Warning:
these stories challenge what we learnt about how Palestine was lost in 1948.
Some stories show that it was not only the bad weapons that led to our defeat.
There were many other factors. From what I heard and what I read, it was the
lack of preparedness and lack of planning that lead to the defeat.
They
are stories that people told me and I had no ways of verifications. So they
stay as their own stories
Story
1: an old Palestinian man
We
were poor and had no weapons. We hoped that the Arab armies would save us and
we waited for them as we heard the sounds of fighting coming near our village.
The
Arab armies came to our village including Iraqi soldiers. They were not
provided with any food. They took our chickens and other food. They looked ill-
equipped and really hungry. We could not say no to them because they were here
to protect us. However, we wondered how hungry soldiers can fight.
Story
2: an old Egyptian man
I
remember clearly the “preparation” for the war in Palestine. The Imam of Yemen
sent his army to Egypt to go to Palestine with the Egyptian army. They came
bare feet armed with daggers. King Farouq ordered shoes and military uniforms
for them. Imagine how these soldiers fought a well equipped and well trained Zionist
Militia!
Story
3- An old Palestinian lady from Caesarea
This
is a small town by the sea where Palestinian have been living since history
began. People were simple, poor and uneducated. When the fighting was
intensifying near the town, a group of Zionist Militia came to the village and
met the chefs and told them that the Militia would protect them. The Militia
asked the villagers to go to the nearby woods and hide until the fight is over
while the Militia lived in the village to protect it from…the fighting.
Remember
that the story happened at a time before the spread of radio or other media. Villagers
were not educated and did not really know about the plans to occupy Palestine.
Anyway
the people left their village and went to hide in the wood. When the fighting was
over they returned to their homes. Needless to say that their homes were
already occupied and they had to leave. Some went to relatives in other villages
while others ended up in the refugee camps in the West bank or Gaza.
Story
4: an old man from Uzi village
The
whole village and the agricultural land around it were owned by a Syrian man
living in Damascus. His relationship with his property was limited to the
visits of his property manager bringing him the rent every year. Agents from
the Jewish agency went to meet the owner and offered him to buy his land. It
was a straight deal with no political ties. Yet clearly it was part of the
agency’s plan to strip Palestinians of the land they have been living on and
cultivating for generations. “One morning the villagers got up to military officers
asking them to leave their homes. When the villagers protested that they were
living in the land of their great great grandfathers, the officers showed them
the sale documents. So more Palestinians had to leave and join the refugees’
camps. By the way that was the village where the Uzi gun comes from.
Story
5 My young friend
When
I got to know M, she was a young Palestinian who just got married. She told me
this story.
It
was very difficult to find a flat or a house in her old Palestinian town,
inside the green line. So the young couple looked to buy a home in the newish Jewish
side which was had opened for Palestinians to own houses. The couple liked a
house with a little garden and an apple tree. Before making a deal, she asked
her father, as a civil engineer, to go and have a look at the house to see its
value from his professional point.
“My
dad was following us in the various rooms with the current Jewish owner. Suddenly
he left us and stood steering from a window. I saw tears in his eyes. We
finished the visit and left. In the car I asked him to explain his reaction. He
said that the house was built at the site of his own father’s old house. He
recognised the apple tree where he used to climb it as a young boy”. The house
was gone and a new house was built but the tree stayed the same.
