My Grandmother and Other Stories: Histories of the Palestinians as ...

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Sheikh Hassan al-Labadi & Seven Acts of Lost Memory Nazmi al-Jubeh Some may think (and have every right to do so) that this tragic play of seven acts is a figment of the writer’s imagination. But the narrator did not intervene in any way in the composition of its actual events, and merely contributed to its conclusion. All of the events, names, places, and dates here are real, although they may be the only things that are real in this tragedy. As for the mind’s ability to believe them, this is not my duty to critique. In any case, eventually we may be able to pen the remaining scenes of this epic if any reader is able to add information to help me complete the narrative. Otherwise, this unfinished testimony will remain one of many narratives: a scene in the Palestinian tragedy that has not yet come to a close. This photo of Sheikh Labadi was taken in Abu Dis at the Labadi family home, date unknown. It was published in one of the many newspaper articles about him, this one in al-Quds newspaper, 29 July 2007. Act One Sheikh Hassan Muhammad al-Labadi, like many other residents of his village Kafr al-Labad, located south of Tulkarem just a stone’s throw from the town of Anabta, [ 10 ] HISTORICAL FEATURES Sheikh Hassan al-Labadi & Seven Acts of Lost Memory
left home to work as an imam in the mosque of Abu Dis, which lies on the eastern border of Jerusalem and near al-Aqsa Mosque. Since the end of the nineteenth century, Kafr al-Labad had been famed for (in addition to its olives and almonds) its educated residents who migrated in search of work. Palestinian cities had begun to attract villagers, especially those who could read and write. Jerusalem, in addition to Jaffa and Haifa, was one of the prime destinations for the villagers of Kafr al-Labad, who usually worked in education or religious institutions. We don’t know for certain when Sheikh Hassan arrived in Jerusalem, but he probably arrived with his wife and only child, the infant Ghazi, around 1936. He was later joined by his brother Abdullah, who worked as an accountant in Jerusalem and married a woman from the Jerusalemite Khadr family. I later married one of the fruits of this marriage. Sheikh Hassan spent most of his free time at the al-Aqsa Mosque, teaching and reciting the Qur’an, or participating in study and discussion circles. Discussions held within al-Haram al-Sharif were surely intense during that period, for a revolt broke out in 1936. Due to his village origins and the region he was raised in, it is probable that Sheikh Hassan was an integral part of this peasant-led revolution, which was concentrated in the hills of Palestine. As to the specifics of his involvement in politics, we know very little. It was probably the beginning of 1939 when the British Mandate police surrounded al-Aqsa, pursuing revolutionaries who took refuge inside. As is their custom even today, the people of Jerusalem defended the mosque’s sanctity and prevented the British police from entering. Among those defending the holy site was Sheikh Hassan al-Labadi, who stood at the mosque’s gate, barring the path of the Mandate army and police. When one of the military officers insisted on crossing the threshold, Sheikh Hassan unsheathed the dagger he always carried with him and stabbed the officer to death. Sheikh Hassan was arrested and sentenced to death, as was the norm at that time. This sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment, due to his status as a religious figure, and to the protests that flared following his sentence. Sheikh Hassan was then sent to Acre Prison, where he joined the hundreds of prisoners crowding its dungeons during the 1936-1939 revolution. Sheikh Hassan’s only brother, Abdullah (my father-in-law), and his wife, Umm Ghazi (who died soon after), and his child Ghazi, all visited him whenever circumstances, whether material or political, allowed them to travel from Jerusalem to Akko. Thus far, there is nothing unusual about this story, for this was the experience of many Palestinian families who made pilgrimage to the numerous detention centers Jerusalem Quarterly 30 [ 11 ]
Page 1 and 2: Spring 2007 — Issue 30 formerly t
Page 3 and 4: My Grandmother and Other Stories Hi
Page 5 and 6: What kind of rights, legal standing
Page 7 and 8: analytical positioning and narrativ
Page 9: the reader to the enormous difficul
Page 13 and 14: On that ‘very typical’ evening,
Page 15 and 16: law be able to identify him? Dozens
Page 17 and 18: “Of course.” “Doctor, can I t
Page 19 and 20: aising my hopes of stirring his mem
Page 21 and 22: Still, nothing indicated new feelin
Page 23 and 24: The next day we all went to visit t
Page 25 and 26: Only three months passed following
Page 27 and 28: The Great War brought about a radic
Page 29 and 30: War, Conscription, and the Predicam
Page 31 and 32: major urban centres. Railroads link
Page 33 and 34: War Diaries: Mersin and Jerusalem S
Page 35 and 36: Neither his religiosity nor his acc
Page 37 and 38: Ali Roshen Bey. Ottoman military ar
Page 39 and 40: on the eve of announcing the Arab R
Page 41 and 42: command, no one had any notion that
Page 43 and 44: the Sisters of Zion, and Bishop Gob
Page 45 and 46: In his diary, Turjman expressed hos
Page 47 and 48: Ottoman prisoners of war in British
Page 49 and 50: al-Amara (southern Iraq), and his n
Page 51 and 52: Perhaps they took advantage of his
Page 53 and 54: With the economic collapse of many
Page 55 and 56: Monday 10 July, 1916. No more crops
Page 57 and 58: 23 All data about Turjman’s perso
Page 59 and 60: From Seferberlik to the Nakba A Per
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its inhabitants. In Abu Jamil’s r
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In Abu Fayyad’s home, Jalilah was
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to pursue the perpetrator after he
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The olive season was a good one tha
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Whatever the answers, the fact rema
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efore our return to Majd al-Kroum.
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Endnotes 1 Not much has been writte
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the Majd al-Kroum plains. For furth
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Sa’id Nimr’s Stormy Career From
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“Still, I have to be here.” Gra
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Sa’id saw this as a great opportu
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me to treat their injured. After th
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From the stories I heard about my g
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Once they brought a young man to hi
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My father shared Edward’s deep ap
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Hanna studied in the Schneller’s
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Hanna and Mathilde Bisharat (holdin
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and his new bride to dinner. When d
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in resolving issues between Palesti
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The Palestinian ‘Wailing Wall’
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A Farewell Naila suggests parting f
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His reaction to the news of the wal
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with a different legal status. Appr
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to learn that we weren’t married.
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checkpoint on the southeast side of
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“To Hadassah Hospital,” I answe
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As a ‘spiritual’ Muslim addicte
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what had happened. Why have you cha
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eligiosity. The renaming of the sal
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Jerusalem Diary March - August 2007
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