Nakba #38 - Munhir Fahoum

1934 “I was born in Irbid, in al-Urdunn, but my family comes from al-Nasira. We have lived there for 300 years. I was a wild child. When my father had guests, I would go outside and take one of the guests’ horses. I always chose a calm horse. I was wild, but I was also smart. That way I was never thrown off. I would ride away for an hour or two. That is how I learned to ride. To gallop on a horse is like swimming in the air. You lose yourself.” 1939 “I studied at a boarding school in al-Quds. The Second World War had begun and the food was not very good. But the teachers got better food than we did. At night, a few friends and I used to sneak into the teachers’ kitchen and steal maqluba, their favorite dish. I smoked, which was forbidden, but fun. My favorite cigarettes were British, Craven ‘A’. They were very hard to get. The headmaster appointed me as one of the school prefects. Our task was to maintain law and order at the school, something I did not take very seriously. I suppose I got the position because I was a good athlete. My friends and I used to go to the cinema two or three times a month. During the Second World War, al-Quds was the entertainment center of the Arab world, not al-Qahira, not Bayrut.” 1941 “Near the Arab College in al-Quds, where I lived, was the Jewish settlement of Talpiot. A golf course lay between us. When we arrived by bus from al-Nasira, we always crossed the golf course on our way home. In the forest in Talpiot we saw Jewish boys and girls, women and men, being trained militarily. It was like an army. At the same time, the Jordanian army had been sent to al-Quds. Tensions began to build.” 1947 “Anyone could see what was about to happen. Many realized that the conflict would lead to waves of refugees. The Zionists were clear about their goals. They had been ever since the days of Herzl. There was no place in Filastin for both Arabs and Jews. Arabs would have to be expelled from Filastin to make room for the European Jews. It was in the air.” 1948 “I was studying at the University of Edinburgh while my family was fighting against the Israelis. Even though my father was old, he joined the struggle. My older brother was an officer in Jaysh al-Inqad al-‘Arabi, a conglomerate of soldiers from several Arab countries. My cousin was mayor of al-Nasira when the city fell into the hands of the Israeli army. The Jewish commander summoned several of the city’s leaders, including my father, to sign the peace agreement. My cousin insisted that the Arabs of al-Nasira be granted the same rights and privileges as Israeli citizens. For some reason, the Jewish commander agreed.” 1967 “I was only allowed to visit my home in al-Nasira for one day at a time, from early morning until late in the evening. The military governor in Nablus never gave me permission to stay overnight. But at my own risk, I always chose to stay a couple of extra nights, without permission.” Afterthought “Today I live in Amman, but as a Palestinian I cannot travel to al-Nasira to visit my family’s house. I am a Jordanian citizen, with a Jordanian passport and a Jordanian personal identity number, but the Israelis do not recognize me as a Jordanian citizen. If they had recognized me as Jordanian, I would have been granted a visa, since there is a peace treaty between al-Urdunn and Israil. But because I also have a Palestinian ID card, I am not allowed to travel to al-Nasira. It feels terrible. It feels deeply sad.”