Sudanese Community in Arad Holds Cultural Festival

Evan M. Gildenblatt
24 October, 2009

Arad, Israel - On an unusually cool Friday night in Arad, a sleepy town in Israel’s Negev Desert, a meeting took place in the reception room at the Hotel Inbar. Although not covered by news outlets or given any type of attention by the world at large, it was historic in a sense. In fact, many outside of the room did not know of its existence to begin with. The meeting was a tribal gathering for Arad’s Dinka community, a faction of the South Sudanese population that has sought asylum in the Middle East’s only democracy.

From suits and ties to traditional tribal dress, with half a dozen languages being spoken between the participants, the sheer diversity was overwhelming. The meeting was a first step in uniting the Sudanese community of Arad. Said a representative of the Committee of the Nuer Tribe in Arad (another South Sudanese sub-group), “We need to be leaders in Arad. In Israel. But first, we need to be united with each other.”

The meeting was complete with celebratory song and dance in which community members holding Israeli and South Sudanese flags sang along with excitement.

“We want to show the Israeli people that we want to be a part of their community and that we also want to defend Israel just like any other Israeli. We are misunderstood as a people of problems, but we are truly a people of peace,” said Mr. Joseph Kuc, the Vice General Secretary of the Dinka Tribe.

The Sudanese community in Israel is a mixture of refugees mainly from the south and west of the country. While some of them are fleeing the genocide in the western province of Darfur, others are fleeing deplorable conditions and government persecution in the south. Of the approximately 700 Sudanese refugees in Arad, there are significant populations from ten different tribes. They represent Christianity, Islam, and several different tribal religions.

The experience for the thousands of Sudanese in Israel has been rife with threats of deportation and difficulty in procuring social services. The fact that their home country of Sudan has technically been at war with Israel since 1948 only complicates matters further.

“It is difficult for them, but we do what we can,” said the priest presiding over the event, a man introduced as Father Salvamir from Poland. “It is difficult work for us, too.”

When asked what is the most integral part in becoming members of the Israeli society, the Chairperson of the Dinka Community - Brother Bieth Akuei - responded by stating that “We need to talk to each other. To let the Israeli people know who we are and to understand who they are.”

Although scheduled to conclude at eleven o’clock PM, the festivities were forced to an end by the hotel at quarter past ten. Despite the premature ending, the community leaders were quite satisfied with the progress made at the meeting. “It's representative to how self determination is the first step in solving problems,” said Noah Berman, an American volunteer with Young Judaea’s Year Course program and a member of Garin Tzedek, a Year Course subgroup committed to educating their peers and helping the cause of Sudanese refugees in Israel. "Even though we have a ways to go, it is nice to see the progress that is being made in the normalization of the Sudanese community in Israel."

  

Photographs from the event provided by Sean MacDonald 

Arad Sudanese Cultural Event

On Thursday, October 22nd the Sudanese community of Arad will be having a community wide event to display dances, songs, food, and general culture from Sudan. The community is not only very different than the Jewish, or really any other community, in Israel, but also has a large variance and diversity within itself. In Arad alone, a city with five to six hundred Sudanese there are three ethnicities, the Nuba, Nuer, and the Dinka, that are strongly represented, as well as the Keiga, Darfuri, and Bari and possibly more. In Sudan there are more than 500 tribes of mixed Arab, and African roots.

Although the planning for the celebration has suffered some hiccups with logistics, as well as the death of a close family member, still living in Sudan, of one the local leaders, it seems that the celebration will continue as planned. Some members of Garin Tzedek have had the fortune of being invited to attend the event, being held to celebrate the upcoming local elections that will be held within the Sudanese community. We're most definitely looking forward to it, and will have stories and pictures to post afterwards.

The elections, the stated reason for the celebration, are an important step for the Sudanese in Arad. The current leadership was not elected in any way, but instead self appointed because they were among the first 51 Sudanese to be placed in Arad and were given a permanent residency status. In the upcoming vote, slate for late October, each of the three largest ethnic communities will elect two leaders to serve on a joint council of six members. While the board will have no legal authority with the city of Arad or the state of Israel, their responsibility will be to represent the interests of the community. These main issues revolve around legal status and protection for the community, the vast majority of whom need to renew their visas every three months. The lack of permanent status is the root of many other issues with employment, housing, and general acceptance within the community. The Arad section of the Garin is working with some leaders, and will hopefully meet with the new council to discuss different projects to help tutor children and parents in English, Hebrew, and computer skills, to set up speaking engagements at schools in Arad, and to establish repeated community volunteering projects for the Sudanese community to help themselves and other sectors in Arad, hopefully improving their image in the city. This celebration should hopefully signify a new beginning in the community and is sure to be delicious, entertaining, and educational.