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| Hana Basharat built the villa and named it after the Khalif Abbasi Haron A-Rashid, due to its grandeur and unique architectural design |
Tarek Bachri:
"In 1977 Professor George Basarat came to Palestine using his American citizenship, carrying with him a picture of his grandfather's house in the Talabiya neighborhood. He walked around the area where his street names changed and passed through, went between the houses and tried to restore and bring up in his own eyes the descriptions he heard from his father and grandfather about the days of the neighborhood from once, wondering what the Aron-Rashid villa looks like in its new life?
The house built in 1926 is one of the most beautiful buildings in Western El-Kuds, where the Basharat family lived whose roots are from the village of Rapidia nearby. Hana Basharat, born in the city of A-Salat in Jordan, built the villa and named it after the Khalif Abbasi Haron A-Rashid, due to its grandeur and unique architectural design.
After hours of wandering and searching, Professor George found the three-story house with the blue ceramic adorning the façade of the house and kimori, and stood against the courtyard of lemon trees and ornate walls. The professor recalled the family stories about the house and tried to bring up the sights of the past and settle in what his eyes saw, while imagining the voices of his father and uncle when they play in their childhood in the yard and take pictures for the family pictures familiar to him, without imagining for themselves what would become their fate and the fate of the house in a few years.
When he knocked on the door, an elderly Israeli woman opened for him. He introduced himself and told her that the house belonged to his family until it was taken over by the 'defense' in 1948, when the British who rented the building from the family left the country at the end of their mandate and handed the keys to the Jewish organization *.
The woman told him: 'Your family has never lived here.' George laughed secretly to his heart, because in his hand he always held the picture of his family from the days they lived in their home, but he avoided getting into an argument with his wife about the matter. At this point they were joined by the woman's partner, Zvi Branzon, who was then appointed as a judge in the Israeli Supreme Court, and told him that he does not allow him to enter the other parts of the house and that he should stay in the living room only.
As for Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of israel after all, she stated above the pages of the Sunday Times, in an interview with the journalist Frank Giles on June 15, 1969, that 'there is no such thing with a Palestinian... Talk like we came and got them out of their country... They didn't exist. At the time of the interview Golda Meir, who then enjoyed as Prime Minister, was living in a family home in Sharat.
And here we are even now, 45 years after Prof. George's first visit to Sharat. We came to the house with Andrew, the fourth generation, who came to Palestine when the memories of his family live in his consciousness and he clings to his rights just like previous generations, because even if the old die, the young will not forget **.
Together we toured the Talvia neighborhood, and finally we approached the house itself. Andrew stood in front of the gate without saying anything and didn't move, and so he stood silently and stared at home for more than 5 minutes, as if his family's memories movie was projected between the arches of the third floor balcony. Then he walked around the yard, climbed the exterior stairs, touched the walls, looked out the windows and took pictures on the cell phone.
Suddenly the door opened and two people came out to us, one of them in work clothes, and the other asked 'Who are you and how can I help you? '. Andrew approached him, introduced himself and told him that his family once lived in the house.
The man said he was an engineer and that the company he works for designs and renovates the interior of the house, and said that if Andrew wants to come in he could call the owners and ask them for permission to come in. Andrew refused the offer, and on his way out picked two lemons from the yard - one to give to his father when he returns to America, and one for himself.
On our way out, the Israeli turned to us again and asked desperately, 'What, did they really once live in Golda Meir's house? '
But Andrew only laughed secretly, avoided getting into any arguments, and walked away with the same old picture of his family from the days when they lived in their home, which he always held in his hand.
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* At the beginning of 1948, when the ethnic cleansing and the Nakba had already begun, the defense forces in the Talvia neighborhood passed through a vehicle convoy and threatened with speakers the Arab residents of the neighborhood that if they did not leave it immediately, they would be eliminated and their property would be destroyed. The frightened residents left the neighborhood but turned to the British commissioner and asked him to protect their property. The commissioner ordered to surround the abandoned neighborhood in Gedot Til and made sure that the fleeing residents would be allowed to rent the apartments to police officers and British officials, but not to return to their homes. A few months later the British mandate ended, and the British forces handed over the houses to the Defense Organization.
** This sentence is a paraphrase of Ben Gurion's famous sentence "The old will die and the young will forget" - that is, that the memory of the Nakba will disappear and the claim of rights will disappear, supposedly, when generations pass.
Pamela Olson
"Most Westerners cannot understand that Palestinian longing for their homes and land.
The
fact that Israelis thought "the old would die and the young would
forget" shows that they have no concept of Palestinians' true belonging
to the land.
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