed in Al-Aqsa, guarding its sanctities, while every corner of the narrow room reminded her of the Mughrabi neighborhood, and his families who fled from it after the occupation of the holy city of Jerusalem in 1967.
(Um Samir Al-Maslouhi) indicates that the corner of Abi Median, the Algerian relief in the Maghribi neighborhood, before 1967, used to receive pilgrims from the countries of the Maghreb, after performing the rituals of Hajj every year.
She continues, saying: “When the Moroccan pilgrims came from North Africa as a whole, they sanctified their duty to visit the Holy City, thus linking the Mosque of the House of God in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Holy City of Jerusalem, and then they visited the city of Khalil. Rahman and pray in the Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi Mosque ».
Al-Maslouhi lived through the events of the occupation of the Holy City of Jerusalem, when the occupation flattened the Maghribi neighborhood, in which she had lived for many years, with the land in just three hours.
She says: “I will not forget a single moment that I lived with all its details before or after the 1967 setback, and I still remember how the occupation demolished the Maghribi neighborhood over the heads of its owners, as the Jerusalemites and Moroccans suffered greatly, when they were forced to leave their homes within a few hours, and how they became dispersed refugees wishing to return. To their homes, after they were living in one of the purest parts of the earth, in the heart of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. ”
She added, "The residents began to flee without being able to take their belongings. After three hours, the occupation forces razed the Moroccan neighborhood to the ground, completely removing 135 homes, and demolishing two mosques, including the Al-Buraq Al-Sharif Mosque."
After the destruction of the houses and landmarks of the Maghriba neighborhood, the corner of Sidi Abu Madin, the Algerian Relief, turned into a shelter for the displaced from the neighborhood, after it was a place to receive pilgrims coming from Mecca, and it still exists to the present day, housing 10 families from the countries of the Maghreb, where the Moroccan corner includes two floors and a mosque While the Moroccan flag waved over it, according to Al-Maslouhi's need.
Al-Maslouhi suffered the bitterness of displacement and displacement in 1967, just as what happened with all Palestinians, when the occupation authorities forced her to flee the neighborhood with her husband, and leave her family and her family in Jerusalem.
On this, Umm Samir Al-Maslouhi speaks bitterly: “The occupation forced me to flee from the Maghribi neighborhood and the holy city of Jerusalem. My husband and I had two children at that time. I moved to Jordan, while my husband worked in Saudi Arabia for a year, and we returned again to Jordan, and then We went back to my roots in Morocco, and we lived there for seven years. ”
She added, "After my husband died in a traffic accident, I went back to where I was born and raised in the city of Jerusalem, next to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Al-Buraq Wall, after obtaining a request for family unification that my mother submitted, may God have mercy on her."
Historical legacy
After her return to the Holy City of Jerusalem in 1974, Hajjah Aisha al-Maslouhi did not accept the separation of the Temple Mount, and remained steadfast in it, as she spent her life stationed in the enclosures of Jerusalem, to complete the journey and the march of her parents and her husband there, and today her sons and grandchildren gather around her, and they all live in the town The ancient city of Jerusalem.
The Moroccan station says: "The place where I live today on my own consists of a room and its annexes. It is inside the Moroccan corner, and it does not accommodate all the family members of my children, who live near me."
And she continues: “This residence is the most beautiful of all. I live next door to one of the holiest and purest parts of the earth as a whole, and from the window of the room I see daily and around the clock the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Al-Buraq Wall from which the beloved, the Chosen One, Muhammad, ascended to the seventh heaven, and the door of the Moroccans that We were deprived of it 54 years ago, and this neighborhood is the greatest reward from God, the Almighty. ”
And based on its origins rooted in the Mughrabi neighborhood, the holy city of Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its strong attachment to the Al-Buraq Wall and the Mughrabi Gate, the Moroccan Al-Qudsiyya recommends its children and grandchildren to preserve its room in the corner of Abu Madin Al-Relief, so that the legacy inherited by successive generations over time and ages.
"I am proud that my roots are from the Kingdom of Morocco, and at the same time I am a Palestinian Jerusalemite. I was born, raised and married in the holy city of Jerusalem, and next to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."
“My father worked as a guard for Al-Aqsa Mosque for 42 years, and my brother also worked as a guard after him. I had 10 siblings. We were all born in the Mughrabi neighborhood, and we were raised to love Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.”
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