Mousa Qous

Mousa Qous was a leader of the small but storied Afro-Palestinian community in Jerusalem’s Old City, representing it in international anti-racism forums and empowering its beleaguered youth. A journalist, skilled translator, and former prisoner, he decoded Palestinian politics for innumerable outsiders, applying a deeply principled critique and gentle humor in his approach.

Born into a proud line of African pilgrims to Jerusalem and protectors of the al-Aqsa Mosque, Qous lived by two juxtaposed ideals: high principles and a generous acceptance of others. As a journalist, translator, and activist detained and imprisoned for his resistance to the Israeli occupation, he was unwavering in his political values—though his personality was never severe. Qous was forgiving and big-hearted, especially toward the young people with whom he worked.

The African Community Society (ACS) in Jerusalem’s Old City, under his leadership for the last decade,1 refused any funding that would require the adoption of externally imposed political positions, especially European and US mandates against even nonviolent Palestinian resistance. “They look at the Palestinian resistance movement, even if it is non-violent, as a kind of terrorism,” he said of European and US funders.2 He argued for decades that conditional funding was dangerous—part of his deep critique of political concessions Palestinians made during the Oslo Accords and after.3

"My father was an avid reader,” says Qous’s 22-year-old daughter, Shaden. “I would say his expansive learning and reading came less from the formal education he received in high school and university, and more so from his personal curiosity and thirst for knowledge.” She adds: “Certainly, his dedicated work at the national front required him to know more about the world, and he was always reading. Oftentimes, he would read more than a book at a time. He would say that knowledge is crucial; without understanding the world, you wouldn’t recognize your role in it.” Shaden says she teased her father that they didn’t have a library in their house, but instead, they lived in a library.4

Qous died tragically on February 9, 2025, in a fire that broke out in his home in the ribat of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, where some 36 families with African roots live close to the Bab al-Majlis entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque. While ribats across the Muslim world were initially built to house murabitun to defend against invaders, and later, as hospices for religious and communal life, in Palestine, the ribat represents something different: “a duty to defend and protect the holy spaces, most notably al-Aqsa, Jerusalem and Palestine.”5 It is also meaningful that the word ribat is related to the word marbut (tied), signifying Qous’s deep connection to the space of Jerusalem. His life at home in the ribat was thus imbued with “an everyday, mundane practice of resistance” against Israeli oppression.6

Qous’s death was especially shocking as it came on the same day that Shaden was scheduled to appear before an Israeli judge after being held for a month in administrative detention for alleged incitement.7 The authorities only released her only after her father’s funeral was over, and even then to house arrest.8 Nor did Israel allow his funeral to proceed in peace, sending police to forcibly enter a house of mourning (‘aza) at the ACS and detaining his brother.9

Hajj Mousa, as some called him, was mourned around the world by the many researchers, journalists, and travelers who met him in his role as executive director of the ACS. Over the last few years, as new ties between Afro-Palestinians and the Black community in the US grew out of ongoing Palestinian uprisings and the Black Lives Matter movement,10 Qous represented the ACS and a broader anti-racist framework at Pan-African conferences and forums.11 “Mousa has always been a visionary leader, beloved brother, and courageous warrior for Palestinian liberation,” wrote writer and academic Marc Lamont Hill in his personal condolences.12

Qous was born in Jerusalem on April 7, 1962, to a Palestinian mother, Tamam, and a father from Chad, Mohammed. Tamam was Mohammed’s seventh wife, and he married her when he was in his 60s.13 Qous was the eldest of four brothers and two sisters (not counting an unknown number of brothers and sisters in Chad, which he never visited). One brother, Nasser, currently heads the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club in Jerusalem, and his sister, Miriam, passed away.14

Qous went to school at the Collège des Frères by the New Gate in Jerusalem, receiving a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Bethlehem University and completing a master’s in international studies from Birzeit University.15 Growing up in Ribat al-Mansouri and Ribat ‘Ala al-Din al-Busairy—which were leased to Muslim pilgrims from Africa by the Jerusalem Waqf Department in 1917 in recognition of their guardianship of the al-Aqsa Mosque—Qous felt his identity was tied to the city. “I will not leave the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem,” he would say. “I was born in Jerusalem, I lived in Jerusalem, and I shall die in Jerusalem.”16

Qous became the family’s breadwinner at age 23 when his father passed away. This responsibility weighed on him as a young man, especially since conditions in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank were worsening in the lead-up to the First Intifada. Like many Palestinians, he tried to obtain foreign citizenship to mitigate the tight controls of life under Israeli occupation. His father carried a French passport, so he applied for French citizenship,17 but the French refused. The other option was to explore citizenship through Chad, but Qous did not want to risk losing his Jerusalem permanent residency status by leaving to reside in Chad (see Precarious Status). He tried to apply for a temporary passport from Jordan, which Israel allows Jerusalemites to hold without risking their legal status—but was also denied. “[Jordan] considered us as foreigners and not the indigenous people of Jerusalem,” Qous said wryly in an interview.18

Qous’s precarious status and many responsibilities did not prevent him from participating in the First Intifada when it broke out in December 1987. He joined the popular committees—local grassroots networks established since the 1970s across the West Bank and Gaza that played an important role in mobilizing the uprising—and was arrested within a few months. He spent eight months in prison for his activity, but upon his release in December 1988, he continued to recruit young activists.19

On October 21, 1991, Qous was arrested again while working as a reporter with the English-language weekly al-Fajr, published in Jerusalem and Washington, DC, as a companion to the Arabic newspaper of the same name, which was an unofficial voice of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).20 A month later, he was sentenced by the Lod Military Court on November 19, 1991, to four years in prison for membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for instructing others to write graffiti and organizing food distributions.21 His case was taken up by the Committee to Protect Journalists.22

“He was a man who did not live for himself, but for the greater cause,” said a close acquaintance. “He stressed that in light of an unjust reality that has no stability, we cannot be held hostage by delusions; it is our duty as individuals to give up personal comfort for the sake of a higher and important cause.”23

After completing his term and being released from prison, Qous went on to work with the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre (JMCC), founded by a small group of Palestinian journalists seeking to provide information for reporters. He and his friend, the late teacher and translator Khader Khader, made up the reliable backbone of the Daily Press unit, which translated Arabic news into English for the growing contingency of diplomats and journalists interested in Palestinian perspectives after the signing of the Oslo I Accord in 1993.

