ST. CROIX — Virgin Islanders of Palestinian descent will soon have an opportunity to educate the community about their heritage, culture, and folklore during the territory’s first observance of Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Day.
Although Governor Albert Bryan Jr. in June declared November 29 as the official friendship day, the inaugural event scheduled for Government House on St. Croix will be delayed until Friday, December 27 to prevent any conflict with family functions traditionally held in celebration of Thanksgiving.
“You don’t want to encroach on people’s time with their family,” Ahmad Hussein, Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Association president, said.
The Association was established following the governor’s declaration.
“Our goal is to incorporate the Palestinian heritage and culture and background into the social fabric that is with the community at large, which we are part of here,” Hussein, who has been a businessman on St. Croix since 1999, said. “We are Palestinians in roots but Virgin Islanders in choice.”
Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Day in the territory coincides with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an annual observance established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1977. The UN General Assembly established the annual observance 10 years after the Six-Day War, the third of the Arab-Israeli wars that took place from June 5 to 10, 1967.
“June 5th marked the 57th anniversary of a pivotal moment in history, leading to prolonged conflicts in the Middle East,” Bryan said in a statement.
The Six-Day War created hundreds of thousands of refugees and brought more than 1 million Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory under Israeli rule. The occupied territories include the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The West Bank and Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, are the two Palestinian territories that make up the State of Palestine.
Palestine was governed by Great Britain from 1922 to 1947. As Jewish immigration to the region increased in 1922, tensions grew between Arabs and Jews. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181 in 1947, calling for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The resolution, which was rejected by the Arab community in opposition to the establishment of a Jewish state, was considered by the Jewish community in Palestine to be a legal basis for the establishment of Israel.
The resolution was succeeded almost immediately by violence.
Israel has fought several conflicts with various Arab forces, most notably in 1948 to 1949, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and 2023 to present. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on September 18 to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Bryan, during a June 10 press briefing, called for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, a militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that was founded in 1987 and is dedicated to the establishment of an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.
“As individuals, regardless of our skin color or origin, we should all want peace,” Bryan stated. “The Virgin Islands stands with the international community in seeking an immediate cessation of hostilities.”
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War from May 15, 1948 to July 20, 1949 is remembered as the War of Independence for Israel because it secured the country’s existence. For Arabs, the war is remembered as “the Nakba” (from Arabic al-nakbah, “the catastrophe”) because of the mass displacement of Palestinians that resulted from the war. Hussein said that displacement led to Palestinians making the Virgin Islands their new home.
“That’s how our great-grandparents and our grandparents came here,” he said.
Hussein said the friendship between Virgin Islanders and Palestinians began in the 1950s.
“Now we are taking it to another level with a little more organization, a little more awareness, acknowledgement, and a little more integration,” he said.
Bryan said the Palestinian people have become an integral part of Virgin Islands society, noting they contribute significantly to the territory’s business sector and community life.
“It is essential we recognize and strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation that unite us,” he said in a statement.
Hussein said the Palestinian community in the territory is grateful for the governor’s declaration, noting Arab Palestinians make up about 2% of the territory’s population.
“We intend to make sure that we bring this day to life every year with events that bridge the Palestinian culture and mix it with the Virgin Islands culture here as a whole,” he said, adding that he hopes to organize an event on St. Thomas in observation of next year’s Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Day.
The governor appointed Sirri Hamad, a semiretired businessman who has lived on St. Croix since 1978, as his envoy to the Middle Eastern community in the Virgin Islands.
“We feel privileged and honored to have earned this recognition when he did the proclamation,” Hamad, a respected leader within the territory’s Middle Eastern community and co-founder of the Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Association, said.
The Association decided to hold a tame celebration in observance of the inaugural Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Day by limiting the event at Government House to guest speakers and authentic cuisine given Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory, skipping the more celebratory components such as cultural songs and a performance of the Palestinian folk dance known as the dabke.
“If times were normal, we would do that but because of the situation in Gaza, it will be played down,” Hussein said.
The role of the Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Association — a nonreligious, nonpolitical, nonprofit social organization — will also be discussed during next month’s event at Government House.
“Our mere goal is to tell people who we are,” Hussein said. “We just want to blend the Palestinian identity with our identity as Virgin Islanders.”
The event at Government House will only be attended by invited guests due to the limited space, but the Association plans to observe Virgin Islands-Palestinian Friendship Day on a larger scale in the future.
“In the coming years, we hope to make it an event that is in a bigger venue where we can accommodate all our brothers in the community at large, and sisters,” Hussein said.
