Israeli Economy Falters as Muslim Workers Observe Holiday

“God divided Muslims into three groups,” Haj Ibrahim Ghuslan Abasi instructed his guests Wednesday. “There are those who can afford to give, those who can afford nothing and those in between.”

Similarly, the retired Palestinian schoolteacher explained, on Id al Adha--the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice being celebrated throughout the Islamic world this week--the sheep that are ritually slaughtered are distributed in thirds: “One third you keep yourself, one third is for your friends and one third is for the poor.”

At that the portly host, who counts himself among the most fortunate third of Muslims, escorted his family and guests into the yard where a butcher friend took no more than an hour to turn two live sheep costing the equivalent of $270 each into so much mutton.

The ritual slaying is a central feature of Id al Adha, which also incorporates gift giving reminiscent of Christmas. The feast is the most important on the calendar for the vast majority of the two million Arabs living under Israeli rule, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

And one of its side effects is that during the four days of celebrations, which end Friday, some segments of the Israeli economy that depend heavily on Arab labor grind to a halt.

The impact was even worse than usual this year because the first day of the feast, Tuesday, coincided with Tisha Be’Av, the Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of both the first and second temples in Jerusalem. It is considered an “elective” workday at government offices and many other workplaces.

Also, on Monday, about 40,000 Arab workers from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip were prevented from going to jobs in Israel by an army curfew after the fatal ambush of Gaza’s chief of military police. The curfew was not lifted until Wednesday.

So many workers have been absent that output at some of the nation’s plants is estimated to have dropped by as much as 40%. The normally bustling Jerusalem district known as Wadi Joz, an area of Arab-run junkyards and repair shops, was like a ghost town Wednesday. One local brassiere manufacturer closed up shop, and construction companies either worked at a snail’s pace or shut down selected building sites.

Municipal services such as street cleaning, gardening and garbage collection, which employ mostly Arab workers, were scaled back, and some Tel Aviv hotels reported that as many as 85% of their workers did not show up Tuesday.

A Jewish restaurant owner in Jerusalem said he had to hire his 17-year-old son and two of his friends to replace the regular Arab dishwashers who were off for the holiday. Arab maids did not work, and a Jewish grocer pressed the family car into service to make deliveries normally handled by an Arab youth.

“Jews are going mad because they feel they are occupied, not the Arabs,” quipped the Jerusalem Post’s Middle East editor, Yehuda Litani.

Some Muslims worked despite the holiday in return for being given time off later or for overtime wages. A spokesman for the Jerusalem Hilton said the hotel is almost full, and as a result it is having to pay its Arab employees double-time to keep them on the job during the holiday.

The Muslim feast, celebrated at the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the Hajj, commemorates the sacrifice of the patriarch Abraham who, according to the Koran, was at the last moment allowed by God to offer up the life of a sheep rather than that of his son Ishmael.

The Old Testament version and Jewish tradition holds that an angel stayed Abraham’s hand as he was about to plunge a knife into his son, Isaac. And the difference in the two versions reflects the fact that Ishmael is considered the father of the Arab people while tradition holds that his half-brother Isaac is the progenitor of the Jews.

The rare coincidence Tuesday of Tisha Be’Av and Id al Adha further underlined the interwoven histories and traditions of Jew and Arab here.

As Muslims arrived early Tuesday for services at the main Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, they walked past departing Jewish families, carrying bedrolls and pillows, who had spent the night at the Western Wall, which is the last remnant of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. Al Aqsa and its companion Dome of the Rock mosque have stood on what is still called the Temple Mount since the 7th Century, after Islam swept the Holy Land.

Thousands of believers spilled from Al Aqsa into a large courtyard outside, listening over loudspeakers as an imam called for Islamic unity, decrying the previous week’s clashes at Mecca between Iranian militants and Saudi security forces that left more than 400 dead. Their commitment to Al Aqsa, the imam added, amounts to a Palestinian determination “never to give up an inch of the land where the mosque is located.”

As the believers filed out through the Old City, a ceremonial cannon near the Damascus Gate was fired to mark the official beginning of the feast.

Most stopped at two huge Muslim cemeteries just below the eastern wall of the Old City, opposite the Mount of Olives, where they ate Arabic sweets at the gravesides of loved ones and decorated their tombstones with palm fronds.

The rest of the holiday is devoted to visiting with friends and relatives, gift giving, and feasting. Many little girls wore sparkling white dresses and young boys their suits and ties, and even the Arab teen-agers were decked out in their best stone-washed jeans for the round of house calls.

According to tradition, Palestinian men give gifts of money during Id al Adha to all the children in their extended family as well as to all their female relatives.

“It cost me 160 shekels (about $100),” said a laughing Riyad Ghuslan Abasi, the married, 30-year-old son of Haj Ibrahim. He said he gave money to 15 or 16 people, including his two daughters, Nidah and Fidah.

Giving money to adult women underlines their financial dependence on their husbands or fathers in these typically conservative families. But it is also meant to emphasize that no matter what happens to a woman’s husband, other men in the extended family will ensure that her needs will be provided.

Money aside, however, Id al Adha appears very much a man’s holiday among the Palestinians, with the women spending most of their time in the kitchen cooking. The traditional foods include rice with almonds and pine nuts, chicken, and, of course, the freshly slaughtered mutton.