Royalty In Lowly Quarters
JERUSALEM — In the violent East Jerusalem slum of Issawiya, trash burned next to an open bin, filling the air with an acrid stench. Arabic graffiti covered a stone wall on one side of a steep lane scattered with stones left from clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers. A knot of children eyed two strangers with suspicion.
Then a gray metal gate rumbled open near the top of the street. A pair of exquisitely groomed Arabian horses emerged. The horses pranced toward the center of town with their riders, Alaa Mustafa, 24, and his cousin Oday Muheisan, 19. An open gate revealed a tiny, five-sided lot for exercising horses and a stable with a dozen stalls amid a jumble of apartment buildings.
The two gleaming black horses, certified purebreds, provided a glimpse of a Palestinian passion — some call it an obsession — for raising show horses, racehorses and more modest steeds in what might seem like impossible conditions. The horses are bred and to some extent trained in gritty East Jerusalem neighborhoods, often by families who struggle to share tiny, cramped homes.
“In America, they call raising horses the hobby of the rich,” said Muhamed Hamdan, 25, a Palestinian trainer who studied in America. “Here, it’s the hobby of the poor.”
Stables dot villages and towns in the occupied West Bank, and many families raise their own horses. Trainers like Mr. Hamdan, who runs a stable with two dozen horses in Turmusaya, north of Jerusalem, are paid to get the horses ready to compete in shows and races.
Some wealthy Palestinians share the same passion, operating ranches surrounded by little more than Bedouin shanty towns and scrubland. “If you don’t love horses, you’re not living,” said Shadi Abu Obeid, a businessman who owns a ranch with 28 horses.
Many Palestinians say that affection helps them endure life under Israeli occupation. Palestinians and Israelis in the business, as well as foreign trainers and judges who know the region, say that Arabian horses have another effect that is almost magical: They coax Israelis and Palestinians into the same arenas, where everyone admires the horses as they strut, dance, gallop and compete for trophies.
The Palestinian brand of horse expert is short on pastoral niceties and long on urban brashness. “When you bring a kid from a refugee camp, he’s streetsmart, savvy,” said Nadar al-Demary, a trainer.
Palestinian horses have begun turning heads at shows in Israel, said Eli Kahaloon, who owns an Israeli stable.
Mr. Kahaloon said that of the 165 or so horses at a show he attended in northern Israel in May, 60 percent to 70 percent were owned by Palestinian citizens of Israel. He said that 10 to 20 horses had arrived from the West Bank, despite the complexity of obtaining permits and bringing them through military checkpoints.
At the show, Israeli and Palestinian breeders cheered for their respective horses.
The contest had “nothing to do with politics,” said Mohammad Al-Mahdi, a breeder on the northern West Bank. “Anyone who comes to shows like this loves the horses.”