My grandpa Hajj Yaseen as we call him is the the one in our family that decided our family's destiny. While Hajj Yaseen is still holding out in Beit Lahia where the place has turned into a ghost town. He still Refuses to relocate to another place, at first instinct, I do not think he wants to live anymore. Since he is 87, I do not think you care much if you live or die. But if I look at this and say this is the guy who fled our native city of Majdal Asqalan in 1948 when the Israelis where terrorizing and slaughtering a dozen of villages. Hajj Yaseen and Hajja Rifqa (my grandmother) had an argument as he told me as of where to head. She wanted him to settle in the Gaza Strip as a refugee...Gaza is close to the City of Asqalan. He wanted to go up north to toward the borders with Lebanon. Had he decided to do that, we would not have been refugees, but rather members of a discriminated against minority group in Israel. I guess since my Grandma was pregnant, Hajj Yaseen did not want to upset a hormonal mother.
Needless to say Hajj Yaseen still have the old key and deeds to his property in Almajdal, like countless others. I hope I get a chance to see him again and catch up with those old stories he used to tell us.
P.S. Hajj Yaseen thought me many lessons in life, one I remember the most is how he used to bury leftovers and peels of fruits and veggies in the nearby farms.
1 comments:
Oh my God, I get so emotional when I hear stories like this about families specially about grandfathers and grandmothers. You are so lucky to have such great and courageous grandfather, I hope and pray to God with all my heart he will be alive so you can see him as soon as this cruel war is finished.
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