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Source: http://nakbaeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/Complaint1.pdf
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They attacked us all day, for about a week. Down there about 15 of us were killed. All of them
young. There was a tank at the entrance of the village. Maybe the Israeli Soldiers took it from the
British. Maybe there was an understanding between them that theyd take the tanks to fight
with. After three days, they started to attack Ayn Ghazal more forcefully, in the morning and the
evening, for three days. And so everyone started to flee from there.
We hid in a nearby cave. I asked my mother, What happened? My mom told me that they
wanted to take our lands. We slept in the cave for four days without leaving, during the time they
were attacking us. Eventually, we escaped and arrived at a Jewish town. We crossed the
mountain and I was a little barefoot nine year old when we arrived at the village named Qannir.
In Qannir, Jewish soldiers caught us and gave the children something to eat. They would take
everyone man over the age of 17, put him to the side and kill him. If I had been 17, I would have
been killed. They buried them on the spot. Afterwards they brought us to Fureidis. To each of us
they asked, Where do you want to go? To Abadallah? Some preferred to go to Jordan, but we
stayed. My mother stayed here because she has an aunt in Fureidis, so we went there. They put
us in a mosque in Fureidis and we slept there three days. Eventually, my aunt gave us a house
under her house.
people there. Then they told us to go to the mosque and take the corpses out and burn them. We
couldnt lift the corpses by hand, we brought bags and put the corpses on the bags and we lifted
them onto a truck. We gathered everyone in the cemetery. Among them was one woman and two
children. They said burn. We burned everyone.
One day a group from the army came. At that time we were in a single houseforty people in
two rooms. They said to leave for Jordan. We had no choice, what could we do? They came and
told us to leave. I asked an officer what will we do with my mothers grandmother and my
grandmother, two elderly women? How could we take them? They sent the women with my
Uncle to Ramallah and they sent me and the rest of the men to a prison camp.
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When people started selling lands to the Jews, Hajj Amin al-Husseiniyya came to consult with my
father on how to prevent the sale of land. He brought a large sword and placed the Koran on top
of it and said, Say, I swear not to sell the land and not to betray our honor. And in that way he
had each make an oath, one by one. They asked people not to sell to the Jews and told them,
Tomorrow the Zionists will conquer you.But there were people who sold lands. I know of the first
one to sell his tribes lands, according to what I heard. The people of this tribe always would go
barefoot, and suddenly they started wearing shoes. Suddenly they had money.
Next, the Jews came, took our lands by force, and told us that there was nothing left for us here.
They closed down the mosque and barred anyone from entering. The Arabs did not have
weapons to defend and fight like the Jews did. On the day they conquered al-Seba, my father
went there. He wanted to drink water from a faucet near his house, but the Jew who lived there
would not let him do so. My father said to him, You foreigner, I installed this pipe with my own
hands, and I have documents that prove that these houses are ours. So the foreigner agreed to
let my father drink water. How unfortunate that they took over this country and would not even
let people drink the water from their own houses. Israel wanted lands without people.
The British are the ones who brought the Jews and sold them the land. The Jews would come and
inspect the land, and we thought that they were looking for water. We didnt know that they
wanted the land. They would come to a particular site, put up tents, and then leave. We would
see the markings left by the tents. Only in hindsight we understood that they were planning to
conquer the country.
was colonized by the British after World War I. The British left after World War II and the tensions
between Palestinians and Jews increased. And the newly created United Nations was tasked with
coming up with a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
I supported the 1947 United Nations plan to create a new nation of Israel in Palestine. This plan
seemed to be fair and equitable to all parties. But the 1948 War has disrupted this plan and I
have expressed my opinion about what should be done in a letter to David Ben-Gurion, the
founder and Prime Minister of Israel. Apparently Israel said that it will not compensate
Palestinians for the land it captured in the 1948 War and that it will not allow Palestinian refugees
displaced by the war to have the right of return to their homes. I find this unacceptable and
therefore I informed Prime Minister Ben-Gurion that the US is seriously disturbed by the attitude
of Israel with respect to a territorial settlement in Palestine and to the question of Palestinian
refugees. Furthermore, I told the Prime Minister that In the interest of a just and equitable
solution of territorial questions the US Govt...has supported the position that Israel should be
expected to offer territorial compensation for any territorial acquisition. Its just not right to
take someones land and not pay them for it. And when it comes to the refugees, I urged the
Prime Minister to allow a substantial portion of them to return. However, I said that I
understand that a final resettlement of the refugee problem must await a definitive peace
settlement.
I made it clear that the US has great sympathy for Israel, which is based on broad American
interest and principles. Furthermore, The US Govt and people have given generous support to
the creation of Israel because they have been convinced of the justice of this aspiration. The US
Govt does not, however, regard the present attitude of the Israeli Govt as being consistent with
the principles upon which the US support has been based.
flags of the Israeli nature reserve. We have to take action to remember the injustice that
happened here so it is not repeated.
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Name: _______________________________
______
Period:
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Important Vocabulary
Find someone with an opinion about ZIONISM. Who is this person? What is their story?
Based on the people you met, what is a MANDATE? Why is it important to 1948?
Based on the people you met, what is RIGHT OF RETURN? Why is it important to
1948?
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Making Connections: How does what you learned and who you met in
the Meet & Greet relate to the Putting Israel on the Map worksheet and the
Facts of Israel activity?
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