Minamanne- Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Palestine

 

minamanne

Church of the Nativity

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Palestine (photo 1945) Image source: Library of Congress

This image of a Palestinian woman in her Malaka thobe, standing above the Church of the Nativity, is familiar to many Palestinians. When I see these pre-Nakba images I always think about the people in them. Who was she? What was her name, her story? I wonder how she lived through the Nakba just a few years later, how she carried the weight of memory and loss. Did she get to stay in Palestine, or was she displaced like so many of us?

"My grandfather kept the key to his house in Yaffa in 1948. He thought they would return in a few days. His name was Hasan. The house was destroyed. Others built a new one in its place. Hasan died in Gaza in 1986. The key has rusted but still exists somewhere, longing for the old wooden door." Mosab Abu Toha ... From Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

 

I cannot believe I left our house on October 13, 2023 and never grabbed the only photo of my grandfather I had. I cannot believe I never took the photo of my father when was a very young man. 

 

You can see my father’s photo behind the Gaza wooden piece. He is on the left putting oranges in boxes. 

 

Our house was bombed on Oct. 28. The only dear thing I took was my own copy of my poetry book. It was stupid of me, I admit, to take something I could replace, though nothing can be really replaced.

A conversation in a cafe

 

Mosab Abu Toha 

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"Two days ago, I was meeting with three Gazan friends in a cafe when a man in his early fifties joined us.

 

Abu Fadi was a bus driver from Rafah.

 

I asked him where he was staying in Cairo. “Downtown. I got out of Gaza a few days ago.”

 

I asked him whether his wife and children were with him.

 

“No, I’m by myself here.”

 

My friend Ahmad, a novelist who left Gaza just last week, prodded me in my thigh, asking me for my Egyptian phone number.

 

A minute later, I got an SMS from Ahmad:

 

This man lost his wife, children, and grandchildren in an airstrike."

Every Palestinian's Impossible Choices

 

A Palestinian refugee family... 1948 Palestine/Israel-> Syria-> 2013 Lebanon, and in Lebanon they have had to move six times already

stateless: adjective
(of a person) not recognized as a citizen of any country.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/features/what-was-lost

What Was Lost

Lebanon

With deep sadness and despair, Amal tells us that she is a teacher of the Arabic language; she’s not used to begging and asking for help. But given her current circumstances, she is ready to work in any field, even cleaning houses so that she and her daughter can live in dignity.

That’s been a challenge ever since she fled the conflict in Syria in April 2013, seeking safety in the Palestine refugee camp of Beddawi in northern Lebanon. She’s had to move six times already, from living with her husband's relatives to moving in with a friend whose house was in the conflict zone between the Tripoli neighbourhoods of Jebel Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh. Afraid of the shelling and bombing, Amal and her 8-year-old daughter fled again. “We did not leave Syria to save our lives and come here and die without a reason”, Amal says, back in Beddawi.

The tone of her voice rises and tears glisten in her eyes as she describes her pain and suffering. “It seems as though torture and displacement from one house to another are our destiny. I have lost my so-called dignity”, she says.

Amal’s husband returned to Syria to provide for his family, but she says their condition in Lebanon is one of “agony, pain and suffering.” Housing and living expenses are high, and UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) rental subsidies and food assistance “are unfortunately not enough” to offset the costs. “We get US$ 100 in rental subsidies and US$ 30 per person in food assistance,” she explains. “These amounts helped us survive a whole month when we were in Syria before the conflict, but in Lebanon they are sadly not enough.”

In Beddawi, Amal and her daughter have settled with the seven members of a Syrian refugee family. They share a room that does not even meet the lowest standards. There is no roof to protect them from the rain, but sunlight does not come in. They lack covers and sheets, even furniture.  Nonetheless, Amal declares that she “contributes in paying the rent, and my share is LBP 275,000 (US$ 180).”

Amal emphasizes that she still hangs on because of her daughter. The 8-year-old is enrolled in the UNRWA Al-Mazar school in Beddawi. After a moment of silence, Amal concludes, “We lost everything – our house and our money – but education is still available. It is the saviour of my daughter’s future and the most important thing in life.”

> More on Palestine refugees

April - August 1948: More than 700,000 Palestine refugees are displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli War.

 Resolution 194

11th December 1948

The United Nations General Assembly adopts resolution 194 (III), resolving that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”

When UNWRA began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.