The Keys To Our House

Palestine is an extremely old country where everyone used to have

houses made of mud and not bricks , they relied mainly on agriculture ,
almost every woman in each household would grow : olives , beans ,
pumpkins , figs , grapes and zucchini etc. Which is what my
grandmother, Siham, grew in her backyard when she used live there .
Everyone who could afford having a donkey would move around the
country by them , and even though they didn’t have any type of
electronics they lived a great life .

However that all changed in 1947-1949 when the Israeli forces took
over a big part of Palestine and forcibly kicked out about 750 thousand
Palestinians and calling them refugees. This was called ‘’ The First
Nakba ‘’ , it also encountered destroying more than 500 villages and
changing the name of cities and villages to Hebrew instead of Arabic .
Nineteen years later in 1967 Israel carried out a second wave of
expulsions of Palestinians without any hope of returning back , they
were forcibly displaced and got called bailers or emigrants . This was
called ‘’ the Naksa or some call it The second Nakba ‘’ . My
grandparents vividly remember the details of The Naksa and although
a lot of people might have heard about it , only a few of them know the
details , and even fewer numbers know the struggles that Palestinians
went through at that time .
So to get a better idea of what exactly happened, let’s go back in time
to 1967 June fifth through my grandmother’s eyes was around 20 years
old ,when the Israeli forces came to her village . ‘’ the Israeli army told
me that they have to kick us out of the house in search for the hiding
Palestinian army (Hammas) ” my grandmother told me . ‘’ we took our
house keys as we thought it will only last for a couple of days ‘’ my
grandmother added, . my grandmother (Siham) , her 2 brothers as well
as her aunt walked a couple hundred miles till they got to her uncles
friend’s house (Ibrahim) . They all stayed in one room they didn’t bring
any extra clothes or extra food with them , but (Ibrahim) had half a bag
of flour that they made bread , and a bunch of other stuff out of it .
knowing which this bag of flour could last for two weeks if used wisely .
two days passed by with no news of whether they should go back to
their house or not , another week passed yet there was still no news.
‘’After a week we were ready to go back to our house , we have had
enough , while we were walking by the narrow roads of our village
everything was different the forces have destroyed all the houses some
were destroyed by bulldozers while others were destroyed by mines ,
some houses still had the elderlies in them as they didn’t want to leave
or they simply couldn’t . but I am sure our house is still there ‘’ my
grandmother said . As they walked closer to their neighborhood they
got closer to their home ‘’ it is there look I told you ‘’ my grandmother
said , only for a few moments later to look at this huge explosion of
their house. Everyone stood in silence with terrified looks , their house ,
their memories , their childhood everything blew up in front of their
eyes . My grandmother was standing there with her house key still in
her innocent hands .
In the meantime on the sixth of June 1967 in my grandfather (Hassan)
point of view , he and his brother (Mohammad) were around 21 years
old –as guys and being that age those were the perfect factors to join
the Palestinian army (Hammas) therefore the Israeli forces goal was to
take captive of all of the male youths as that who they thought would
be the dangerous ones- which is exactly what happened with my
grandfather and his brother and other 20 year olds . ‘’ as the terrified
Mohammad and I were walking in jail we look to our right and see
young kids getting beat up by women who were in the Israeli forces ,
we knew that our turn was next. And they did , they were beating us up
while we were begging them to stop , our innocent screams were
shacking the jail , but no one heard us our voices were so loud everyone
outside can hear them yet they refused to . the beating was nonstop it
didn’t matter day or night , and they were sure to bring women to hit
us and not men as we would feel more embarrassed and ashamed.
Three days later someone heard us we told them our story : our father
is in the Jordanian army therefore we were obligated to fulfill this
legacy and join the Jordanian army so it is impossible for us to be in (
Hammas ) please stop this torture we are innocent . they believed us
we had I.D s and everything , they promised us to leave , we couldn’t
believe it finally we get to go back to our house finally this torture is
going to stop , but they crashed all of our dreams when they told us
that we won’t leave now we have to stay for a month’’ my grandfather
said . this is the injustice they went through but no one helped or
moved a limb. ‘’ we are lucky enough that they believed us and stopped
all the torture but other Palestinians kept getting beat up the entire
time’’ he added .
A month later my grandfather and his brother were let out ‘’ we didn’t
walk out of prison we ran out , we were running like are legs were
going to break , we stayed with our family in a small place for about
year’’ Hassan said .

The same happened with Siham she stayed with her two siblings in
(Ibrahim’s) house , ‘’ the first two months were the hardest we didn’t
know how to cope with being in that room with lack of resources , we
lost track of time after 3 months ‘’ my grandmother said.

After a year my grandfather’s family decided to move to Jordan as it is

the safest place at the moment , and that same day my grandmother’s
family decided to move to Jordan too. ‘’ walking to Jordan although it
seems very far away it was actually very near we used to walk there
almost every weekend to visit my dad ‘’ my grandfather said. Years
passed and both of my grandparents were living in the same city in
Jordan , my grandfather went to Siham’s father and asked for her hand
in marriage her grandmother refused and stood in the way but her
father was okay with it , my grandfather kept trying and it finally
happened they got married and they had their own house in Jordan and
later on had my mother and her brothers. They are still living there to
the moment with the keys to their old house in Palestine hung on the
first wall you see when you enter the house.