Al Haj Abu Fahmi Taqash. He is a seller outside the Damascus Gate leading into the Al Aqsa Mosque
Al Haj Abu Fahmi Taqash. He is a seller outside the Damascus Gate leading into the Al Aqsa Mosque
The Za’atar Coffee Shop was located at the first entrance to Damascus Gate on the right. It closed in the 1970s and no longer operates as a coffee shop today, but it remains immortalized in Palestinian memory through the famous play “Za’atar Coffee Shop” by the Jerusalemite artist Hussam Abu Aisha.
The sketch was by Shihab Qawasmi taken from the book in Arabic “Old Professions in Palestine and the Arab World” Chapter on Service Professions Related to Food and Drink. For more on coffee shops and their role in the Jerusalemite cultural scene, see the link by Professor Malek Zabalh.
Somewhere in the heart, there remains a life that the war never reached. A life we never truly said goodbye to, even though we have drifted far from it. Sometimes we return to it without knowing the way, and find a small door still open within us, leading us back to something we thought was far away. There, we quietly find ourselves again, and feel that what was broken outside could not reach everything within us. For a moment, we become who we once were, before the world became heavier than we could bear. We let our souls rest for a little while, and listen to that quiet part of us that still remembers what peace means.