1946
“There were some Jews living in my village, and we were friends with them. In Akka there were more Jews. If I got sick, I used to go to a Jewish doctor in Akka named Nathan. As children, we did not distinguish between Christians, Muslims, and Jews—we were friends.”
1948
“The Jews began attacking us with heavy artillery, just to scare us. Then the aerial bombardments of our village began and people started to flee. Some families refused to leave Tarshiha; they hid with their neighbors, who were Palestinian Jews and Druze. Some of the children and grandchildren of those who hid are still living in Tarshiha today.
There were about twenty people in my family who fled toward Lebanon. We loaded as many mattresses as possible onto one of our horses. I was barefoot, and I was given a pair of shoes, size 42. I was a child. I rode the horse for a while, then I got down and started running barefoot. I remember it clearly. We walked ten kilometers. I was afraid. My parents tried to calm me, but deep down they were also afraid. We were running to escape death.”
– Who was it that drove you out?
“The Jews, but not the same Jews we knew before. These were Jews who came from outside. I saw dead bodies lying in the groves.
After crossing the border into Lebanon, we came to Ayta ash Shab. We ate the food we had brought with us. We continued on to Aleppo in Syria. There were seven of us in the family, and we lived in a barrack. The rooms were three by three meters and were divided with blankets. If someone had sex with his wife, everyone could hear it.
The Nakba took everything from us. The only thing we had left was to study at school. I was good at my studies, but in order to study I had to go outside—there was no space indoors. I remember once in winter, when it was cold and snowy. I had to go out into the cold and sit on the snow to study. I was in the fourth grade.”
2015
“The first exodus, from Palestine, was very hard, but it helped us survive the second exodus, from Syria to Sweden. When I was 74 years old, in 2015, we were forced to flee from Syria to Turkey, crossing the mountains on foot. From Turkey we took a rubber boat across the Aegean Sea to Greece. There were 44 people in the boat; it was approved for a maximum of ten. Then we continued through Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark, and finally to Sweden.
For the journey to Turkey, my wife and I paid 30,000 kronor, and from Turkey to Sweden the same amount.
I am glad that Sweden took us in, but this is not my father’s house.”
All content for Överlevarna is the property of Överlevarna and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
1946
“There were some Jews living in my village, and we were friends with them. In Akka there were more Jews. If I got sick, I used to go to a Jewish doctor in Akka named Nathan. As children, we did not distinguish between Christians, Muslims, and Jews—we were friends.”
1948
“The Jews began attacking us with heavy artillery, just to scare us. Then the aerial bombardments of our village began and people started to flee. Some families refused to leave Tarshiha; they hid with their neighbors, who were Palestinian Jews and Druze. Some of the children and grandchildren of those who hid are still living in Tarshiha today.
There were about twenty people in my family who fled toward Lebanon. We loaded as many mattresses as possible onto one of our horses. I was barefoot, and I was given a pair of shoes, size 42. I was a child. I rode the horse for a while, then I got down and started running barefoot. I remember it clearly. We walked ten kilometers. I was afraid. My parents tried to calm me, but deep down they were also afraid. We were running to escape death.”
– Who was it that drove you out?
“The Jews, but not the same Jews we knew before. These were Jews who came from outside. I saw dead bodies lying in the groves.
After crossing the border into Lebanon, we came to Ayta ash Shab. We ate the food we had brought with us. We continued on to Aleppo in Syria. There were seven of us in the family, and we lived in a barrack. The rooms were three by three meters and were divided with blankets. If someone had sex with his wife, everyone could hear it.
The Nakba took everything from us. The only thing we had left was to study at school. I was good at my studies, but in order to study I had to go outside—there was no space indoors. I remember once in winter, when it was cold and snowy. I had to go out into the cold and sit on the snow to study. I was in the fourth grade.”
2015
“The first exodus, from Palestine, was very hard, but it helped us survive the second exodus, from Syria to Sweden. When I was 74 years old, in 2015, we were forced to flee from Syria to Turkey, crossing the mountains on foot. From Turkey we took a rubber boat across the Aegean Sea to Greece. There were 44 people in the boat; it was approved for a maximum of ten. Then we continued through Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark, and finally to Sweden.
For the journey to Turkey, my wife and I paid 30,000 kronor, and from Turkey to Sweden the same amount.
