NEW JERSEY (Middle East Eye) – Thousands of people waving Palestinian flags gathered in the U.S. city of Paterson on Sunday to celebrate the renaming of a section of a busy street to Palestine Way.
Paterson City Council voted unanimously in April to rename a five-block area of Main Street Palestine Way in honor of the city’s large Palestinian community and its contributions to business and civic life.
A bustling street festival, which saw dabke performances, live singers and vendors selling traditional Palestinian thobes, was held on Sunday to celebrate the occasion.
“Palestinians are making countless contributions to our communities every day in the United States of America,” said city mayor Andre Sayegh, who is of Lebanese and Syrian heritage.
“History is happening here, when we finally unveil not Palestine Street, not Palestine Boulevard, but Palestine Way, because Palestinians always find a way.”
The estimated crowd of 5,000 erupted into cheers and zaghrouta, a celebratory ululating sound made by women, as Sayegh revealed a bright green Palestine Way sign that also featured a U.S. and Palestinian flag.
“This allows us to always remember the Palestinian struggles overseas. It’s a celebration, but it’s also showing that Palestinians are humans, we’re Americans, and we will never forget where we came from,” said Councilman Alaa Abdelaziz, the city’s first Palestinian-American councilman.
Paterson is the largest city in Passaic County and the third most populous city in New Jersey. While there is no exact figure on the number of Arabs living in the area, Rania Mustafa, the executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center, estimates there could be as many as 20,000, many of whom are of Palestinian descent.
According to Mustafa, the decision to rename the street was aimed at combating the erasure of Palestinian identity.
“We see it as a symbolic win, we’re getting people to recognize that Palestine exists, that these are the contributions that Palestinian communities have made, and recognizing it in an official and permanent capacity,” she said.