Through the testimonies, the strength of Palestinian women emerged in several ways. Women in villages, towns and refugee camps showed an interest in education. They showed a capacity to learn, including the use of technology, and demonstrated political awareness. City women who had the opportunity to learn at foreign schools were able to speak languages fluently and were able to learn skills such as metal working and playing the piano, while women from villages and refugee camps were characterized by their ability to improvise poetry and sing folkloric songs.
The testimonies of Ameeneh Abdelhamid Ataba and Samiyeh Abdelrahman Altaji provide us with the best examples of Palestinian women’s awareness of the importance of education and their insistence on overcoming the obstacles that faced them despite the differences in social conditions and class. They also indicate the different forms of suffering related to the social class to which these women belonged.
Ameeneh spoke about her mother’s insistence on teaching her despite the difficulties of life and living conditions. Her story shows the strength of her mother, who would take a donkey and lead them back and forth between Aylout and Nazareth to guarantee her children’s education:
What brought us from Aylout to Nazareth? My mom was worried about us, but more so about me, that we would not go to school and continue our education. I went to Kindergarten, then to grade one. Do you know who used to feed us the most? You know I remember, you know, they used to care for the orphans [the nuns]. They set up tents on the fields for those displaced from Saffourieh. They used to distribute milk, as well as cookies oil; this is how they called it cookies oil. They would distribute milk, biscuits, cheese, and sometimes they would give us dried milk. They used to call them the White Sisters. My late husband used to work for them; he did the gardening work for them. They used to come, as you know to give us shots and treat us. The nuns have always played a good role in our lives. They would bring us clothes. We used to walk barefooted, where would we get the money from to buy shoes? They used to bring us cardigans, they really cared. I attended Kindergarten and grade one at Aylout. Then one day we were returning from school, the donkey was not there. The donkey was very important for us; it would bring us to Nazareth. My mom would put us on the donkey, just like a car nowadays. Can anyone do it? My mom would ride the donkey to bring us back. That is how the streets of Aylout were. My late mom would put me and Muhammad [her brother] on the donkey and we would come to Nazareth.60
Samiyyeh talked about her own personal suffering because of being unable to continue her education, and her insistence on not giving in to her father’s will. She talked about her artistic talent that helped her return to school:
I learned metal work. I did many things for the house, for me, for my house that is for my future. I did all of that at St. Joseph. The metal would be brought in and there would be items from crystal that we would add metal to. I did plates as well as a piano cupboard to put my piano books in it. I did a chair with a leather seat. When I got engaged, my dad said: you will not go to school anymore. I cried and cried, and sobbed. I stopped eating or drinking for a few days. My brother then came and told me dear sister, why cannot we take this picture of our dad, remove this terrible wooden frame and replace it with metal from your work? He added to it Abdelrahman Nafeth Altaji and the year it was made. I did that and took it to my dad. He said, where were you the last three or four days. I answered: I was laying in my bed because I want to go back to school and you refuse to let me. So he asked me, what do you want in return for this frame in terms of a gift? I told him: I want to go back to school for one year. He said, go talk with the sisters and tell them you are going back. I talked to the sisters and told them that I am going back and that I want to stay at the school for another year. They said, you are most welcome; the whole class is at your disposal, just like the way you want. I remained there for a year. That year, my dad allowed me only to sit for the piano exam and then I sat for Brevet.61
Awareness of the importance of media and history, as well as the capacity to use social media platforms, were things about Rasheedeh Hasan Fdalat that drew our attention:
My uncle Muhammad Eid was a martyr. The British caught him; he was with the revolution together with a friend of his called Yousef Abutayeh. I want to mention these two because they are heroes and I wish someone would talk about them in the West Bank or through radio or TV stations, or in the newspapers. They were with the revolution; he was my mom’s cousin, so he is my uncle (from my mother’s side). He had been married only for two months and he would attack the British, but they had taken harsh measures against us! They started to impose heavy taxes on people, anyone who was found to carry a pocketknife would be put in jail, anyone going out for a walk at night they would arrest him for interrogation. Britain controlled our lives a lot. This young man together with a number of other young men were called revolutionaries, not freedom fighters as they would call them nowadays. He planted a landmine for the British, but they were caught and put in prison. I was still a baby; this was like seventy-five years ago. I posted this on Facebook. Anyway, he was in jail for six months, and then they executed them and allowed no one to see them. They did what they wanted with them, put them in wooden coffins and brought them to the town on British tanks. This should go down in history, this story.62