I am glad that Sweden took us in, but this is not my father’s house.”
1948
“Men, women, children, and the elderly arrived in Nablus by truck. They had been expelled from villages and towns in the surrounding area. The refugees were housed in a school. Inside, many families were gathered in one large hall.
The hall was divided with pieces of cloth so that each family was given a few meters of space. It was horrible. The children cried, the women did not know what to do, and the men were very angry.
Later it became even worse. First the rain poured down, and then the snow came. To me, snow was something wonderful. I stood in my room and looked out the window. I saw a boy from the camp’s daycare playing in the snow. Shocked, I saw that he was barefoot. After taking a few steps, he collapsed and began to cry.”
1950
“Of my nine siblings, I had the darkest skin in the family. That is why I was called ‘the brown one.’ My skin color was considered beautiful. My grandfather was the only person in the Nablus district who owned a radio. His friends used to gather in his house to listen to it. I would sneak in as well to listen.
I was amazed at how large the radio was, like a cabinet. I tried to look for the announcer behind it. All I found were some tubes and a large battery connected to the radio. They listened to a radio station broadcasting from Cairo, Egypt. They played music from Sudan, which I loved to listen to and sing along with—something my grandfather noticed.
‘These are your relatives,’ my grandfather said, laughing.”
1967
“Abdel Nasser promised that we would be able to return to Palestine. We believed him; he was like a mountain to us. But the Israelis defeated him. We realized that we had to organize ourselves. At that time, I was studying at university in Cairo. I secretly joined the Palestinian liberation struggle.
We formed small cells of three to five people so that we could join Fatah. Some of us received our military training in Syria.”
1968
“Israel attacked the PLO camp in al-Karama, in Jordan, under the leadership of General Moshe Dayan. Dayan regarded the attack as a picnic and invited Israeli journalists to witness the victory.
They attacked with 15,000 men, fighter jets, and artillery. The goal was to kill all the fedayeen in the al-Ghor area, where Karameh is located. But together with the Jordanian army, the Palestinian fighters managed—for the first time since 1967—to defeat the Israeli army. For me, it was a turning point.”
Överlevarna
1946
“There were some Jews living in my village, and we were friends with them. In Akka there were more Jews. If I got sick, I used to go to a Jewish doctor in Akka named Nathan. As children, we did not distinguish between Christians, Muslims, and Jews—we were friends.”
1948
“The Jews began attacking us with heavy artillery, just to scare us. Then the aerial bombardments of our village began and people started to flee. Some families refused to leave Tarshiha; they hid with their neighbors, who were Palestinian Jews and Druze. Some of the children and grandchildren of those who hid are still living in Tarshiha today.
There were about twenty people in my family who fled toward Lebanon. We loaded as many mattresses as possible onto one of our horses. I was barefoot, and I was given a pair of shoes, size 42. I was a child. I rode the horse for a while, then I got down and started running barefoot. I remember it clearly. We walked ten kilometers. I was afraid. My parents tried to calm me, but deep down they were also afraid. We were running to escape death.”
– Who was it that drove you out?
“The Jews, but not the same Jews we knew before. These were Jews who came from outside. I saw dead bodies lying in the groves.
After crossing the border into Lebanon, we came to Ayta ash Shab. We ate the food we had brought with us. We continued on to Aleppo in Syria. There were seven of us in the family, and we lived in a barrack. The rooms were three by three meters and were divided with blankets. If someone had sex with his wife, everyone could hear it.
The Nakba took everything from us. The only thing we had left was to study at school. I was good at my studies, but in order to study I had to go outside—there was no space indoors. I remember once in winter, when it was cold and snowy. I had to go out into the cold and sit on the snow to study. I was in the fourth grade.”
2015
“The first exodus, from Palestine, was very hard, but it helped us survive the second exodus, from Syria to Sweden. When I was 74 years old, in 2015, we were forced to flee from Syria to Turkey, crossing the mountains on foot. From Turkey we took a rubber boat across the Aegean Sea to Greece. There were 44 people in the boat; it was approved for a maximum of ten. Then we continued through Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark, and finally to Sweden.
For the journey to Turkey, my wife and I paid 30,000 kronor, and from Turkey to Sweden the same amount.
I am glad that Sweden took us in, but this is not my father’s house.”
