Jaber's Story
Interviewee: Jaber Younis and his wife
Provenance: Safsaf, Safad region
Date & Place of Interview: Dec. 25, 1997, Sidon
Ghina: Why, in your opinion, did no one talk about the massacre at Safsaf?
Jaber: Listen friend, the people of Safsaf will
tell you that they left there like, you could say, having lost all consciousness. When they [the Zionists] occupied this area, and put the young men in a row and shot them...well what could the people do? They got out of there. We sought medical treatment in Baalbek, others in Burj al-Shimali. Then they were moved to `Ain el-Helweh [camp]. No one said a thing, figuring that it was all over: they ate our country and so it was over. No one thought there was any future, that was the general opinion....Me and my cousin were among the survivors of the massacre. The Jews came and shot at us, but we were still living underneath the dead bodies. So the Jews came closer to see who could still talk or move, to shoot them a second time. We, you know, were lying down, and when we felt them draw close, put their faces near us,I turned my head a bit and stopped breathing while they stood right over our heads and looked to see who was alive and who dead. So, I mean, you can understand, not one of us who survived went and asked any questions or spoke up, nor did anyone come to ask us who was responsible....
Ghina: When Bushra came and asked about this topic, what did you feel at first? Were you immediately enthusiastic, or were you pleased that someone came to ask you?
Jaber: No, it's not like that. I told Bushra, fine, you waited until today, forty-nine years having passed, and you came today to ask. That's what I said to Bushra, you've come late, so what good can this do anymore?
Ghina: So you weren't enthusiastic at first to talk?
Jaber: I'm enthusiastic and willing to talk to each and everyone who comes to ask me -- why wouldn't I be? But, I said to her, "My friend, your question is long overdue." I told her, of course I'm willing to talk, why not? I'm someone whose enemy came to slay him, and his brothers and cousins...so why wouldn't I want to talk to her about that?
Ghina: So what was reason your for talking, just to make a speech, or because you felt like sharing this experience with people?
Jaber: No, I didn't want to make any grand speeches. People came to ask what happened to us, so let these people explain to the world's opinion that we are a people who have been robbed. Yes or no?
Ghina: So you felt this was fulfilling your duty?
Jaber: Yes, I'm fulfilling my duty.
Kirsten: So do you think that talking is still of any use?
Jaber: Well, that's got to be your decision, based on how you see the future of this talk.
Kirsten: We hope to distribute your talk in published form to people and make some impact.
Jaber: Yes, yes.
Ghina: As far as the hajjeh [Jaber's wife] is concerned, what were your feelings when Bushra came to ask you what happened to you in Palestine?
Jaber's wife: Ahlan wa sahlan.. I was happy to talk about Palestine's fate and what happened to us, how we were tortured, the pain we experienced. Then the hajj took over....
Ghina: Why?
Bushra: Well, originally the discussion was directed toward the hajj. She would contribute, but she was very moved and had some difficulty, because she lived through all this....
Jaber's wife: Ahhh, of course I was moved, because that was my past. When they [the Zionists] came in, may God not take me back to that period -- I mean, in ten days, we can't explain what happened to us. Let the hajj speak....[A long detailed account of Jaber's survival of the massacre and subsequent actions follows. This account will be published as part of AL-JANA's 1948 Uprooting booklet series.]
Ghina: When Bushra came and asked you about Palestine, had it been a long time since anyone asked you to talk about this subject?
Jaber: Yes.
Jaber's wife: Yeah.
Ghina: So how did it make you feel afterwards to talk about these things that you hadn't talked about in so long?
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Jaber: What should we feel? The whole thing is long over. When Bushra came we said, "Your wish is our command, dear Bushra, whatever you want, we'll talk about." I mean, all these people talk about Deir Yassin, but the number of people killed in Deir Yassin is only a quarter of those who died in Safsaf, believe it by God. And they made a big deal about it, while in Safsaf 60 young men were killed after thirteen hours of resistance. So it wasn't by flight that people left Safsaf....
Kirsten: Do you know that there are people in inside Palestine who are trying to make a statue in the memory of the massacre of Deir Yassin, and that they want to put that across from the memorial to the Holocaust. Of course, the Israelis don't want to let them. But do you wish that such a thing were done to commemorate Safsaf?
Jaber: Why not? I wish that everyone, young man or woman would talk about the memory of Palestine, I mean, not forget Palestine. I don't want anyone else's citizenship: I won't leave Palestine.
Ghina: Okay, but when you were asked to talk about Palestine, I mean, were you made uncomfortable, pained by any of the memories?
Jaber: I felt that I might go cry.
Jaber's wife: I get a tight feeling all over. My heart starts beating and shakes my whole chest. His talking makes me tired, and I live it all, all over again. I mean, we're not ever going to forget these things that happened to us, not until we're buried. Only then. I mean, when we're back living in palaces, with everything we needed, happy with everything, just sitting under the olive trees eating olives and watercress, and green all about under the trees, then we will be happy. Only in our own country can we live such a life....Where's the peace? No one can force them, and he [Netanyahu] doesn't want peace; he doesn't want to obey America or the world. Just seeing him makes me faint, because we're the ones who are right....
Kirsten: Now do you feel that you're talking back to America and the world?
Jaber's wife: Yes.
Kirsten: Did you feel at that time, though, that you weren't capable of doing so?
Jaber's wife: No, not capable. How would we be: peasants, their land occupied, overcome, unarmed, without anything?
Jaber: Palestinians are not a cowardly people, but without arms, what can you do?
Kirsten: Okay, but now people aren't talking about the right of return anymore, so do you feel now that you're talking to us and we're planning to publish this, that you're finally speaking up to America and the world who've forgotten you?
Jaber and his wife: Of course, that's what we feel.
Jaber's wife: That we must do, or else what can we do?
Kirsten: Do you tell your grandchildren about Palestine?
Jaber's wife: Naturally I tell them, so that they will hear how our life was, how we left our lands, what happened to us. They all know now. My daughter's daughters come and say, "Tell us, grandmother." And I do. I tell them that we were peasants and satisfied, all our bounty was from our own labor. All that stuff people here buy, we peasants don't buy. That's how it was generally in all Palestine. So we hope that the decent people of the world, in America, Australia, Russia, etc. will have sympathy for us and solve this problem. How do you see it?
