Nakba #9 - Abdallah Shahada

1946 “When I was four, I used to go with my mother to the stream. There we filled our buckets with water. I remember sitting under a tree eating figs. I was never allowed to go to school; instead I had to help on the farm and take care of the sheep. There were no Jews in my village. But in Acre (‘Akka), my father had several Jewish friends. Josef and Schlomo used to come and help us during the harvest season. My mother cooked dinner and we sat and ate together. They were Palestinian Jews, so we were truly close. — What do you mean by Palestinian Jews? They were born in Palestine. Sometimes we called them patriotic Jews. They were not like the European Jews, not like the Zionists, not like the Haganah. When the British brought more and more Jews to Palestine by ship, and the Haganah began to organize, the Palestinian Jews felt forced to join the Haganah. Josef and Schlomo asked my father whether he would kill them if war broke out. ‘No,’ my father replied. ‘I will hide you in my heart.’” 1948 “During Ramadan in 1948, the Jews attacked our village three times. Twice our forces repelled the attacks. The third time, the Jews attacked with aircraft and armored vehicles. They attacked from the west and the north. Women, the elderly, and children—we fled eastward to the village of Abu Sinan. I don’t know how many were killed; we had already fled. My brother Assem, my cousin Hammad, and two of their friends were captured and risked being executed. Among the Israeli forces were our family friends, Josef and Schlomo, and they saved their lives. They told my brother and the others to flee through the bushes so they would not be discovered. We left Abu Sinan. There were nine of us—me, my six siblings, and my parents. We walked for seven hours before reaching the border. We stayed in Bayt Lif, in southern Lebanon. We thought it would be temporary, but we stayed there for two years. We rented a house. My parents had managed to bring some money with them, and they were content with their life. I truly wanted to go to school. When we fled to Lebanon and I was ten, I asked my parents if I could start school. ‘In the homeland you couldn’t go to school; here in the refugee camp it is not possible at all,’ my father replied.” 1950 After two years, we ended up in the UNRWA camp in Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut. They gave us a tent and distributed canned food and flour. But we were not allowed to build a house. — Did you have water and electricity? No. UNRWA installed water taps and toilets around the camp. At first we had no electricity. I began working in a factory that produced arak. I earned 30 lira a month; it wasn’t much. I worked there for six years. When I turned 18, I got married and began working as a vegetable vendor. Then I could earn 15–20 lira a day. When I was little, I often dreamed. And everything I dreamed came true. I dreamed of having a kind wife and kind children. And when I grew up, God gave me both. When I think about the past, I cry.”