Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 71

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian: A Memoir
By: Jacob J. Nammar
Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian: A Memoir. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2012. 152 pp. Pbk.: $15.00. ISBN:
978-1566568869.
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
April 2013
Review by
Issa J. Boullata, PhD
McGill University
Canada
Now a retired business executive living in San Antonio, Texas, Jacob Nammar was born in Jerusalem in 1941, lived in it during the remaining yea
rs of the British Mandate until 1947, witnessed the Palestinian Nakba o f 1948, and endured its aftermath as one of the Arabs remaining in (West)
Jerusa lem under Israel.s rule until he immigrated to the U.S. in 1964. His memoir abou t this period of his life is a heartfelt account of his
experiences, told in an unpretentious language, describing his initial idyllic life before the nakba, an d then the hardships he suffered and the
discrimination he sustained under Israe l, but always remaining free of bitterness, remembering the positive events in h is life, and hoping for better
days.
His father was a Palestinian Arab, a bus driver and tourist guide; an d his mother was an Armenian woman who, before marriage, lived in Beirut to
whic h she had fled as a child from the Armenian massacres of 1915. They had a large family with eight children and lived in the Nammareh
neighborhood of Baq.a in (W est) Jerusalem, next to other extended family members of Nammar descendants, who owned property and orange
groves and who, like other Palestinians, lived amicab ly with their Jewish neighbors in Palestine during Ottoman times.
Jacob Nammar recalls his happy boyhood in the 1940s until, one day, h is school bus was attacked by Zionist terrorists and, in 1946, the south wing
of the King David Hotel.where his older brother Mihran worked at the front desk.wa s blown up by the Zionist Irgun gang and was severely
damaged, causing the death of about one hundred people with many injured. His inner peace was shaken, and it was further disturbed as the British
Mandate ended in May 1947, leaving Pales tine in chaos, and Israel was created after war with the Arabs.
Nammar personally saw the dispossession and dislocation of the Palest inians, many of whom fled for safety and left their belongings and homes,
which were immediately taken over by Israelis. His family decided to stay put and thou ght they were safe to remain at home. But the Israeli
authorities forced them an d all other Arabs remaining behind to move to militarily controlled and fenced s ecurity zones in (West) Jerusalem.
Nammar.s lot was to live in Zone A. When the restrictions were removed some years later and they tried to return to their hom e, they found that it
had been occupied by Israelis with the official authorizat ion of the state. Nammar describes the Zionist policy of nikayon, the e thnic cleansing he
witnesse BF