Layla Nusaybeh-Altaji Alfarouqi, displaced from Al Ramleh and residing in Amman, talked about the supportive role of her pioneer aunt Zulaykha Shihabi, who was able, through the Women’s Union, to help other women whose husbands or sons were martyred. She talked about the humanitarian role of the pioneer Hind Husayni when she established Dar Al-Tifl Al Arabi to care for the children of martyrs following the Deir Yassin massacre:
I know from my aunt Zulaykha because she used to help women whose children or husbands have joined the revolution or were martyred. They worked through the Women’s Union and charitable organizations that supported the families of the revolutionaries. Hind Husayni, for example, who after the Deir Yassin massacre started on a personal initiative and using her big house ‒ and status, you know we’re talking about Alhusayni family and their status ‒ that was located in Herod’s Gate63 opposite the Orient House64 and the house of Ismaeel Baik Alhusayni too. She went and brought the children of Deir Yassin and housed them in the first floor. She brought with her all children and sick people, who were not killed, she saved them, brought them, raised them up, and established Dar El-Tifl.65
Firyal Hanna Abuawad talked about the role of female teachers and nurses in supporting the resistance:
There were women teachers and nurses and everything else. They used to bring them fabric to make things that the revolutionaries would need. They worked at the convent, at the hospital; they would make quilts and bedding for the hospitals. The nurses used to help a lot. They helped us a lot. There were many of them from our town. The women were very good.66
Poems and songs hold a special status among Palestinian women, for they have long constituted an element of strength and an effective weapon in confronting obstacles and hardships, and in remembering those bittersweet moments, as remarked in the stories of Thurayya Yaseen Alya’qoubi,67 Rasheedeh Fdalat,68 Fatima Hijazi69 and Khadeejeh Khalil Abuisba.70
Songs also were a source of support for the revolutionaries who were defending their country against displacement and uprooting, as explained by Khadeejeh Khalil Abuisba.71
CONCLUSION
The testimonies of the women based on the methodology of oral history from a gender perspective reveal that Palestinian women had not given in to their oppressive circumstances, nor did they surrender to sadness and lamentation following their displacement in 1948 and their changing social conditions. Palestinian women rather fought back courageously and played an effective and vital role in the Palestinian social, political and economic life at home and in the diaspora.
From day one of their displacement, Palestinian women rose to the challenge in order to meet the needs of their families, firstly to keep them alive and
then to improve their living conditions, recognizing the importance of education and work. While urban women resorted to the education they had acquired through joining the official education system, rural women resorted to their intelligence and awareness of the importance of developing their capacities. Rural women were keen to get an education for themselves and their family members; these women were also forced to enter the paid labour market, making use of their experience in growing food and their ability to learn.
Palestinian women carved out their own terminology, emanating from their views on politics and life. They rejected the Zionists’ term “Hijra Taweyya” (voluntary leaving), and insisted on a narrative based on their personal experience, of being displaced and forced to leave. None of the displaced women wanted to leave their house, village or country, as is evident in the fact that they left their houses with everything intact, and carried with them only the minimum that would help them survive until they were able to return home. They used various terms, such as expulsion, transfer, displacement, forced displacement and elevation, all of which help enrich the Palestinian discourse and narrative, which is a counter-narrative to the false Zionist story.
NOTES
1For the purposes of preparing this paper, I utilized the archives of the Project on 1948 Palestinian displacement carried out by Alrowat for Studies and Research (2012‒), http://www.alrowat.com. It might be useful to add here that I am the founder and director of Al Rowat. I am supervising an ongoing project on displacement since 2012, with the help of fifteen field researchers who have so far collected 104 narratives. Fifty-seven documented narrations have been used in this paper, recorded from displaced Palestinian women aged 73‒96 years, thirty-seven of them are widows. The fifteen researchers who conducted the interviews are located in the areas of research: West Bank, Gaza, 1948 areas, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Chile.
