PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 170

The Jaffa–
Jerusalem railway
line, around 1935
line southwards by 200 metres into the village, thereby
annexing 16 of Battir’s houses. 14 Hassan Mustafa
accepted and the agreement was concluded.
It was, of course, better than losing everything. But
we soon found out how much we missed the railway, and
how, without it, we were suddenly cut off from the rest
of the world and from Jerusalem in particular. What is
more, given the degree of insecurity and the attacks on
villages that we were hearing about, the Battiri were not
reassured and many people hesitated to come back. So
Hassan Mustafa went to fetch them and reassure them.
They say that the emir of Transjordan, Abdullah I, lent
him some Jordanian army trucks to transport them. It
was no simple matter, given that the Israelis had wasted
no time in putting up barbed wire and that for a few
weeks, they had even imposed a curfew.
Then the tension dissipated. The boys’ school, next
to the station, started classes again, and the border no
longer existed apart from the presence of six or seven
Israeli soldiers who ended up asking us for tea, coffee
and figs. But they never stayed very long and were often
replaced by others…
To bring life back to the village now that it had been
cut off from Jerusalem was a challenge. Luckily, in the
1950s the villagers began modernizing Battir, they
renovated the irrigation system, built a girls’ school, 15
opened a clinic, brought in telephones, opened up a
post office… Every move was well considered and
decided upon by the community, in a true spirit of
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Memories of 1948
cooperation. In no time at all, the prosperity of the vil-
lage became an example for the entire region, influenc-
ing other communities.
As for me, I went back to St John’s Hospital, but I
went by road, the long way round via Bethlehem. It
took a long time so I would only come home at the
weekends. I got married and I had four boys and six
girls who all stayed in the village. I finished my train-
ing and got a diploma in ophthalmology. The hospital
moved again in 1960, this time to the Ramallah road
in East Jerusalem.
Our community experience gave us confidence in
the future, yet Hassan Mustafa remained vigilant and
did not lower his guard. He worked for Unrwa in Bei-
rut, but came home often to be with his wife, his son
and his three daughters. He died suddenly in 1961 at
the age of 47. At least he did not have to witness the
Israeli occupation of Battir following the Six-Day War
in 1967.
I was in Jerusalem at the time and my family was
in Battir. My wife, like all the people in the village,
took the children and hid in the caves higher up in the
mountains. The war did not last long, and the fight-
ing soon stopped. Then the State of Israel annexed
East Jerusalem and, since that was where I was living,
I was one of those to whom Israel offered Israeli citi-
zenship. I refused, like most of the Palestinians who
were living there. So they created a special status for
us: “permanent resident of Jerusalem”. That is what is