| Scars of the Nakba
The Palestine Monitor
07 August 2007 All religions have a creation myth. For the Christians and the Jews, it was God who in seven days created both the heavens and earth, and then created man in his own image. For Muslims, it was Allah who simply willed the creation of the world.
Less well-known, however, are the creation myths of nations. Instead of appearing in religious texts like the Qur’an or the Bible, these myths are found in text books and reiterated throughout popular culture, twisted and altered by governments with heavy self-interests, and employed for political gain.
 For Israel, the myth is a simple one: Israel was a land without people for a people without a land. It was a perfect fit. Persecuted Jewish refugees arrived from all around the world, turning one large desert into a beautiful oasis. The creation of Israel was destiny.
But does anyone remember the Nakba? Ali Hamoudi does.
The Nakba, or “catastrophe,” refers to the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian people from their lands, and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages by the newly formed Israeli military that came with creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Today, the number of Palestinian refugees, both internal and external, has multiplied to over four million.  Now living near Haifa on Israel’s northern coast, Ali is one of the original 700,000 Palestinians that were forced from their land. He remembers it vividly. “I remember I had to hide with my family in a cave near my house for nine days. There were seven of us in the cave, and there was not much room to move around. We could hear the Israelis passing by, but they could not see us because the cave is well hidden.”
He was eight years old in 1948.
Ali, now 67, spends his weekends guarding the plot of land that he and his family were forced to leave in 1948. His family’s house was destroyed by the Israelis, and all that remains is the shrine where his grandfather is buried.
After many years of fighting in court with the Israeli government, Ali was recently awarded part of his family’s original land. While the land is now legally his, the government has forbid him to build a new house or even sleep on the land.
“If I could live and sleep under the trees I would, but the government will not let me…they gave me this land but they will not let me build on it,” he said.
The shrine of Ali’s grandfather is only one of thousands of scars that mark the Israeli landscape, reminding those who look for it that the Nakba took place some 67 years ago. 
According to an Israeli peace activist from Zochrot, an Israeli organization whose stated goal is to raise awareness of the Nakba, “When they (the first Israelis) destroyed the villages, they left only the beautiful buildings so that they could use them for public spaces and personal residences.”
 This can be easily seen in Ijzim, a now fully Israeli village near Haifa, where the old Palestinian school building has been transformed into a synagogue, and where a former wealthy Palestinian’s home is now called “the castle”, offering shelter to one of the richest Israelis in Ijzim. This is a trend that can be seen all over the Haifa region and one that continues to worry people like Ali Hamoudi.
Today Ali faces a new challenge. Orthodox Jewish Israelis from around Haifa have begun to attack his grandfather’s shrine. They claim that it is the burial site of a famous Jewish priest, and that the Muslim style shrine that houses the grave is a desecration.
“One month and a half ago they cut the bars to the shrine and came in. They smashed my grandfather’s grave stone again! They had already broken it three times before… They don’t like to see Arabic,” he told the Palestine Monitor.
Since the first break-in, Ali has been forced to replace the locks a half-dozen times, reinforce the windows with iron rebar, and construct a metal fence perimeter. Nothing, however, seems to keep the Israeli extremists out.  Ali has appealed to the local police for help many times, but they have so far been unwilling to help, openly stating that they do not want to interfere with the Orthodox Jews.
In other parts of the world, when Jewish graves are defaced, as was the case in Warsaw this past Monday (August 6th) when swastikas were spray painted on over 100 Jewish graves, these actions are justifiably labelled anti-Semitic and are condemned by the international community.
Ali, however, must protect his family’s legacy alone.
“My father was born on this land, I was born on this land, and my grandfather was born and died on this land, and now I alone am forced to protect his grave,” Ali stated.
More recently, Orthodox Israelis have offered to buy Ali’s land or pay him to say that his grandfather’s tomb is, in fact, the tomb of a Jewish priest—offers he has wholeheartedly rejected.
“I told them that if this was the tomb of a Jew, then I myself would be Jewish, and that is simply not the case,” Ali jokingly stated.
Ali Hamoudi is a proud but simple man. “Life,” he told us “has been good to me. I have a healthy family and I have a roof over my head.”
All that Ali wants now, however, is respect for his family and his grandfather’s grave.
“Whether they are Jewish, Druid, Christian, or Muslim, everyone must respect the dead.”
Source: The Palestine monitor | 
by IMEMC Staff
Friday August 10, 2007 12:13
NEW: Profiles of Palestinian Americans
A visit to the jungle
Palestine: Aid and diplomacy