2A massacre took place in the village of Deir Yassin, located 5km west of Jerusalem. The village was fully ethnically cleansed on 9 April 1948. Mordachai Ra’nan, the leader of Etzel (Ergon) in Jerusalem, was the first to exaggerate the number of Deir Yassin martyrs, settig it at 245. This information was delivered during a press conference that Ra’nan held on Friday 9 April. The BBC confirmed this figure. However, the number is more accurately estimated as 100 martyrs, mostly women, the elderly and children (Al Khaldi 1999: 124‒125).
3The Commission of UN experts had defined ethnic cleansing in a report submitted to the Security Council (United Nations 1994) in 1993 as “making an area ethnically homogenous by use of force or threats to uproot individuals who belong to specific communities in the region”. The Commission’s final report issued in May 1994 added the following crimes: mass killing, ill-treatment of civilian prisoners, and prisoners of war, use of civilians as human shields, destruction of cultural property, dispossession, attacks on hospitals, medical teams, Red Cross and Red Crescent sites carrying their logos. The international law also addressed the issue of systematic expulsion of civilians and the barbaric acts associated with it following World War II. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 prohibits “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country”. These acts are considered grave legal violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. War crimes are particularly grave in nature.
4Located north-east of Gaza. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 4 November 1948.
5Located 30km south of Gaza.
6Located 19km north-east of Gaza. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 4 November 1948.
7Interview with Thurayya Yaseen Alya’qoubi (1930), Rafah. The interview was conducted by researcher Na’eemeh Abu Hmeid on 12‒14 May 2015, p.21.
8Located 32km north-east of Gaza. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 1 March 1949.
9One of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. It is located at the north-western borders of the city of Amman on the Amman‒Irbid road.
10Interview with Rasheedeh Hasan Fdalat (1935), Al Baq’aa refugee camp, Amman. The interview was conducted by researcher Muna Ghosheh on 4 May 2015, pp.10, 11.
11One of the oldest and most important cities of historic Palestine. It is located approximately 555km to the west. Yafa was ethnically cleansed on 26 April 1948.
12Interview with Sana Kamel Aldajani (1940), Cairo. The interview was conducted by researcher Alia Okashesh on 17 April 2014, pp.1‒3.
13Located 6km north-west of Nazareth. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 16 July 1948.
14One of historic Palestine’s major cities. It is located approximately 105km to the north of Jerusalem. It was occupied on 6 July 1948.
15Interview with Amineh Abdelhamid Ataba (1942), Nazareth. The interview was conducted by researcher Zeina Al Zu’bi on 10 March 2015, pp.1-3.
16Located 14 km east of Al Ramlal, and home to 592 residents in 1948, it was fully ethnically cleansed on 15 July 1948.
17Qalandia refugee camp was established in 1949 to the east of Jerusalem airport.
18The village is located west of Ramallah.
19Interview with Latifah Mteir (1921), Qalandia refugee camp. The interview was conducted by researcher Asmaa’ Al Kilani on 16June 2015, p.2.
20A’in Al Helweh refugee camp. It was established in 1948 and is located within the boundaries of the coastal city of Sidon (Saida), south of Lebanon.
21Interview with Labiba Rasheed Al Issa (1939), ‘Ein Al Helweh refugee camp, Lebanon. The interview was conducted by Amneh Al Khateeb on 18 January 2016, p.3.
22Interview with Sana Kamel Aldajani, Cairo, mentioned previously, p.8.
23Interview with Rasheedeh Hasan Fdalat, Al Baq’aa refugee camp, Amman, mentioned previously, p.1.
24Interview with Labiba Rasheed Al Issa/ ‘Ein Al Hilweh refugee camp/ mentioned previously, p.3.
25Interview with Ameeneh Mahmoud Al Afghani (1923), Old City, Nablus. The interview was conducted by researcher Nida’a Abu Taha on 25 June 2014 and 26 April 2015, p.1.
