In our words….
This is another in a series of interviews Palestine Report is publishing on an occasional basis. In speaking with Palestinians from different circumstances _ West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem; men and women; refugees and non-refugees; Muslim and Christian _ Palestine Report is providing a forum for expression of the wide range of experiences and opinions in the Occupied Territories. This week, we speak with a distinguished professor who was forced out of his homeland in the 1948 war.
Name: Ibrahim Abu Lughud
Age: 69
Place of Birth: Jaffa
Occupation: political scientist
I was born in Jaffa in Palestine in 1929. My family and I lived in a quarter of the city called the Manshiya quarter. There I grew up, went to school, graduated and eventually fled.
I remember the irony of my secondary matriculation examination scores. In 1948, the British realized that trouble was on the way, so they moved up the date of the exam from June to March. I took my exam on March 30, 1948. Little did I know that I would hear the results of my exam in July of the same year, by accident, over Israeli radio, as I was sitting in my new home as a refugee in Nablus. I immediately sent a telegram to a close friend who had fled to Beirut. The results of his exams were so important and I knew he had no way of finding them out.
What was it like to live in Jaffa in 1948?
I was a high school student at the time, which meant that I was very aware of the political situation around me. I remember when the United Nations decided on the plan to partition Palestine. The students of Jaffa organized a three-day sit-in to protest the resolution and later followed with a mass demonstration throughout the entire city. As a student body, we always organized ourselves on major occasions such as the Balfour Declaration.
Anyway the day of the demonstration marked the beginning of what could be called the bi-communal war between Arabs and Jews. For the first time, there was a crossfire between the two sides near the Hasan al-Beik mosque, the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. It was a battle between a purely Jewish town _ Tel Aviv had actually grown out of Jaffa _ and a town which until 1936 was purely Arab.
In the early months of 1947, a national committee was established in Jaffa to organize the affairs of the people and prepare them for the imminent prospect of war. I could fairly say that the committee was representative of both the middle and working class. Later on, Jaffa became semi-organized into a part-time militia comprised of shopkeepers, students etc. They were provided with very primitive weapons which they acquired from the Mufti and other sources from whom they had asked for assistance. The ratio was absurd, however. There was a total of 1,500 militia to defend a city of 70,000. They would work in three shifts to maintain the borders of the city which was surrounded by Zionists from all sides _ Tel Aviv to the north, Beit Yam to the south and Netar settlement to the east. This settlement cut straight through the highway and the Zionists could easily stop the traffic whenever they wanted.
The first time we were forced to move from our home was in December of 1947. The Manshiya quarter overlooked Tel Aviv and both sides [Jews and Arabs] could easily shoot at each other. Eventually the entire area had to be evacuated when the mutual bombardment became too intense. We moved to a new neighborhood for two weeks and then settled in an apartment in yet another area of the city until May [1948] when we finally left for good.
During this time, I was still a student, of course, and somehow we still were able to attend classes. We had established a sort of organization which could be called the modern-day GUPS [General Union of Palestinian Students]. Some of us volunteered to be a part of a first aid team. We would see actual battles and assist the wounded. The national committee also recruited some of us students who spoke English to patrol at checkpoints. We were to identify Zionists from the Hagana and Irgun gangs by asking for ID cards so they would not enter Jaffa. Looking back, I realize how elementary the endeavor was given the fact that the British were also "foreigners".
As the war grew closer, the national committee began to feel the panic of the people. Fearing that they would leave Jaffa, the committee took the decision to prevent people from leaving. However, they realized that they could not force them to stay because the British were the ones who controlled the borders, so they decided to place an _exit tax_ to discourage anyone who wanted to leave. Of course this did not totally prevent the people from leaving, it only made it a bit more difficult. I worked for the committee and I saw the exodus. So many people paid the tax just to get out. The money the committee collected from the taxes went towards buying weapons and to factories which made license plates for our military jeeps.
We even had volunteers from Arab armies, such as Iraqis, and Bosnian Muslims who had apparently escaped from communist Yugoslavia. Even one of our commanders was Bosnian. When he was killed, the front collapsed.
What happened in May 1948?
By May of 1948, the city was emptied of its people. I had tried to remain. I continued to tax the people who left and even sent my family away, except for my oldest brother. However, it became apparent that even I had to evacuate. There was no food, nothing. On May 1, I left Jaffa to follow my family to Nablus. My brother left on May 6. Jaffa officially surrendered on May 13, 1948. I was not to see Jaffa again until my return in 1991. What Israel did to the remaining Arab population of Jaffa served as an example [of what they would do] to Arab populations in other cities taken over. They disarmed the few families left and herded them into small ghettos. This same policy was implemented into other Arab cities such as Haifa and Akka and, frankly speaking, this is what Israel is doing to this day.
We lived as refugees in Nablus for six months. In December of that same year [1948] I knew we would never return. We had originally left Jaffa thinking that we would be able to return to our homes in two weeks. However, after observing the political developments and having conversations with some Iraqi officers we had met in Nablus, I came to the bleak conclusion that Israel was there to stay and the Arab armies were not going to do anything about it. That is when we decided to move to Amman to find work. I only stayed in Jordan for a year and a half and then I left for the States. I stayed there for eight years, during which I obtained my Ph.D. in political science. I then moved to Egypt for four years where I worked for UNESCO before I returned to the States.
How were you able to travel?
I had a Palestinian passport issued by the British Mandate authorities with which I entered Jordan. However, the United States did not recognize the Palestinian passport, so I had to get a Jordanian travel document (a laissez-passer) and a visa to enter the US.
Where were you during the 1967 war?
I was teaching in Massachusetts when the war broke out. To me, it was more devastating than 1948. Not only did we as Palestinians witness the defeat of the Arab armies once again, but I personally experienced the blatant racism against Arabs and Muslims in the US. The attack waged against non-white, non-Christian Arabs by the media was horrendous. Arabs at that time were represented by [Egyptian leader Gamal] 'Abdel Nasser whom the West saw as a threat to their interests and a doorway for Communism to enter the Middle East. The assault was on all fronts, combined with the realization that more of Palestine was lost.
When did you return to Palestine?
I used to visit the West Bank between 1948 and 1966 when it was under Jordanian rule. But after 1967, I didn't come back until 27 years later in September 1991 on my first visit for years. In 1992 I returned for good. I was encouraged by the resistance of the Palestinian people and wanted to contribute something to Palestinian education. So I became a professor in Birzeit University.
How would you assethe situation now?
Things are both better and worse. In terms of the Palestinians' every day lives, things are better. They are now able to live more decently. They no longer have to endure curfews, can go to school and work more freely and practice a considerable amount of control over their own lives. Although there are still people imprisoned and killed, the numbers are noticeably less.
However, in many ways things are worse. Israel will never relinquish control and the Palestinians are not free nor are their prospects for freedom great. They [the Israelis] are determined to expropriate our patrimony and control Palestine. The only thing I can say is that the prospect for independence is dimmer than it was in 1992 and the future looks grim.