Safsaf is one of the villages of Safad, the village of Maroun is about two kilometers to the south also A'en Al Zaytoun, Qadia, Al Ra'as Al Ahmer, Al Jish and Sa'asa'a next to the Jourmuq Mountain.

Abu Majed \ Mohammad Ahmad Hussain Abu A'isha
Safsaf Village \ mid Thirtiess \ north of Palestine \ born in Safsaf Village




Safsaf is one of the villages of Safad, the village of Maroun is about two kilometers to the south also A'en Al Zaytoun, Qadia, Al Ra'as Al Ahmer, Al Jish and Sa'asa'a next to the Jourmuq Mountain.

Abu Majid talks about the news that spread before the emigration, he says:

At the last days, we didn't get any newspapers, there wasn't any radios in our village, and we stayed there until Safad Had Fallen then we went to Lebanon, I know that we'd emigrate, because we're close to Safad, and it has Fallen, and the Jews had attacked a house in Sa'asa'a that had weapons, and they told us that help was on it's way and the ( Rescue) army was coming...

At one morning, a shepherd found some weapons and alcohols in the valley, that meant that the Jews had passed from there, the ( Rescue ) army made some طابات غربه
that had a telephone every two kilometres

I expected that the war would turn into a catastrophe, i expected that because of what happened to Safad, they told us that each family should buy a rifel and shells, we also made some deffinces like tunnels and ditches, and we coughta jewish woman that speaks arabic

There wasn't any training ,we didn't get any shooting training what so ever! i remember that someone shoot his brother because he didn't get any training

we had a garrison but the ( rescue ) army took hold of it becasue it was a strategic area for the jews and everyone had to take turn in guarding

Argiculture wasn't really affected at that piont, we grow Tobaco, grape, fig, olive and wheat beacsue the jews where still in Safad about six kilometres away

We used to see missile fired twards us from Safad, but in the final battle they used planes, it was noon and they droped bombs, of course we didn't have anitiaircraft guns or anything to stop them, two or three civilians were killied

The people of the village were all crowded in two houses at the northen part of the village so that everyone stays togather except for the millitary men and fighters of course,
the northen and eastern parts of the village had about two to three hundred civilian per house, it was really crowded and annoying


Everyone who worked with the Jews or helped them was counted as a traitor, every village had dug some channels around it.


W stayed crowded like this until the sun came up, and someone came and told us that the village fell, some men lifted their white “Hata” so that it would be seen, three Jews Soldiers came and ordered everyone to stay indoor, but we escaped from the window to Al-Jish & Al-Baroun, we stayed the first day in Al-baroun, the second day we heard that the Jews killed fifteen people, one of them was Khalid Al-Hawarni, we were told the Jews gathered them and lined them on the sidewalk and executed them all for no reason, after that they threw the bodies in a ditch called Al-A’yn.


Al-A’yn is a ditch from which we pulled some pipes earlier, so it’s like one big deep room in the ground, after the bodies were thrown the elder men buried the bodies, the second day the jews did it again, and also the day after and the after, in total they executed about 49 innocent young men, they killed everyone who could carry a gun in the village.


Al-a’yn is now full of bodies, and it’s very known now, it’s about 7 meters long and god only knows how deep it really is, and there in nothing near to it except the house of Al-Beak.


I saw three soldiers, they told us to go home, we got out just as the mosque was أذان الصبح , we saw someone from the army, we thought that he was Jewish but he turned out to be an Arabian, we told him to move aside so that the people could move in peace, he told us that they’ve came to help us, after we arrived we asked the people of Al-Jish where are the Jews?”, they told us they’re right behind you, and turned out that they weren’t Arabians and that they’re really Jews, but the villagers shoot them and they ran like hell, Jews are the most coward people, we fight the machine gun with an old rifle and we’d never run, we were proud of what happened in Al-Qastal & Salama.


There were more than a hundred fighters in the village, they had with them some artillery, cars, machine guns and rifles so the weaponry was quite alright, and the presence of the (Rescue) Army added more comfort to the people, the relations were good between everybody, so Bardi was in a good situation.