26Interview with Kamleh Sari Hashash (1942), Balata refugee camp, Nablus. The interview was conducted by researcher Sumayya Al Safadi on 30 August 2014 and 19 March 2015, p.1.
27Interview with Fatima Mohammad Hijazi (1928), Al Baqaa’ refugee camp, Amman. The interview was conducted by researcher Sireen Musleh on 2 October 2013 and 30 April 2014, pp.10‒13.
28The town is located 5km east of Yafa. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 25 April 1948.
29Located 6km east of Yafa. It was fully ethnically cleansed on 1 May 1948.
30Al-Lydd is located 5km north-west of Al-Ramla. It was occupied on 10 July 1948. Interview with Khadeejeh Khalil AbuIsba (1933), Amman-Jordan. The interview was conducted by researcher Haifa Irshaid on 5 September 2012, pp.19‒20.
31Interview with Mariam Mohammad Nofal, Jabalia refugee camp, mentioned previously, pp.9 and 11.
32Interview with Rasheedeh Hasan Fdalat, Al Baqaa’ refugee camp, Amman, mentioned previously, p.20.
33Interview with Lutfeyyeh Mteir, Qalandia refugee camp, mentioned previously, p.7.
34Interview with Kamleh Samri Hashash, Balata refugee camp, Nablus, mentioned previously, pp.3 and 5.
35Interview with Thurayya Yaseen Alya’qoubi, Rafah, mentioned previously, p.34.
36Interview with Othmana Saleh Ass’ad (1925), Qaddoura neighbourhoods, Ramallah. The interview was conducted by researcher Asma’a Al Kilani on 31 August 2015, p.16.
37Interview with Labiba Rasheed Al Issa, ‘Ein Al Hilweh refugee camp, mentioned previously, p.2.
38Interview with Labiba Khalil Ma’arouf (1920), Mar Elias refugee camp, Beirut. The interview was conducted by researcher Amneh Al Khateeb on 11 January 2016, p.10.
39Interview with Zakyyeh Mahmoud Salem (1920), Umm Al Faraj-Akka. The interview was conducted by researcher Amneh Al Khateeb on 21 January 2016, p.22.
40Interview with Rasheedeh Hasan Fdalat, Al Baqaa’ refugee camp, mentioned previously, pp.21‒25.
41Interview with Fardous Al Taji Al Khairy (1932), Ramallah. The interview was conducted by researcher Asma’a Al Kilani on 14 April 2015, p.5.
42Interview with Laila Nusseibeh (Al Taji Al Farouqi), Amman, Jordan, mentioned previously pp.22, 32.
43Interview with Samiyyeh AbdelRahman Al Taji (1919), Amman, Jordan. The interview was conducted by researcher Muna Ghosheh on 23 December 2014 and 15 April 2015, pp.9 and 12.
44Interview with Intisar Faheem Al Farkh (1938), Amman, Jordan. The interview was conducted by researcher Hanan Al Turk on 20 April 2014 and 1 March 2016.
45Interview with Sana Kamel Aldajani (1940), Cairo, mentioned previously, p.11.
46Interview with Firyal Hana Abu Awad (1942, Santiago, Chile, The interview was conducted by researchers: Jida Homd Hamam and Dima Abu Ghazaleh on 15 June/2012 and 11 November 2012mentioned previously, pp.5 and 22.
47Interview with Nadia Al Tarazi (1935), Ramallah. The interview was conducted by researcher Haifa Irshaid in Amman on 13 August 2013, p.36.
48Interview with Sana Kamel Aldajani, Cairo, mentioned previously, pp.15‒16.
49The city is located 2km north-west of Bethlehem.
50Interview with Firyal Hana Abu Awad), Santiago, Chile. mentioned previously, p.7.
51Interview with Ameeneh Mahmoud Al Afghani (1923), Old City, Nablus, mentioned previously, pp.2 and 7.
52Interview with Labiba Rasheed Al Issa, ‘Ein Al Hilweh refugee camp, mentioned previously, p.9.
An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba Page 23