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

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With the help of the village head, we obtained the identification papers necessary to request a Jordanian passport that would allow Sheikh Hassan to enter Jordan. But how would we get him out, over the bridge, when he had no Israeli identification? I had to return to the hospital to obtain a document confirming his identity and his residence. With the help of this document written in Hebrew and addressed “To whom it may concern”, we were able to obtain an exit permit for the sheikh to cross the Allenby Bridge, on the basis of his having permanently resided in Israel. And indeed, with the help of these papers that had no legal basis or relation to the truth, Sheikh Hassan left for Amman following a well-attended farewell in Abu Dis. I never saw Sheikh Hassan again after that, and everything I know comes from what his son Ghazi and his grandchildren have told me. They said that every day after the sheikh would leave his son’s home located in Tal’at al-Masdar leading towards the Wehdat area in eastern Amman, and walk in every direction, searching for something unknown to all. They weren’t even sure that he knew what he was looking for. One of his grandchildren would follow him until he got tired and then take him back to the house in a taxi. The same scenario was repeated the following day, and so on, without him tiring. It seems that Sheikh Hassan missed the routine of his quiet, calm life in the hospital, and was trying to return to it. He was trying to return the self that had been lost among the welcoming and the faces that meant nothing to him; the self that was lost in the immense pressure of trying to remember what had been forgotten or what he had chosen to forget; the self that fled from reality and soared on horizons we can never attain. The public reception in Amman was the same as it had been in Abu Dis, Jerusalem, and Kufr al-Labad, except on a larger scale. News of the sheikh spread through the city of more than a million and the press flocked to him. Everyone wanted the truth, but no one found a greater portion than I. Just as official and grassroots institutions did not hesitate to visit the humble family home, the sheikh’s arrival at his son’s house turned it into a pilgrimage site. Delegations and the curious poured in. The Jordanian newspapers printed coverage filling entire pages–“Sheikh Hassan returns from the dead”, “Sheikh Hassan al-Labadi is liberated from occupation prisons after more than 40 years”, “Amman embraces the liberated prisoner Sheikh Hassan al- Labadi”, “The tragedy of Palestine is embodied in Sheikh Hassan”, and so on. Sheikh Hassan was no longer unknown, and had in fact become one of Amman’s prominent personalities, a symbol of the Palestinian cause (at least that was what the Amman office of the Palestine Liberation Organization insisted). No one sought the opinion of Sheikh Hassan on his new standing, but it was surely not comfortable for him, and he continued to flee to a place we knew not. [ 24 ] HISTORICAL FEATURES Sheikh Hassan al-Labadi & Seven Acts of Lost Memory
Only three months passed following Sheikh Hassan’s “liberation” before he departed this life. Thousands of mourners walked in the sheikh’s funeral procession and the Jordanian papers were filled with condolences on his death. I don’t know what they were mourning–the symbol, the sacrifice, survival, catastrophe, the Nakba, the Mandate, Akko Prison, Israeli hospitals. I don’t know, but Sheikh Hassan departed without my being able to discern what important part of Palestinian history lay buried within him. Did the sheikh truly lose his memory? And if so, when? Or did he simply refuse to remember? Did the freedom he had never been blessed with kill him? He departed, bearing with him secrets and precious tales of our tragedy. He departed, and with him, or perhaps not, were the answers to a thousand and one questions. Jerusalem Quarterly 30 [ 25 ]
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 and 10: the reader to the enormous difficul
Page 11 and 12: left home to work as an imam in the
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: The next day we all went to visit t
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
Page 61 and 62: its inhabitants. In Abu Jamil’s r
Page 63 and 64: In Abu Fayyad’s home, Jalilah was
Page 65 and 66: to pursue the perpetrator after he
Page 67 and 68: The olive season was a good one tha
Page 69 and 70: Whatever the answers, the fact rema
Page 71 and 72: efore our return to Majd al-Kroum.
Page 73 and 74: Endnotes 1 Not much has been writte
Page 75 and 76:
the Majd al-Kroum plains. For furth
Page 77 and 78:
Sa’id Nimr’s Stormy Career From
Page 79 and 80:
“Still, I have to be here.” Gra
Page 81 and 82:
Sa’id saw this as a great opportu
Page 83 and 84:
me to treat their injured. After th
Page 85 and 86:
From the stories I heard about my g
Page 87 and 88:
Once they brought a young man to hi
Page 89 and 90:
My father shared Edward’s deep ap
Page 91 and 92:
Hanna studied in the Schneller’s
Page 93 and 94:
Hanna and Mathilde Bisharat (holdin
Page 95 and 96:
and his new bride to dinner. When d
Page 97 and 98:
in resolving issues between Palesti
Page 99 and 100:
The Palestinian ‘Wailing Wall’
Page 101 and 102:
A Farewell Naila suggests parting f
Page 103 and 104:
His reaction to the news of the wal
Page 105 and 106:
with a different legal status. Appr
Page 107 and 108:
to learn that we weren’t married.
Page 109 and 110:
checkpoint on the southeast side of
Page 111 and 112:
“To Hadassah Hospital,” I answe
Page 113 and 114:
As a ‘spiritual’ Muslim addicte
Page 115 and 116:
what had happened. Why have you cha
Page 117 and 118:
eligiosity. The renaming of the sal
Page 119 and 120:
Jerusalem Diary March - August 2007
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