After the fall of Safad, the (Rescue) Army came here, some areas were taken some still, but as soon as the (Rescue) Army got out, everyone’s spirits were down, and everyone was afraid.


We fought brutally to defend the village, we were able to defeat any military power, we had roadblocks and channels all around the village, the Jews took two girls and after a while they returned them, the bottom line is that you are defending your village your home and you defend them as hard as you can.


But the village was taken over despite the efforts and the brutal defending of it, and that showed when the Jews entered the village because the killed 49 men as I said earlier.


The Jews killed some people everyday to encourage the people to run for their lives


A lot of people tried to return to their homes to retrieve some stuff, some of them hired some دواب from the Lebanese and come at night to bring back what they can carry.

And they brought with them the news of the destruction of the village, there was only two or three houses left, the school and the well.

I returned to my village in the year 1983, it was all gone, everything was destroyed, all what we own is now lost, I stood there speechless, some strangers are living in my village, I was in shock.

I wanted to see what happened with the village, I hoped that they didn’t destroy all of it, even the trees were destroyed, they did that to every village that stood in their way.


We lived is Sour, it was a long walk there, after that to Sayda, we discovered that there no way we could go back, none of us did.


We also stayed in mosques the Red Cross gave us some medical help and some aids, then we moved to Sour, after that to Al Bourj Camp

It was judgment day, the day of the battle was just like the judgment day, and the المختار was in Syria

Even the cattle started to travel by themselves; there was a pack of 50 traveling alone towards Lebanon

People became homeless and spread in Tarablus, Sour and Syria, and the Palestinian worker had to make do with the wage he gets, which is as little as one fifth of the wage of the average Lebanese worker

I prefer to return to my old village, we're living in Al A'en refugee camp, we only live there, we don't own the place

I want to share a story with you, while we were going to Lebanon, I had my nephew with me, she was just a little girl back then, what happened is that she let go of my hand and started running out of fear and get lost between the crowds, we looked for her everywhere but we didn't find her, and that's the way we got separated, years passed by, and I've moved from Lebanon to Jordan then the West Bank to here in Nablus, I didn't know where she was or what is she doing, and my conscience was tormenting me still

After that the Palestinian Authority came, at one day I received a phone call, some woman wanted to talk to me so I answered, she said: how're you uncle, then she started crying, I don't know how but I knew her ride away, she said: "am now living in Gaza, am married to someone who came back with the Palestinian authority and works with them, I want to see you" so we agreed to meet in Qalqilia because taxis form Gaza drop of travelers there, so here I was standing with my children in the street, suddenly I found myself hugging a woman in the street and crying......

NOTE FROM THE INTERVIEWER : I went with some foreign volunteers to see Abu Majid again before a short while, and I listen to his story again but his grandsons told us that he has passed away.








Abu Abdallah Al-Halla'a
A'ka \ Born In the village of Sa'b in 1938
Nablus living in Al-A'yn Refugee Camp


Abu Abdallah said
We emigrated in October in the year 1948
The year 1947 was in it's final months when the clashes started, people were about the emigration & departure from Cairo radio and Al-Qudous broadcasting corporation, and they've gotten their news from the people who left Yafa

we used to hear about the Haganna entering Yafa, and how did the Arab fighters and repels fought them, we also heard how Yafa had fallen also Yazour, Salama, Alled, the repels were gathered in Sha'ab where the leadership was staying, with it was young people from all the villages of the Al-Jalleel, there was a man called Abu Isa'af who when to Syria to supply the repels with weapons and all the villagers helped in collecting the money for the weapons


We feared the the whole country would fall, we wanted a country; a state of our own, but although we feared what would happen, no one left the Sha'ab

we never expected that the war and the fighting would reach Sha'ab, we were so optimistic in getting our independent, and confident in the ( Rescue ) Army, but the countries let us down and betrayed us, we didn't expect that it will lead down to this, we all though that it was just a matter of months

