Category World News

As the sun sets during the holy month of Ramadan, many Muslims break their fast with a sweet, brown dried fruit that has been cherished in the Middle East for centuries.

During the 29 or 30 days of Ramadan, observant and able-bodied Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual relations from dawn to dusk, seeking to deepen their taqwa, or awareness of God.

Breaking one’s fast with dates and water is rooted in the religious teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and is specifically mentioned in the Quran for its nutritional value.

What are the different varieties of dates?

Dates, fresh or dried, contain important vitamins, minerals and fibre. They are also high in antioxidants.

Given their high level of fructose, a natural sugar found in fruit, dates are a great source of energy, especially after a long day’s fast.

There are many different varieties of dates, with different tastes and textures:

Medjool: Known for their large size, sweet taste, amber colour and richness in flavour.

Mabroom: Less sweet than other kinds of dates with an elongated shape, reddish-brown hue and chewiness.

Ajwa: With a soft, fleshy, almost juicy feel, and a very sweet taste, Ajwa dates are valued the most by Muslims because they are grown in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Deglet Noor: Medium-sized, lighter in colour and ideal for cooking and baking.

Piarom: Darker skin, rich flavour, slightly drier and known for their unique taste.

Interesting facts about dates

Dates have been cultivated for thousands of years. Date palm trees can be either male or female, and only the female plants produce&nbsp, fruit.

A date palm tree can live for more than 100 years if well maintained and a&nbsp, mature date palm can produce more than 100kg (220 pounds) of dates per harvest season – about 10, 000 dates.

The Ajwa date is the most expensive in the world.

Top date producers

In 2022, according to Tridge, a food and agriculture database, about 10 million tonnes of dates were produced worldwide.

Date palms tend to thrive in countries with long, hot summers like those in the Middle East and neighbouring regions.

Egypt is the world’s top date producer, producing nearly 18 percent of the world’s dates, according to Tridge.

Saudi Arabia follows closely with about 17 percent of the global yield, with Algeria rounding off the top three at 13 percent.

The infographic below shows where most of the world’s dates come from:

Call to boycott Israeli dates

Israel is one of the world’s largest exporters of dates, selling medjool dates worth $330m abroad in 2022, according to Tridge. During Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 61, 000 people, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office, several groups have called for a boycott of Israel-related products.

One such group is the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement (BDS), a Palestinian-led initiative that seeks to challenge international support for what it calls Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. BDS has urged consumers to always check labels and not buy dates that are produced or packaged in Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

They recommend avoiding the following brands:

• Hadiklaim and its brands: King Solomon, Jordan River and Jordan River Bio-Top
• Mehadrin
• MTex
• Edom
• Carmel Agrexco
• Arava

Many of the camp’s detainees had opted to stay home that dusty day, but Asma decided to brave the elements and take advantage of a less crowded marketplace.

With her four children close by her side, she scanned the underwhelming selection of vegetables on display at a small stall, weighing up what dishes she could muster with the limited options on sale.

Asma’s oldest child, a precocious nine-year-old girl with a red-ribboned headband and a pink tracksuit cradled the youngest child, a cherubic one-year-old girl swaddled in a padded jacket.

She adjusted the hood of her sister’s jacket, which had slipped down, causing the toddler to squirm as the dust swirled around her face.

She pulled her little sister towards her chest protectively, drawing a warm nod of approval from her mother.

Asma spends most of her days with her children because she doesn’t feel the education facilities in the camp meet their needs.

As she spoke, her two sons erupted into a spontaneous playfight.

Her expression betrayed a deep melancholy. “It’s difficult to raise children here”, she admitted, her gaze lowered.

The monotony of daily life in the camp, she explained, can often lead to the children fighting and she can find it difficult to control her boys.

On top of that, in her seven years in the camp, Asma has seen prices rise to the point that it is now difficult to buy enough food to feed her growing children.

NGOs distribute daily food rations in al-Hol, but many detainees supplement these ready-made meals and basic ingredients with fresh produce from the market, using money sent by relatives or earned from jobs at the camp’s medical and education facilities operated by NGOs.

Asma’s family has lived through the camp’s most turbulent period, which saw more than 100 homicides from 2020 to 2022 and left a deep psychological impact on the camp’s children, who make up more than half of its population.

In 2021, according to Save the Children, two residents were killed every week, making the camp, per capita, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child.

It’s a period that Abed, an Iraqi Turkmen welder from Mosul who preferred to give only one name, kept his four children inside their tent at all times.

When Al Jazeera met 39-year-old Abed, he was working under the shelter of the family repair shop on a side street off the market. The shop, cobbled together from pieces of wood and plastic sheeting, services any machinery that camp detainees need fixed.

He guided his adult son, who is in his early 20s, methodically through a complex welding process, the two smiling at each other as they shared a private joke and the howling wind carried their words out of earshot.

Abed picked up a welding torch as his son held a piece of metal in place with a pair of tongs.

He has taught his children his trade, but that, he said, is just so they can “survive day-to-day”, adding that it will not give them the tools to enjoy a full and fulfilling life.

“My children’s future is gone”, Abed said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. “They’ve missed too much school”.

Several aid organisations run education facilities, but suspected ISIL agents have been known to attack them, so Abed feels it is safer to keep his children away until they can go home.

“We had a good life in Mosul. My children went to school, and everything was fine, but now”, he took a deep breath, “too much time has passed”.

Video shows Israeli forces raiding a Palestinian bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem where they seized books over alleged incitement of violence, just a month after police raided the shop and arrested the owners on similar charges.