The Salihia home in Sheikh Jarrah, al-Quds: The betrayal of the world public opinion
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Bouthaina Shaaban
- 26 Jan 2022 21:38
- 3 Shares
3 Min Read
Home means the land, the sun, the sky. It means the dawn and the sunset; it means hearing the bell of the cattle coming back in the evening from the field, and the relaxed women calling playful children to end the game and get home as the sun is bidding us goodbye for today.
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By this time the husband was talking to himself as the soldier was throwing everything on the floor
The woman whispers to her husband: do you hear what I am hearing? Someone is trying to open our door! Are you expecting any member of your family? They rang the bell violently and then started hitting the door. “Do not move” the husband said, “we are not going to open.” In a few minutes, the military boots broke the door, and an armed soldier ordered the family to leave, as the occupation authorities have decided to blow this house up because it is illegal, the soldier said this house is illegal. The husband said: “it is the house of my father and of my grandfathers and our ancestors for centuries, we grew up here, as kids playing in the courtyard and washing our hands and faces at this fountain as our fathers before us. Look at our pictures; these are the pictures of my grandparents who lived here, and those are of my parents and siblings, what are you talking about legal or illegal?!
By this time the husband was talking to himself as the soldier was throwing everything on the floor ruining the plants surrounding the pond, and screaming at everyone to leave within an hour as they are going to blow up the house. The man and the woman looked at each other and the children were wakened up to this horrid noise and they all stood in the courtyard not knowing what to do and not even putting their proper clothes on as they were all in their pyjamas.
The soldiers are now five roaming in the house and destroying everything their hands fell on. The scene is a nightmare from a film of horror from American Soho which is used to describe the destruction of villages in Vietnam.
The entire family was evicted from the homes of their fathers and grandfathers to the street, to the open with no goods, no clothes, no food, no pictures, no memories, no boxes from the grandmothers, no mirror or furniture presented to them by family and relatives. Do you know what it means to be stripped of your home, of your history, of your memories, of each stone that is part of the house walls? do you know what it means to be deprived of your house? Do you know what does home mean? Do you know what it truly means? It means the land, the sun, the sky. It means the dawn and the sunset; it means hearing the bell of the cattle coming back in the evening from the field, and the relaxed women calling playful children to end the game and get home as the sun is bidding us goodbye for today.
Home means every corner where my grandmother sat telling us stories she had learned from her mother. It means the memories of our babies being born here and growing day by day, crawling and then walking and then speaking. It means the pleasure in the eyes of all the guests who circled around the fountain sipping coffee and having Homos and Foul for the renowned Friday breakfast; it means every book we read here, enjoyed and discussed, every painting my wife produced on her desk.