Abu Isa'af fought the Haganna along side with the volunteers, everyone was trying to buy weapons, and everyone donated some money to buy weapons

About the preparations, there was about 400 volunteers, they didn't have any weapon training because the English government didn't allow Arabs to own or train on weapons, the volunteers fought without planning; they were improvising

Yafa and Ak'a both fell, there wasn't any planning or military experience, instead of going out to face the enemy, they've stayed and waited for them to come, there wasn't a military confrontation, it was a gang war

there wasn't any resistance, no training, and the ( Rescue ) Army was helpless, when Ak'a fell, it's residents moved the villages around it, and the Haganna had reached Sha'ab and took over Haifa, Al-damoun and Al-Barui, the Sha'ab Was the first line of defence,along with Majed Al-Kroom


Haifa is higher than Sha'ab, the ( Rescue ) Army and the repels took control of many strategic military posts, the Jews were trapped, but the ( rescue ) Army was sin MajidAl-Kroom, and the repels were in Sha'ab & around Sakhneen, the fighting was between the repels and the Jews and the Haganna, the repels managed to throw the Jews out of Haifa and Al-barui , it was a happy day, but not without cost, three volunteers had died, one we barred in Sakhneen, another in Sha'ab and the one from the family of Abid was barried in his home town, after that the handed over Al-Buri to the (Rescue)Army الله يعطيهم العافة)، they gave us a false sense of confident in them, they've asked the volunteers to get out of Haifa 7 Al-Barui, and they said they would stay and defend the city, after we've dug ditches and made several dirt defenses, and the we've captured many weapons and machine guns, gun powder, that happened in both cities, after that the (Rescue) Army surrendered Al-Brui & Haifa to the Jews, it was really hard for the people to believe it, and to face that fact


The villagers moved out from Sha'ab but the repels stayed there, for about one month we fought the Jews in Al-Barui and Haifa, I was there in the battle, the women used to bring water to the fighters and يزغردن

I was one of only 12 boys that were there, one of us often shouted to duck, and we'd hit the ground while the bullets pass us by, there was no coordination between the repels and the (Rescue)Army, there was a group called Al-Najadi, they had a song, and it goes like this:
One by one.........................Najadi is the face of great things
One by one.........................be the hope for the country
One by one.........................and the high flag
One by one.........................and the sword with the pen
My country.........the proud youth
If evil comes to you from an outsider
Najadi is the face of great things

The schools were doing their best to educate children, and using patriotism songs they made it stronger in the minds of children; one of the songs we used to sing:
غيرو فؤادي يهوى الغوني
But my heart loves my country
My country is the most beautiful thing I’ve laid eyes on
How precious you are to me
I give my soul to defend you
عندي ثراكي فوق الثريا
We protect you as long as we live
So if something happened to you and we didn't protect you, we won't b your children


No one worked in the farms anymore, the wheat was to be harvested but no one did, so was corn and olive, fear spread around and the prices went high and we didn't have any money, we had to do with what we've stored

The (Rescue) Army did an imagiry raid at night, at the very same night we heard shooting in Al-Liyat Mountain near Al-Barui, it stopped at midnight , when morning came the (Rescue)Army was gone, the defense lines where abandoned, this happened right after the first immigration from Sha'ab to Majid Al-Kroom

The volunteers stayed in their positions, but the defense lines were empty, it was all arranged by the (Rescue) Army, the repels moved to Lebanon, the important people in the village when to Al-Lyiat Mauntain raising white flags, after that the Jews came to take it over, when you look to what happened you realize that the (Rescue) Army Handed over the whole الجليل الاعلى area


Al-Barui & Al-Damoun was taken over around Oct & Nov, but was freed after one month and stayed that way for less than a month before falling again, Sha'ab had a garrison in it, but after the fall of Al-Barui & Al-Damoun, Sha'ab fell, the (Rescue) Army went back to Syria, the repels moved to Lebanon, while the villagers stayed in the villages, all the villages in Al-Jaleel were taken at the same time

