Palestinians mark the anniversary of the Nakba in Jabaliya refugee camp, May 2010.
(Mohammed Othman / APA images)
It was the hardest trip that Zeidan Mahmoud Abu Naser has taken in his life.
In May 1948, his village of Beit Jirja was attacked by Zionist gangs.
Their vehicles and weapons “were more sophisticated than anything we
had,” he recalled. He was forced to leave and to seek refuge in
Gaza.
“We left behind our crops of wheat. We even left food right in the
middle of our home,” he said, recalling how he traveled in a
donkey-drawn carriage, along with his parents, six brothers and two
sisters. The trip took half a day but it was “psychologically
devastating,” he added.
“We were simple villagers who had nothing to do with organized wars
or military activities,” he said. Arab soldiers — mainly from
Egypt
— tried to defend Palestinians. Yet they were besieged and defeated by
Zionists in the nearby villages of Falluja and Karatiyya.
Some 750,000 Palestinians were uprooted during the
Nakba (catastrophe), the
ethnic cleansing that allowed Israel’s foundation in the ruins.
“Simple but beautiful”
Now almost 80 years old, this man — also known as Abu Khaled — lives in
Jabaliya
refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. He has vivid recollections of
his childhood in Beit Jirja. “Life was very simple but really
beautiful,” he said.
One evening, he recalls, “I was accompanied by a friend of mine and
we both walked down the village, whispering to each other and all of a
sudden, we became more than twenty children and we all started playing a
game called ‘the bone,’ which involved throwing an animal bone around.
The losing team had to carry the winners on their shoulders and turn
around seven times.”
Beit Jirja had just one elementary school. Locals used to choose a village chief —
mukthar in Arabic. “The
mukthar’s
role was meeting strangers who come over to the village, welcoming
government representatives and intervening in family feuds,” Abu Khaled
said.
Weddings were important community occasions. “People in the village
often held their wedding ceremonies in the beginning or in the middle of
September. This was due to the fact that harvest season had just ended.
When someone wanted to get married, his parents just visited the girl’s
home and asked her family.
“Surprised”
“One of the best features of these weddings — that are missed
nowadays, unfortunately — was the nice attitude of inviting all folks in
the village to the wedding party. Even if the parents of a groom were
at odds with some others, the parents would go and ask forgiveness and
reconciliation from those people before the wedding.”
Traditionally, each wedding involved a march around the village with
the groom in the middle. “Women were at the back, singing and clapping,”
he said. Parties would last for three days, while relatives would visit
the groom with gifts of money.
Although Beit Jirja is only 15 kilometers from Gaza, Abu Khaled may never see it again.
“My father used to say to us, ‘Do not worry, the Arab media says we
will soon return.’ Yet we have not returned back and I am afraid of
dying here in Jabaliya,” he said.
Um Khaled, Abu Khaled’s 75-year-old wife, recalled that they visited the village in the 1970s.
“We were surprised to see some farm tools still on a sycamore tree
that Abu Khaled told me belonged to his father’s land,” she said.
“I pray to God that I, my husband, my children and grandchildren,
will all return back to our homeland. A handful of homegrown wheat is
worth more than all the treasures of the world.”
Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.