15-The Ongoing Nakba: Rajab Mustafa Ghanem from Lod/Lydda, living in Amari, the refugee camp in Ramallah

Rajab Mustafa Ghanem (Abu Jamal), 19 years old in 1948, the Year of the Nakba, worked with his father in a grocery store in the city of Lod/Lydda. Hearing about Jews forced to flee from Europe, he believed Palestinians were to live with them and give them shelter because they were victims of war. Forced from his home by what he called “Zionist gangs,” his family fled by foot, carrying no food or water, first to Ramallah, and then by truck to Gaza, the Bureij refugee camp. After Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, he moved to the Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. He never saw his city again, nor his father and mother who remained in Gaza and died there. Today, 90 years old, he told us his only wish is to die and be buried in dignity in his hometown, Lod, and not in Amari as a refugee. (I draw gratefully from Fareed Taamallah’s interview in Arabic, translated by him. On Fareed’s Facebook page. I’ll eventually post the full interview on my blog.)