Unusually, a police armored vehicle was stationed in front of the entrance to the luxurious Corinthia Hotel, which overlooks the Blue Nile in Khartoum, where it was hosting a religious gathering in which Sudanese Jews and a rabbi from Jerusalem participated.

Around the hall that hosted the forum, and in the corridors leading to it, masked policemen, wearing bullet-proof vests, armed with automatic rifles.

Meanwhile, the caller of the former Parliamentary Forum and businessman Abu Al-Qassem Bartam was actively traveling in black robes, speaking to organizers who wore T-shirts with the slogan of his initiative "Brotherly Tolerance" written on it.

For the first time, the Jews of Sudan and families with Jewish roots have come out into the open, breaking the barrier of fear, and defying the stigma that used to hide them, according to what they reported to Al-Jazeera Net.

Although the forum came under the slogan "The First Fraternal Meeting to Promote Tolerance and Social Peace," and was attended by Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus, its opponents considered the move an attempt to impose normalization as a de facto situation.

It was remarkable that the ambassador of Norway - who spoke at the forum - and the ambassador of Jordan, as well as a group of businessmen, including members of the Indian community that spread in a number of cities in Sudan, and most of them are Hindu.

Jews and revolution

The forum was opened by reciting verses from the Holy Qur’an and prayers from the Bible, the Torah and the Hindu religion, but it was surprising that the one who recited the Torah prayers was a Sudanese Jewish girl.

Judit Saleh says she is a Sudanese Jew who has been in exile for many years, but before the 6th of April 2019, she returned to participate in the revolution that toppled the ousted president Omar al-Bashir.

Judit Saleh recited prayers from the Torah on the platform of the forum (Al-Jazeera)

After reciting prayers from the Torah on the platform, Judit chose to thank the organizers who made this possible in Khartoum.

She adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the forum is a seed of coexistence for the Sudanese, regardless of their religious background, whether they are Muslims, Jews, Christians or Hindus.

Judit - who has been traveling in 11 countries as a human rights activist - says that in the past, Jews in Sudan were forced to leave, change their religious beliefs, or hide their beliefs.

The invitation to the former Parliamentary Forum, and businessman Abu Al-Qasim Bartam, mediates some of those invited to the forum (Al-Jazeera)

"The Jews should not hide their religion anymore; they are human beings and love the Sudanese soil, and they must live in safety. My love for the Promised Land in Israel does not diminish my love for Sudan," she added.

Public relations

On the other hand, Othman Al-Bashir Al-Kabbashi, Secretary-General of the Sudanese People's Forces Against Normalization (Resist), considered the forum "a value-driven public relations campaign to improve the face of Zionism."

Al-Kabbashi accused what he called the "Sudanese Zionist Party" of being behind this campaign that was not concerned with the values ​​of tolerance and true humanity, nor the meanings of solidarity with the weak on the ground.

Member of the Sovereignty Council (right) and the Norwegian ambassador (left) during the forum (Al Jazeera)

And he considered that the behavior of the initiative’s owners reflects the alliance of a few businessmen who are driven by lust for money, and seek to play the role of the agent of Zionist investments in Sudan as a result of the "suspicious normalization deal."

Since February 2020, steps of normalization have intensified between Khartoum and Tel Aviv, following a meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, between the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

attendance list

The forum, of a popular nature, was attended by the highest authority in the country, where a member of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Raja Nicolas Abdel-Masih (Coptic), gave a speech during its activities, and it was remarkable to broadcast two words encouraging interfaith coexistence from Rabbi David Rozon from Israel and Reverend Ingborg Midtum from Norway.

The former head of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, Abd al-Rahman Hassan Hamid, and the priest Flo Thawth Faraj also spoke at the forum, but the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments Nasreddin Mufreh was absent from attendance, despite his invitation and the presence of his name among those invited.

The Jordanian ambassador (left) was among the attendees at the forum (Al-Jazeera)

Commenting on his absence, the ministry said - in a statement - that it was surprised by the minister's presence in the program before taking his approval.

She emphasized that the ministry has no relationship with organizing the event and is ignorant of its objectives, and accordingly it has the right to make its decision not to participate in it.

Wave rejected

Well-informed sources told Al-Jazeera Net that the minister avoided participating, in consideration of the position of his "national nation" party and his religious arm, the Ansar Affairs Authority, who reject normalization, especially that the party agreed to Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok's request to keep Mafarah in the new government that will be announced soon.

The Ansar Affairs Authority announced in advance, and after receiving an invitation, that it would boycott the forum because it puts Sudan before normalization as a fait accompli, especially since the initiative’s owner does not hide his support for normalization.

In a statement, the commission warned that inviting representatives of religions and beliefs that do not exist in Sudan, in light of these polarizing conditions in the country, is considered a pouring oil on fire, and opens the door to religious sedition and extremism that poison the atmosphere of tolerance.

The Sudanese Baath Party also rejected the forum, believing that its goal is to support normalization and try to entrench it in the conscience of the Sudanese, and incited - in a statement - the resistance committees and various organizations to line up to thwart the "mined" forum.

The stigma of the Jews

However, Sudanese families with Jewish roots see in the forum an opportunity to reappear in public life after the nationalization decisions made by the late President Jaafar Nimeiri in 1969, when about 250 Jewish families were living in Khartoum and other cities working in trade, import and export.

Ayman Adam Mandil, a Muslim descended from the Al Mandeel Jewish family in the Al-Masalmah neighborhood of Omdurman, says:

Their Jewish origins had previously caused them to suffer, preventing them from holding sensitive positions and entering the military and police colleges.

Ayman Adam Handkerchief is a Muslim, whose origins are from the Jewish family of Al Mandil (Al Jazeera)

It is noteworthy that the forum represented - according to observers - a glimmer of hope to end the stigma suffered by families with Jewish roots by treating a person as his person and not because of his religious and ethnic background, which in the past led to the immigration of Jews from Sudan.

And 150 Jewish families in Khartoum, Al-Abyad "West" and Atbara "North" were forced to hide their religion, according to the Sudanese-Israeli People's Friendship Association.

Commenting on the security guard of the forum, the communication official at the Association, Taher Al-Sham, says to Al-Jazeera Net that it is support for the Sudanese street that strengthens the supporters of normalization, not the guard, because the solution is in the "Abrahamic" peace signed by Sudan and by which the Palestinian cause can be helped.