Nakba #48 - Muhammad Musa Abu Lial

1945 “I grew up in the Romayma neighborhood. My father traveled a lot on business, among other places to Jaffa and Jordan. Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived side by side in al-Quds. My uncle did business with a man named Moshe. He owned a dairy in Machneyuda. Some Jews who came from Aleppo in Syria lived with my uncle. They were businessmen, just like us. 1948 “We used to go to my uncle’s house, and from there we could see how the shooting went on from both sides, day and night. The British helped the Jews against the Muslims, against the Arabs. We heard about Dayr Yasin, that they had killed 90 people and thrown them into the village wells. Life became very difficult; conditions worsened over time. My school was closed, people were murdered. The Jews continued to shoot from Hadassah and the Hebrew University, day and night. We feared for our lives. We fled north, toward Ramallah. We left at night in buses that the British army had left behind. My younger siblings and I took shelter on the floor of the bus. Not everyone was as fortunate. It was summer and the grass in the fields was tall. My sister-in-law, who had been so ill that she had been admitted to Saint Joseph’s Hospital in East al-Quds, was forced to crawl on all fours across a field so as not to be discovered and shot. When we arrived in Ramallah, there were already many others there; they had fled from Lydda, al-Ramla, and Jaffa. People lay sleeping under the trees. Quite soon we received help from UNRWA with food and a tent. My father, my brothers, and I were eventually able to return to our house in Romayma. My mother and my sisters stayed in Ramallah. Life was hard; we had no money.” 1967 “We were forced to flee again, this time on foot, to Ariha (Jericho). Many families walked for a whole day and a whole night across the mountains, along difficult paths. We stopped and rested, each family under its own orange tree. When we arrived in Ariha, Israeli soldiers shot at us. We stayed in Ariha for a week, and after the Six-Day War we were able to return to al-Quds. Our family has lost 150 dunams of land, with olive trees, vegetables, and fruit.” Reflection “The Israelis believe in doing everything by force. But they stand only with the support of the USA and Europe. We are free and have the right to live in peace. Since the founding of the state in 1948, Israel has demolished houses, arrested people, killed people. We will never accept being slaves under Israel. I want the world to know that Arabs are human beings. We do not intend to live our lives as slaves.”