May 1st 2015,

I spent a beautiful week in the Central and North side of occupied Palestine. And then decided to head back to Jerusalem and the West Bank areas for the following week. Here I am now with a friend who knows way too much about ethnic cleansed villages, destroyed villages and occupied houses. And I feel the urge of sharing with you just a little something of what most Palestinians had to go through in 1948; for the sake of the immigrants of Israel and the establishment of the state of Israel. What you will read below might be very disturbing, but it is the honest fact of what has happened in the lands of Palestine or to what most of you today like to call it Israel.

Our first stop was in an ethnically cleansed and destroyed village of Zakaria that was part of the Hebron Subdistrict, which today is known as Moshav Zekharia. Moshav Zekharia was established in 1950 by immigrants from Kurdistan to Israel. The village of Zakaria was able to sustain itself from evacuation until the year 1950, when Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Weitz decided to force its villagers to evacuate, having most of them end up in what are still refugee camps today. While visiting the destroyed village of Zakaria, we were able to find the Zakaria mosque and a school building that takes you back to 415 C.E. in between modern houses that were built around and over all the destroyed houses of the evacuated Palestinians.

As we were driving around, thoughts of the people who live in these houses kept coming through our minds. Do these people know what they have been part of? Do these people know that the kids of the owners of this land are now starving in one of the refugee camps? Jailed in the refugee camp? Have no right to even visit their lands? Do these people ask about those refugees at all? Do they question their rights of return? Do they care at all or sleep at night? Do they believe that life will just go on?

Our next stop was in Suba of Jerusalem. Another village that was depopulated and destroyed in 1948. Suba has many ruins remains, and as you walk inside the destroyed village and in between its ruins you can not avoid feeling of heat & sadness that just grows inside your body. You will find ruins of the Belmont Castle, that dates back to the 1986. Suba was attacked several times by the Haganah and then conquered by the Palmach. And like all the villages, many Palestinians were killed and the rest were forced out of the village and later all the houses were destroyed. Today you will find a Tzova Kibutz that was established right after the evacuation and destroying of Suba Village. If you notice the names of the villages have minor changes from Arabic to Hebrew. And all established Kibutz or Moshav was established right next to or over the Palestinian ruins.

Our third and last stop happened to be in one of the most wonderful occupied villages of Jerusalem “Ein Karem”. Again this village was also depopulated in July of the 1948. And what is so special yet heart aching about Ein Karem, is that it is one of the very few villages that survived with its houses. Of course they are houses of Palestinians who were killed or forced out and today, all the houses are lived by immigrants of the state of Israel. Many houses have Arabic calligraphy, quotes from the Quran engraved into its walls, yet an Israeli flag and name is printed on its door. It is said that John the Baptist was born in Ein Karem, which many beautiful churches are found in the village. A village with multiple churches, Arabian architected houses, arabic scripture engraved, yet only lived by Jewish Israelis. And they never think about it, and they still sleep at night. So how do you feel about all this? And this is just 1% of the story.

**You will see many cactus trees as you enter most of the settlements and Moshav’s in occupied Palestine “Israel” which indicates that this used to be a Palestinians village. Palestinians are known to have planted and surrounded each of their villages with cactus trees. And it is very hard to get rid of those cactus trees, so they stay for evidence.

To learn more about Destroyed villages in Palestine visit Tarek Bakri.

من وين بدي أبلش! قعدت أسبوع بأجمل مناطق فلسطين المحتلة في المثلث و الشمال. و بعدين أخدت قرار للذهاب إلى مناطق القدس و الضفة. أخدني صديق بيعرف كثير عن القرى المهجرة وأصحاب البيوت اللي أخدوها اليهود وقت الاحتلال.

فبلشنا أول زيارة في قرية زكريا، اللي بتقع في محافظة الخليل. و التي قاومت الاحتلال بمساعدة الجيوش العربية خلال سنة ١٩٤٨. و للأسف الصهاينة نجحوا باحتلال القرية في عام ١٩٥٠. و قاموا بقتل و تهجير أهل القرية و هدموا بيوتها، و ما ضل إلا آثار أكم من بيت ساكن فيها يهود، و مسجد زكريا اللي ما حدا بزوره ولا بقام فيه الأذان. وكمان مدرسة لسه معالمها واضحة. للأسف هالقريك الحلوة اليوم صارت مستوطنة إسرائيلية باسم موشاف زكاريا.

القرية التانية الي زرناها اسمها صوبا. اللي بتكون من ضواحي القدس. و اللي اليوم اذا بتزوروها بتلاقوا آثار كثيرة لسه موجودة. القرية تهجرت و دمرت بـ ١٩٤٨. و اليوم في مستوطنة باسم تزوفا بدل صوبا.  و همه معروفين بسعيهم لتغير الأسامي العربية بأسامي عبرية شبيهة.

و آخر قرية زرناها كانت من أجمل القرى اللي بشوفها “عين كارم” و اللي بتتميز بوجود بيوتها الأصلية اللي ما تدمرت. البيوت موجودة بس مشتاقة لأهلها اللي تهجروا وسكنها اليهود. معالم البيوت عربية وحيطانها محفورة بآيات قرآنية وأقوال عربية بتعكس عروبتها، وكنائس كتيرة بتدل على أصل قرية عين كارم و مع هيك سكانها اليوم كلهم يهود و علم إسرائيل برفرف عبيوتها الحزينة.

خلصنا هاليوم في القدس الجميلة و يا ريت بتمنى كل العرب اللي بقدروا يزورا فلسطين يروحوا حتى و لو هي تحت الاحتلال. خلي اليهود يشوفونا و يتعرفوا علينا و يعرفوا إصرارنا لحق العودة و حق أهلينا الي تعذبوا و تهجروا وتشتتوا بالعالم عشان تقام دولة عنصرية لليهود.

للمعرفة عن المزيد عن القرى المهجرا زورا صفحت طارق البكري

Destroyed Villages