PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 41

A life of exile
their stories. The smoke was so thick that the light
had trouble getting through. There was an old radio
crackling on the table in the middle of the room, and
we listened carefully. The grown-ups would talk about
Palestine, or about a book, a slogan… They would tell
of their experiences, talking of the past and the future,
but never about the present. They talked about the
past because that was our roots, and about the future
because they still clung to the crazy hope that we might
go home soon, but not the present, because the present
was sick. And I began to understand, through these
simple stories, the tragic situation of the Palestinian.
To be a Palestinian is to have been chased out of your
country without being allowed to take what belonged
to you. Palestine is the place that was taken from us.
Right from 1916 with the Sykes–Picot agreements, 7
and then 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, 8 the great
powers sealed our fate. We were the sacrifice.
However, like most people who are persecuted, the
Palestinians cling still and always, to the eternal notion
of hope… For example, during the 1950s, they were
sure that Jamal Abdel Nasser was fighting for their
cause and even that he was going to liberate Pales-
tine in the name of the Arab nation!
But what Arab nation are we talking about? Where
was the Arab Liberation Army, Jaish Al Inqath, in 1948,
that was promising us that in just a few weeks everything
would be back to normal. What did it mean when the
Iraqi officer said Mako awamer (‘I have not received any
orders’) to justify the fact that he did nothing when the
Israeli tanks arrived in the Palestinian villages? Why
had he not received any orders? And above all, why did
Feissal
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