Nakba #18- Fatima Abdurahman Steti

1944 “My father had a fairly large shoe shop in Haifa. We also owned real estate. We were very well off financially. As a child, I never noticed any tension between the Jews and us. We lived next door to a Jewish family. When they celebrated Passover, they gave us matzah, and when we celebrated the New Year, we gave them maqluba.” - Did you attend the same school? ”No, we had our school and they had theirs.” 1948 “Haganah fired at us from Mount Carmel. Their snipers killed many of our people, many young men. They also shelled us with artillery. Their side was better organized than ours. They also had better weapons. We stayed indoors so as not to be killed. After a week, rumors spread that other cities had been attacked, that men had been shot and women raped. We feared for our lives. Some fled on British ships toward the Lebanese border. We traveled by taxi to ‘Akka, a twenty-minute drive, to stay with relatives. We left behind our beautiful furniture. My mother was pregnant, yet she left all the baby clothes behind. My parents were convinced we would be able to return after a few weeks. There would be peace and two states would be established. After Haifa fell, Haganah began shelling ‘Akka with artillery. When the bombardment came closer and closer to our house, it eventually became too dangerous to stay. My mother put on a belt with money. My father arranged a car and we drove north. We crossed the Lebanese border at Naqoura and continued toward Beirut. We were housed in a camp where pilgrims had previously stayed. We received food from the UN and other aid organizations. We cried constantly because we had lost our homeland. We stayed in Beirut for four months. Then we rented a car and drove to Homs in Syria. My aunt and her husband lived there.” - Where did you get money from? “My father had an account at Barclays Bank in Haifa.” “Of course I am hopeful. The Turks were with us for 400 years before they were forced to leave. Years later, I visited my birthplace, Haifa. I felt guilt. We should not have left the country so easily. We should not have done that.”