The Jews didn't respect anything they've signed, they encouraged the people in Tamra to give in, but the repels refused to, the Jews had a carefully planned scheme to take over the country

The Jews closed of the village, they applied the same plan they've used in every village; Terror! , as soon as they entered Majid Al-Kroom they started to terrorize the villagers, they entered about 10 o'clock in the morning, it was only after noon that they've stopped shooting, things stayed like this for two days, Majied Al-Kroom was full of villagers from other villages, they've all went down to a street with a ten meter sidewalk, then the Jews picked 8 young men and lined them next to the coffee house where the prisoners were kept, covered their eyes, and shoot One of them, they did that twice, at that time a man came and started speaking in English, the Jews released the rest of them but I though that the whole thing was a setup, after that the Jews took some prisoners and left the village ( the Jews didn’t stay in the village after sun down, they feared it ), Because of what they’ve seen, people started to move out of the village, almost half of the villagers moved even without packing, and I heard that they ( the Jews ) did the same thing in a lot of villages, after one week they came again and surrounded the village for 7 days, day & night, they only let the villagers move in and out of the village for two hours a day, and they often hit on women on their way to the well, after one week they left again but returned two weeks later, and gathered all the men and boys in the square, and they separated them acquiring to the village they’re originally from, except the people from Sha’ab who went with the other people because they were afraid of what would happen to them because they had a garrison in their village.

I was sitting with the women when my dad came with a Jewish soldier, he said to my mom “come on lets go” , the soldier started to cry, everyone had to be with a soldier, everyone comes and goes with one, it was noon now, and the military patrols were less now, they brought trucks with them, and started loading them with people, after that they took them to the west, my dad came back to us after two months, but after that the took them to Jenin , while some other were taken to Amman.

We stayed for about two months in Majid Al-Kroom, living with some people, my father got sick and we told the الحاكم العسكري , they told us that he shouldn’t be here, and then poisoned him in Ak’a because he didn’t have an ID, after sometime we returned to Ak’a with my father’s ID with us, they told us “ go to king Abdallah” then they loaded us in trucks and threw us in Roumani, and started shooting behind us.


In the harvest season, the men went to pickup the olive late at night, when they tired to go back, they came across Jews who fought them, two Palestinian were killed, one of the two was from Sha’ab, his name was Yihia Haj As’ad.


There was no one left in Al-Jalil from the “holy jihad” group, and the (Rescue) Army just handed it over to the Jews, at the beginning people felt safe, and helped the them, and there was communication between the repels and the مخاتير

The Jews destroyed two houses on the heads of the repels inside of them, the Radio didn’t encourage the people to leave their villages, Sha’ab didn’t fall; it was handed over by the (Rescue) Army, the elders stayed for two months after that the Jews brought trucks and threw then the Bin A’mer’s Valley in the winter, they died there, one of them was the grandfather of Ibrahim Mohammed Faris, but his wife took him to Jenin, but the others died.

Sha’ab wasn’t destroyed, but Al-Damoun, Al-Barui, Mia’ar, Al-Safsaf and Al-rouis weren’t that lucky.

They foreboded us to come back, someone who worked for the Jews controlled the village, he could allow the people to come back when he wanted and stop them when he wants, it depends on how much you pay him, the Jews brought some people from the Al-Badia, from Al-houli to sha’ab, now two thirds of sha’ab aren’t from sha’ab, but some people snack back the village.


I left with my mother, but my cousins returned to sha’ab by paying money to the Israeli operative, a lot of people left their relatives, left my grandfather there, but some stayed there.

قالوا اليهود وصلت ميعار, it was Ramadan, we were just serving breakfast, all the people went outside to Majid Al-Kroom, and we were still fasting, we didn’t carry anything with us, except my little brother, we didn’t even had time to pack some food with us, we didn’t have any blankets, but it’s people helped us, we slept in the olive fields for twenty days.

My father was an old man, and all of this was too much for him, he died after 10 days



Translated : J.F

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