His name is
“Mustapha” as he likes to write it and for others to use … a young
Palestinian man living in Belgium as a political refugee.
I first met
Mustapha when I came to Belgium as a Masters student from Palestine. But
actually I can say that I met him long before that, in my neighbourhood
in Abu-Dis or on Rukab street in Ramallah, or maybe on one of my trips
into the occupied land of “1948”, where his home village Al-Sumayriyya
is located, in the north of Palestine. A Palestinian, alone, missing his
people, without laughs or tears…without wedding ceremonies or
funerals…without LIFE. I saw him in the faces of the people of my
country, looking tired and so consumed, yet full of hope and faith.
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Arch still
standing in Al-Sumariyya, 2008 (©Maqbula Nassar).
Al-Sumariyya,
Knowing
that they would soon come under attack, the villagers of
Sumayriyya had evacuated most of the women, children, and
elderly to Akka and other neighboring villages before the
Carmeli Brigade descended upon the village on 14 May 1948.
Repeating the same tactic used for the ethnic cleansing of most
Palestinian villages, the Brigade attacked from the South and
Northwest, leaving a passage to the East for villagers to
escape. The village's resistance fighters attempted to repel the
attack from the northwest, but suffered very heavy casualties.
The village was mostly destroyed, Only one of the rooms from the
mosque, and few of the walls and arches from some of the
village buildings remain standing. One month after the
destruction of Sumayriyya, the village was leveled by the Jewish
National Fund with authorization from David Ben-Gurion, and in
January 1949 the kibbutzes of Lochamey ha-Geta'ot and Shamrat
were constructed on the village lands.
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I might have
been shocked a little when I first heard that he was in Belgium as a
political refugee. I could not quite understand why he would do that;
leave. Yet for him, it was the only way to escape the daily obstacles
and for once, be free to think and maybe to get rid of the pain.
When I was
asked to interview a Palestinian refugee here in Belgium, Mustapha`s
name quickly popped into my head. In fact he was the first and only one
I thought of for this interview, and this, although I had already met
quite a good number of Palestinians; as one would anywhere in the
world. I called him at mid-day “Mustapha dear, do you have free time
this weekend? I want to interview you… it’s about you being a
Palestinian refugee...” I didn’t continue my sentence nor had I given
him more details before he replied “yes, sure… anything for Palestine.”
When he
arrived at my place, the first thing he said was “Ah Maysa, tell me what
do you have for me?” with the same smile that he always shares. “Well,
ok let’s start” I said… “tell me your story...”
I am
Mustapha Khaled Awad from Al-Sumayriyya a little village in Akka
district where my grandfather lived with his family before they were
ethnically cleansed in the 1948 war and went to south Lebanon and then
to Sidon, after which they were given tents to live in, establishing the
Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh. Later on they were able to
build something like a “house” and start settling down. But when the
1982 civil war started in Lebanon the whole family had to move again to
what they believed was a more secure and safer place… they were moving
from one place to another until they eventually decided to go back to
Ein el-Hilweh, where they have lived until now.
The Nakba
changed us – and this is for all Palestinian refugees- from a person who
has his own land, house, job, family - a LIFE - into someone who is
excluded from all of this. To be a Palestinian refugee for me means to
be a homeless person, displaced from his homeland, expelled and unwanted
by any other country, including the Arab world. The Nakba did not
change my personal identity; it is the others who started calling me
“Palestinian refugee” instead of “Palestinian”. We have preserved our
culture and traditions throughout the years and we will keep doing this
for ever.
60 years of
Nakba simply is my life and add to that new generations of Palestinian
refugees. And because of what is happening in Palestine these days, we
- the Palestinian refugees - are now more attached to our cause and land
than ever. There has never been coexistence between Israelis and
Palestinians since they kicked us out, and there never will be … for me,
I will remain a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon with the minimum human
rights until I go back to my homeland.
I was born
in 1982 in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, just when the Israeli invasion
began. I went to an UNRWA school but didn’t continue my higher
education for personal reasons; moreover, to complete your education in
that period [civil war and Israeli occupation] was difficult because
there was no high school in the camp. I worked for a company while also
being a member of a “political organization.” After that, and because of
the difficulties of living in Lebanon as a Palestinian refugee combined
with my own problems with that organization, I decided to leave Lebanon
and travel to Belgium. I arrived in Belgium illegally. I thought I might
be able to make a new start here, and now I work here.
In
Belgium, I try to help Palestinian refugees in general and mainly those
in Lebanon. We organize festivals under the theme of the right of return
and collect money to help build medical clinics and hospitals. We also
organize vigils and demonstrations and a lot of other different
activities related to Palestine and the refugees issue.
I believe
that the best and only solution is for the Israeli occupation to end and
for us to have our own country with Jerusalem as the capital of
Palestine and for the refugees to return to the lands from which they
were expelled and not only to return to a future Palestinian half-state
and receive compensation. This is what I call a ‘fair solution’.
The UN
recognized that Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their
own lands - UN Resolution 194- but it was never implemented and it
became just another number on another document... I really think that
the international community has always had an obvious bias towards
Israel, which has guaranteed it unconditional support.
The peace
process depends on the Israeli withdrawal from Palestine and that’s it…
Palestinian refugees will always stick to their cause and land. No one
can ever question it or think that the 60 years or even more can make
them integrate into the places where they live now and to forget their
homeland... and the right of return will always be the number one issue
in their lives, regardless of the years or the difficulties they face.
And I believe that the day will come when we will all go back to
Palestine and prove to the whole world that we are a civilized nation
and not a barbarous one - not unlike Israel - and that we are the nation
of peace nation on the land of peace.
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*
Maysa A. Hajjaj is from
Jerusalem, Palestine, and is currently doing her Masters degree in
management at the VUB "vrije universiteit brussels" in Brussels.
