PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 102

in persuading the old man, because he would propose
paying all the wedding expenses. But Majed refuses, he
is in love with Fatima Al Azzeh, a beautiful brunette
with big green eyes from a Hebron family, who teaches
at the Fawwar Camp. Every day, he waits for her at the
bus station to walk her home, earning sharp criticism
from the neighbourhood. Once married, he chooses to
live with Fatima away from the parental home, and later
moves with her to Dammam, in north-eastern Saudi
Arabia, where there are enormous petrol reserves 12 and
where he has been recruited to teach Arabic, history
and geography. The young kingdom is being built like
a film in fast forward thanks to petrodollars, and Pal-
estinian teachers bring their knowledge to the Saudi
youth (many Palestinians would receive Saudi nation-
ality in return). The couple shares an apartment with
other Palestinian teachers. Their daughter, Samaa
(which means sky), and their son, Salam (which means
peace), are born in Al Khobar, near Dammam.
In November 1964, the teachers go on strike for
their rights; this is a first in Saudi Arabia. It is a big
risk for the Palestinians, who can be deported on the
spot; most of the teachers have a family to look after
in Jordan or Gaza, a family which depends on them
for survival. Majed is chosen as a speaker and joins the
committee of strikers in charge of discussions with the
authorities, where he meets another Palestinian, Abdel
Fateh Al Kalkili (known as Abu Nael, which means
father of Nael). A year later, he is approached by a Saudi
businessman, who wants to set up his own newspaper,
Al Ayam (The Days), with eight pages twice a month, 13
which is supposed to become the showcase for the gov-
ernment’s actions. The businessman needs a managing
editor; Majed is in the right place at the right time.
However, the newspaper will not become the voice of
Saudi officialdom, as was intended, but that of the Pal-
estinians. The team consists of writers and journalists,
the likes of Ghaleb Jarrar, Abdel Aziz Al Sayed and
Abu Nael, all committed writers. The tone is blunt,
ironic, diverse and shares points of view. But reader
numbers remain limited: ‘We were both readers and
writers,’ remembers Abu Nael with humour.
In 1967, Majed meets up with an old acquaintance
from the University of Gaza, Moath A‘abed, who has
been Fatah’s 14 representative in Dammam for the past
year or two. During a game of cards, the politician
manages to convince the journalist-writer to join the
movement. Meetings are forbidden, so they are held
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Memories of 1948
in secret in the apartments of one member or another,
the activists taking turns to keep a lookout. When
the Six-Day War breaks out, Majed goes to Syria as a
reporter where he visits then takes part in a Fatah train-
ing camp. On returning to Dammam, he becomes a
member of the Saudi Eastern Regional Committee. At
32, he quits his job as a journalist-writer to engage in
political activism.
As he says himself, Majed has not joined a politi-
cal party linked to a social class, he has ‘allied him-
self with a revolutionary movement which is fighting
to liberate Palestine.’ It is not the same thing. Fatah is
a movement which specifically brings together people
with very diverse ideas: communists, socialists, nation-
alists, Muslim Brothers… they are all motivated by the
same objective. 15 Above all, their common cause is not
restricted to a slogan, it is the basis of their daily life.
In late 1969, the family leaves Dammam to settle
in Amman, Jordan. Majed makes use of his talent for
story telling in the Jerusalem magazine Al Ufuq Al Jedid
(New Horizon). Nazih (Abu Nidal which means father
of Nidal) works for the same magazine. Together, the
two of them create the Union of Palestinian Writers
and Journalists and participate in the training of mil-
itants from all over the world in a camp near Salt, Jor-
dan, in the use of words and weapons. Their goals are
clear: ‘a weapon is worthless if it is not used to defend
a cause; if a combatant manages to develop his polit-
ical and public conscience, then, the bullet from his
gun will reach all aspects of society, the cultural as well
as the political…’ But above all, the two men propose
an innovative principle to the members of Fatah: they
want the new training camps to exclude any notion of
orders or punishment and they want the principle of
self-criticism to be omnipresent.
Building on their success, Nazih and Majed estab-
lish an internal PLO newspaper, Falastine (Palestine),
with a daily circulation in Amman reaching several
tens of thousands. They are at the same time field
reporters, witnesses and analysts. Two battles in which
PLO militants take part are strongly criticized by the
two journalists. The first is the battle at Ain Al Bayda
in Jordan on May 4, 1970, during which 24 militants
are killed by the Israelis: Majed and Nazih accuse the
PLO leaders of incompetence, lack of knowledge of the
terrain, and of having sent their fighters to their deaths.
Then they lash out at the battle of Ish Al Nisser (The
Eagle’s Nest) in Arkub in southern Lebanon: while the