PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem

because it was unlikely that the Israeli tanks would have risked going there. So we left in groups of five every three minutes. The streets were deserted, people who had gone to ground in their houses were standing in their windows, some of them waving white clothes in case Israeli soldiers came for them. When we got to our house, having crossed the whole town, my father and Hiyam welcomed us with relief. It was only when I went up to my room and I saw the enormous tanks though my window that I really understood that we were under Israeli military occupa- tion. I had the impression of falling, of being crushed – as if the tanks had run over my body. I was lost in this vision of horror when I felt my father’s arms around my shoulders saving me from an impulse that could have proved fatal to me. He was crying too. In bad Arabic, the Israelis made public announce- ments that from now on we were under their military government, that they were imposing a curfew and that any dissidents would immediately be shot dead. Then they started to play Hebrew songs over loud speakers all day long. And so the news spread that the munic- ipality of Nablus was under their control. The mayor did not resist and gave himself up. He was severely crit- icized for this by part of the population who could not abide the fact that he had given up, particularly since that had allowed the Israeli authorities to get hold of all the files on political opponents, notably the nationalist and Marxist groups. 15 Others thanked him for having thus avoided a blood bath. Within a few days Nablus was full of refugees com- ing from towns and villages bordering on Israel. They were completely destitute, without food or water. While we were still under curfew, someone knocked on our door. To my great surprise I saw my friends Raymonda Hawa Tawil, 16 Sahar Khalifa, 17 and Nehal Al Masri. 18 Even though she came from Acre, Raymonda was well known in Nablus: she was the Kenafeh, a traditional dessert from Nablus Ilham 179

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