Nakba #22 - Hisen Farea al-Sabour

1936 “I don’t know exactly what year I was born. We didn’t use dates or years. We were illiterate. We used to say that someone was born the same year someone else died.” 1940 “My mother died when I was three or four years old. I don’t remember her. My father took several new wives. He was a shepherd, so he was away from home for long periods. His new wives beat me. They cursed my mother, even though they had never met her. Once, when we went to fetch water from a stream, his wife grabbed me by the neck and pushed my head under the water. She tried to drown me. Her brother appeared and started beating her. He saved my life. I survived by God’s grace. I never told my father how badly his wives treated me. That would only have made my situation worse. My sister and I lived as if we were orphans. I was never taught to read or write, but I memorized the entire Qur’an by heart.” 1948 “I was married when I was twelve years old. I didn’t know him. I didn’t want to marry, but my father forced me. My husband often beat me, even while I was eating. My father will never see even a glimpse of heaven for what he did to me. We lived a normal and simple life in Palestine until the Jews came to our village and killed our neighbors. It happened at night. They shot many people, including children. I heard gunfire and screaming. We fled, but the Jews pursued us. My father carried me on his back and ran for his life. Many of us were fleeing. We ran for two hours up into the mountains, where we hid in caves. We hadn’t had time to take any food or water with us. We had nothing. I can still feel the bitterness today. After a few hours, the Jews withdrew and we were able to return. Some of the village men buried the dead. We sat in our houses and waited, without food or water. When the Jews returned, we fled back into the mountains. This happened several times.” 1967 “We were forced to leave the country and came to Jordan. First we lived in al-Ghor in the south, then they built a camp for us in the north. After that, we continued moving from place to place. Finally, we came to Husn refugee camp, north of Amman. Now I have a Jordanian passport. We bought a piece of land and built this house. What more can we do? I don’t know who is responsible for my situation. Maybe our leaders, I don’t know—only God knows. We don’t have enough knowledge to judge it. They took every piece of the land.”