While Qous usually preferred to remain behind the scenes, his byline is on a July 4, 1997, article for the JMCC’s Palestine Report, another English weekly, describing protests against draconian Israeli taxes levied on Jerusalem shopkeepers. This perennial problem continues to force Palestinian merchants and organizations out of the city three decades later. Qous, Khader, and reporter Muhammed Abed Rabbo were constantly engaged in political discussions peppered with sarcasm and laughter. Often the subject was disappointment in the Palestinian leadership, as the effects of the Oslo Accords became clear.24

Qous married Joharah Baker, a colleague at the JMCC, on April 30, 1998, and they had two children, Shaden and Mohammed. “He always encouraged the arts, and he believed in the crucial role of women in society. He was quite supportive, taking me to dabka classes and attending performances,” Shaden says.25

The JMCC suffered from the increasing number of checkpoints and erection of the Separation Wall in the early 2000s. Permit requirements made it more difficult for the entire staff—some Palestinian Authority ID holders and other Israeli permanent residents—to gather in Jerusalem, and the office eventually moved to Ramallah. By 2014, Qous had left the JMCC to take a position at al-Quds newspaper,26 located in al-Ram outside the wall, where he didn’t have to cross a checkpoint to enter Ramallah, while also working as a private translator, artfully converting the simplicities of English into Arabic’s circular complexities. He was one of those rare translators able to translate from Arabic to English and vice versa. Qous additionally wrote for al-Nahar and Sawt al-Quds, a publication by the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem.27

In 2016, Qous began to dedicate most of his time to the ACS. Under his guidance, it became one of the 30 founding institutions of the Regional Network for Development and Anti-Racism in the Middle East and North Africa. Originally founded in 1965 as the Sudanese Welfare Club, the Afro-Palestinian organization dissolved during the 1967 War, only to be reconstituted in 1976 as the African Youth Club. This sports-oriented group dissolved and then was reborn as the ACS in 1983, due to the largesse of Jerusalem political leader Faisal Husseini. Qous was not paid for the leadership position, says his daughter, and often gave his own money to support the community.28

“After the disappointment of Oslo, I’ve renounced politics and now focus my time on engaging Jerusalem’s often marginalized youth to help them create a future that will hopefully be better than our present,” he wrote in a retrospective for Electronic Intifada in December 2017.29 He spoke often about the high numbers of young people in the community and the Old City who did not continue their education, opting to go to work instead. He also described how many Palestinians in the Bab al-Majlis neighborhood face harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

Abusalama, Shahd. “Israel Is Targeting Shaden Qous because She Refuses to Be Silent.” The New Arab, March 20, 2025.

Austin, Alice. “In the Heart of the Old City, the African Community Society Unites Jerusalem’s Afro-Palestinians.” Jerusalem Story, August 24, 2023.

Bawab, Nashwa. “Black-Palestinian Solidarity in Moments of Crisis and Beyond.” In These Times, October 7, 2024.

Hill, Marc Lamon (@marclamonthill). “I’m absolutely crushed to hear about the sudden and tragic passing of Mousa Qous.” Instagram, February 9, 2025.

“Israeli Occupation Forces Storm Mourning House in Jerusalem.” WAFA, February 10, 2025.

Lecoquierre, Marion. “Ribat in Palestine: Life on the Frontier.” Contemporary Levant 8, no. 2 (2023): 157–73.

Mustafa, Maysa. “‘Jerusalem Lost Part of Its Soul’: Tributes to Afro-Palestinian Leader Flow Online.” Middle East Eye, February 11, 2025.

Owda, Bisan (@wizard_bisan1). “Note: I made this interview when I visited Jerusalem for the first time in January 2023.” Instagram, February 11, 2025.

Palestinian Youth Movement. “The PYM extends our deepest condolences to Shaden Qous and the Qous family.” Facebook, February 9, 2025.

Parks, Michael. “East Jerusalem Newspaper to Shut Down: Media: Unofficial Voice of PLO Is a Victim of Financial Problems. Publisher Blames Closure of Occupied Territories; Others Say the End of PLO Subsidies Is the Cause.” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1993.

Qous, Mohammed, and Ali Jeddah. “Black History Month: The Afro Palestinian Community in Jerusalem.” Stories from Palestine, February 13, 2022.

Qous, Mousa. “The Africans of Jerusalem.” This Week in Palestine, no. 202 (July 2023).

Qous, Mousa. “A Look Back in Anger.” Electronic Intifada, December 8, 2017.

Rudoren, Jodi. “For Israelis and Palestinians, Another Divide to Contend With: Time.” New York Times, October 28, 2014.

“Zionist Plots and the Plight of Afro Palestinians: IUIC Discussion with Mousa Qous.” Israel United in Christ (IUIC) Levant, June 19, 2023.

[Profile photo: Marc Lamont Hill Instagram]