From Palestine News Network via Annie's NotesThe narrative of a young woman: her eyes, life and hope under occupation 04.07.08 - 15:15 Bethlehem / Manar Wahhab - I will begin with the story of leaving in 1948 with the words of my grandmother. “Before the British left in May 1948, they humiliated the Arabs. We used to think that they sold petrol for only five dinars but when we opened the bottles we discovered that they sold us water!” She continued, “I want to tell you what had happened to me and my family when we lived in Al-Ramlah [a village the Israelis took in 1948]…my six children and I sat at home [one of her children is my father]. Two men knocked on the door. When we opened the door, they told us to leave the house because there would be clashes. We didn’t believe them. I was cooking for my children. Then we suddenly heard shelling and bombing. I took my children and went to the Catholic convent to hide. There we met a lot of people, both Christians and Muslims. The children were afraid and cried because of the sounds they heard. There was no food or water anymore. So we were obliged to bring what we had in our houses. The Israeli soldiers told the boys and men to visit a specific place if they wanted to get permission to be in the streets, but the Israelis were lying: when the men went to the place they all were taken to prison. The Israeli airplanes shelled most of the houses. The snipers killed many boys, men, women, and children, even dogs and cats in the street.” My grandmother went on. “After a few days my brother who lived in Bethlehem came to Al-Ramlah to take me and my sons with him, my husband didn’t come but he followed us after that. Many families in Al-Ramlah left their houses and went to other places. Some of them went to Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jordan, and even some immigrated to America. The Jews took a lot of gold and jewelry from the women. They sold it and bought weapons with the money. After they won, they were happy; they drank wi...
