G.A.T.I.E.F – LIFE AND LIGHT News letter November 2010

PO BOX 5 AMBARES

33564 CARBON BLANC cedex

France

Tel +33 607 037 247

gatief@orange.fr

ISRAEL

The old town of Jerusalem is still a moving place in spite of the tension which reigns there, especially during the days of Succoth (Tabernacles). Israel dances with eternal joy. The old city is full of so many contrasting and different cultures. The Jewish quarter, the best organized and where the Orthodox Meashea

rim are hurrying towards the Wailing Wall, The Christian quarter crossed by the celebrated Via Dolorosa. The Armenian quarter, with its market stalls and chapels. The Muslim Quarter with its shops, its stalls and souvenir se

llers, its strong smells spices and roast meat…It is in the Muslim quarter, alongside the old walls, just two steps from the Lion Gate, that we find the Domary Gypsy community.

According to Moktar Abdel hakim Selim (the recognized leader of the Domari community) there are more than 400 Gypsies living in the old town of Jerusalem. About 200 families of Domari also live in the Eastern Muslim qu

arters of the new city.

For the 2-3000 Domari and Nawar Gypsies who live in the Gaza Strip the situation is catastrophic. Hardly any aid reached them and they suffer discrimination. They aremostly unemployed and have no access to education or hospitals.

Dom Gypsies of Jerusalem

Moktar Dom of Jerusalem

We envision evangelizing the Domari Gypsies and we are in the process of negotiating with the Orthodox Patriarchs the possibility of renting a place that they own in the Muslim quarter to hold meetings there. The task is not easy. The Gypsies in the old town, even though they are Muslims, suffer rejection by Muslims. But they are, if only a little, recognized by the Israeli authorities, as a national minority.

So far a few Domary have been contacted by Christians and have accepted the Gospel, but there is much more to do. Amoun Selim, a young Domari about 30, has created an association to help families find education and cultural activities amongst Gypsy women.

In 1967, after the 6Day War, over 40000 Domari Gypsies, fled Jerusalem and left to rejoin their families in Jordan. Evangelism of Gypsies in Israel will open doors for evangelism in Jordan and Egypt. Pray for the mission field and if you want to take part in evangelism among Israel’s Gypsies please be specific for « the Middle East »

Jacky Boyd and René Zanellato

ROUMANIA

Thanks to the help of a Christian association we have been able to send the children from our Children’s Home of Tergu Mures to a holiday camp. This has made an unforgettable experience for all the kids.

We have many worries for those involved in running the home, the Romanian government has become more and more demanding and we are obliged to have staff that reaches European normsand standards. All these demands raise the running and social workers’ costs. Life in Romania is as expensive now as it is in France. It appears, at least for the authorities, our work over the year’s counts for nothing, and that if we cannot continue to support the finances of the children’s home, they would prefer the children to return to the streets. We receive no encouragement from the state, or any of the public services involved with us, but the bills still rise each month.

The misery, the living conditions, the total absence of hygiene, the absence of work, the mal-nutrition, the racism and discrimination are the reasons why the Gypsy people in the Eastern countries are leaving their home countries and coming to Western Europe. Please help us to provide for the monthly running cost of the children’s home and activities.

« For several months the polemic appearing in our midst is all about the Rom being expelled from their home countries. To understand better this European Roma problematic, we need to take a closer look at their history”

ROMANIA or the history of the sufferings of a people

1. THE SAD PERIOD OF SLAVERY

For the Gypsies in Romania, it all began in the 13th century. As free men the Rom arrived in Valachie and in Moldavia. Very rapidly, the Valaques and Moldavians Lords began to reduce the Gypsies to slavery. Landowners, princes and Monasteries had taken severe actions in opposition to the Rom. Then, many already tried to flee toward the west. Others, in face of the cruelty, fled to hide in the Carpates Mountains. It is under the reign of Rudolph IV (1331 – 1355) that the first stories on gypsy slavery were discovered. The ROMs were then registered as being the Noble’s ownership, the Monasteries clergy and the landowners. But, it is under the reign of Basil le Loup (1634-1654) that a law concerning the slaves’ gypsies is issued. In 1500 the Romanian term “Gypsy “becomes synonymous of “Rob“who means slave. During that period we could classify the Gypsies slaves in different categories: the slaves of peasants, houses, nobles, monasteries and of the church

The law of Valachie cites the following articles:

 The Gypsies are born slaves

 All children born of a mother slave is slave

 All landowners have the right to sell or give his slaves

 All gypsies without landowner are the property of the prince.

 The legal marriages cannot be done between the person free and slaves

 The marriages between slaves cannot be done without the consent of the landowner.

 The courthouse, according his or her age, condition and profession, must fix the price of the slave.

The Gypsies are sold and bought at the slaves' trade fair. In the 19th century the price of a slave was, in general, the value of a gold coin per kilo without consideration of familial ties.

