The Israeli police at dawn Tuesday detained four Palestinian citizens who work as musaharatis (Ramadan predawn drummers or wakers) in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem.
The four Musaharatis were held for several hours in al-Qishla police station before they were released.
An Israeli police officer claimed they disturbed Jewish settlers living in a Muslim neighborhood of the Old City and threatened to arrest them again if they continued to wake up the Muslim residents living near the settlers’ house.
However the musaharatis rejected the request and said they were not ready to stop waking up the entire Muslim residents for the sake of few settlers who came to a Muslim neighborhood to live in a seized house.
Musaharati is the man who roams the roads during the holy month of Ramadan beating drums to wake up people in his neighborhood to have the predawn sahour repast and get ready to fast until sunset.
Palestinian musaharatis work every year during Ramadan on waking up the Muslim residents of the Old City of Jerusalem and this was the first time for them to get arrested.