" It was not rare to see, in the streets, some human beings with feet and hands chained, some of them having iron rings around their neck, they were whipped, deprived of food, kept naked in the snow or in the freezing rivers. The wife taken away from her husband, children taken away from their parents’ arms and were sold to the four corners of Romania “. (Citation of Kogalniceanu, 19th century)

In the 19th century, we could count over 400 000 gypsies slaves. Some rebelled and made gangs. It was not until December 23rd 1855 that the gypsy slavery became illegal in Moldavia and February 8th 1856 in Valachie. But it was not until 1864 that slavery and bondage were definitively abolished in Romania. But sadly, yet today, in the mind of many Romanian the gypsies are always seen as suspicious characters.

Poster about the sale of Roma, Gypsies slaves on May 8, 1852

Translation :

« Sale of Slaves Gypsies in the city of Amiada on May 8, 1852 by the Minister of Mr. Elias, Notary…

18 men, 10 Boys, 7 women, 3 girls, in excellent conditions »

2. THE WALK OF SHAME

After this sad period of Gypsy slavery, the sufferings of the Rom kept on and from the very beginning of the 20th century, it all began to get worst again. In the 20’s the economic situation deteriorate in Romania. An atmosphere of racism develops in the country. Some pogroms against the Jews and the Gypsies begin to appear in divers’ cities. “We must fight against the Gypsy peril of genetic poverty of the Romanian people “(Ion Facaoaru partisan of Ritter’s Nazis thesis)

In 1941 the Transnitry was annexed to Romania and in the same year was decided the sterilization of Gypsy women. In Mai 1942 Ion Antonescu, chief of government, orders the census of the Rom population, 208 700 gypsies are accounted. In Transnitry, on June 1st began the deportation of the Rom nomads. The orders were given to not inform the Rom of their destination.

“In one week they were 15 000 to arrive. They were in a pitiful misery, they were many elderly persons, and some of them were naked“ tells a witness.

On September 12th, 1942 the deportation of the sedentary Gypsies began. Men, women and children were deported and put on the train. They are authorized to take only one luggage. Everything else is confiscated (houses, lands, cattle…). The raid for the ROMs sedentary lasted eight days. All was done without any consideration and with violence. Only the families of those who are soldiers were kept off deportation. In Transnitry the conditions of life are disastrous: famine, cold and typhus were making ravages. Those who try to evade are killed. Some are completely naked even during winters. It is estimated up to 35 000 the number of Gypsies who died in deportation.

If Romania has since little recognized its part in the responsibility in the deportation and the death of more than 300 000 Romanian Jews, it has never wanted, until this day, to recognize its responsibility in the deportation and the death of 35 000 Gypsies. Ion Antonescu, chief of the government at that time, is, yet today for certain Romanian, a national hero but he is for all the ROMs a war criminal with on his hands the Gypsy genocide.

More recently in 1965, after Nicolae Ceaucescu came to power, he confiscated all the jewels and objects of value from the Rom families. 80% of the children of the “orphanages mouroirs (same place where old people were left to die)” were Gypsy children and it can be evaluated to 50 or 60% the rate of mortality due to the conditions of life in these establishments: minimum of care, aids epidemic, hepatitis and cholera provoked by the material of transfusion none sterilized.

3. SINCE THE REVOLUTION

After December 1989, which saw the fall of the dictator Ceausescu, began a period of racism and “anti-Gypsism “. Since then, a campaign of anti-Rom is manifested in all Romania. Some pogroms are caused: on December 24th 1989, in the city of Virghie, two Gypsies are assassinated and houses are burnt; in Turulung, 36 Gypsy houses are set on fire on January 11th 1990; January 29th, 5 houses are set on fire in Reghin; in Lunga, January 5th, four ROMs are assassinated and six houses burnt; in Adereni, in 1993, 4 died and 14 houses burnt; in Sabolciu, March 13th about fifteen men armed with baseball bats have attacked a Gypsy neighborhood without any reasons and on May 8th 2002, 200 soccer supporters have attacked a Gypsy area of Bucharest in screaming : “ the Gypsies, out of Romania “ etc….On the 13th and 15th of June miners arrived in Bucharest suppressa manifestation anti-Iliescu and go to a Gypsy camp in the area, the camp is burnt, the men are beaten and the women raped while the police remained watching and indifferent.

Expulsion of Gypsies in Romania

Expulsion of Roma in France

Rom being expelled at Paris international Airport

Police violence’s, municipal police the sole purpose to chase the ROMs out of town, segregation in the school and at the employment, discrimination to the access of cares and social helps, newspaper articles and televised news presenting the Gypsies like delinquents. Some slogans posted regularly translate the anti-Rom propaganda “Death to the Gypsies or the Gypsies out of Romania “.

We can understand better the distress of this people and the reasons pushing them to flee a hostile country where racism exists yet today at the doors of Europe. There are between 3 to 4 million Gypsies in Romania and all we have done until this day in the domain of education, health, training, protection and health for the children is minute, but we keep hope that the situations can change especially thanks to the Gospel and we will continue our efforts to improve the conditions of life of these people rejected and despised.

René Zanellato

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