Amira Hass  (transl. by Prof. Israel Shahak)

Haaretz, 21 December 1992.

Seven year old Salah stared astonished a the television screen and said: "There is Daddy". Along with millions of television viewers in the Middle East, and apparently around the world, on Friday night he saw his father, Dr. Omar Farwana, behind the bars of one of the deportation trucks and heard him announce in English: "We have been held here for hours without knowing what is happening with us. This is a massive deportation". Farwana family heard about Omar’s deportation from a neighbor, Faher Sharta, a Reuters and BBC reporter who had also been slated for deportation but whom external pressure brought to his release on Thursday. Before the television broadcast Omar’s father still hoped that there had been a mistake: Taher had indeed seen him taken to the bus, but everyone’s eyes had been blindfolded, and it was dark and cold. Perhaps they took Omar off the bus. But the broadcast dashed his hopes. He cannot describe in words how he felt when he thus saw his eldest son, the doctor, who studied in England and specialized in fertility problems in Australia. On Monday night, when Shen Bet agent "Abu Ali" and a group of soldiers came to arrest Omar, they concluded at home that it was detention for the purpose of interrogation. Omar was one of two representatives of the Islamic bloc in the Gaza Physicians’ Union. His first post had been at the religious association established by Sheikh Yassin in the late 70’s, al Mujma’ al Islami. His piety was therefore no secret. Omar was twice an administrative detainee in the course of the Intifada, his brother and several friends said. Twice he appealed and twice the length of the detention was shortened. Only one month ago he returned from his specialization studies in Australia. "They let him travel without any problem and let him return. In Gaza he works at two clinics: From 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as a general practitioner, and from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. as an infertility and impotency specialist. At 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. there is a curfew, and then he receives patients at home. When did he have the time to do anything else?"

When the scope of the arrests became known, the family surmised that "Rabin simply needed to show his credentials to the Israeli public". When they heard about the deportations, they thought that Shabak had succeeded in locating many culprits. And when they saw Omar among them, "we finally understood that the deportees were a way to satisfy the Israelis and to cool off their feelings of frustration and revenge". Even for Omar’s brothers it was difficult to describe what they felt when they saw their brother among the deportees. My two year old son, said one brother, saw his uncle on television and announced: "When I grow up I will kill all of the Jews". With an apologetic smile the father tried to explain that the boy is only two years old, and only knows that his uncle was taken away, and had no other way to express his anger. "That is why he indulges in fantasies that he will kill all of the Israelis".

– The Israelis or the Jews?

"Kill the army, he said, kill the army". Only men were in the living room of the Farwana family, and between the cups of tea they drank, the conversation wandered from the snow and cold In Lebanon to non confidence In what is called the peace process, from Abu Omar’s recollections from his native city Haifa and Wadi Nisnas, to the difficulties of life under prolonged curfew. Finally the conversation came round to Hamas. "We all support Hamas", someone said, and another tried to explain: "He means that we are all Moslems, that we all believe in the Quran. Even the Fatah".

– What about a political solution to the conflict?

"Is it alright for me to live in your house? Is that alright? You yourself heard. Abu Omar comes from Haifa".

– Does that mean that Israel must be destroyed?

"Under an islamic state, each person will live as a human being. Even Hamas does not say that Israel should be destroyed".

The stares fixed on him from all sides forced him to re-phrase his words: "In any case, Hamas does not say that the Israelis should be wiped out". The solution is, Omar’s father tried to conclude, that everyone should have the same rights and the same duties.

– In one state or two?  

"In an Islamic state". Following a short consultation in the room it was agreed that two states were permissible, with federative or confederative relations between them. "The main thing", summarized Omar’s father, "is that we should have a state in which we will not fear someone coming in the middle of the night and expelling us".

In the adjacent room sat the women: Omar’s mother, his grandmother, his young aunt – a mathematics teacher, dressed in slacks, head uncovered. The hair of Sabah. Omar’s wife, is covered with a white kerchief. She is 31 years old, never worked outside her home, but did study Arabic at the Islamic University in Gaza, "in order to know and to help the children, when they grow up".

– Is not it hard for you to be at home all the time?

"The children need me, and so does my husband". Unlike her father-in-law and brothers-in-law, she expects Omar’s return in the next few days. "The entire world is looking, and God is with them". She knows how hard it is for him, not the physical conditions as the longings for the homeland. "Omar was never attracted to work in another Arab state, where he could have made more money. He did not even stay in Australia any longer than he had to". She knows, she says, that his faith strengthens him. Only after we left the Farwans home did someone say that Omar’s father had been one of the senior communists in the Gaza Strip.

In the Asquia neighborhood as well, there were some families who knew about the deportation of their sons only when they saw them on television. The parents of Ashraf Mansi Mohammad Nassar did not know that their son had been deported until Saturday morning, one hour before we arrived to speak with them. The father, a municipality employee who is permitted to be out during curfews, went to the Red Cross offices to check the list of deportees, and did not expect to find his son among them. "On Monday night we woke up from the soldiers’ steps on the stairs. The children ran from one room to another in panic, crying, shouting. But Abu Ali from the Shin Bet promised us that he had come to take Ashraf for only two days". Ashraf and Abu Ali had already met: Ashraf went to the Civil Administration to apply for an exit permit in order to study engineering in Libya, and Abu Ali himself, his mother said, had promised that he could leave. On the night of his arrest the mother hurried to give Abu Ali the medications for her son – the previous day, upon returning from the Civil Administration, soldiers beat him up and at the hospital he was treated and given some antibiotics. Now, in addition to the immense anger at the false promise he was given by the Shabak agent and the beating, she is also concerned about his health. Did he get the medications? Ashraf had never been detained. Since he completed his high school studies at aI Carmel high school, two years ago, he only thought about continuing his studies, his mother says. The family comes from Beit Daras, near Ashdod. The mother was seven years old when she fled with her family from the Israeli army, and she vaguely remembers their large home, and that they had land. She also remembers that they walked to Beit Hanoun, and from there were taken by buses to Gaza. To this day, they are known in the neighborhood, populated by both veteran Gazans and refugees from ’48, as "the Darasawi house".

The deportation of Ashraf and the others, everyone in the room summarizes, only strengthens what they previously argued: there is nothing to be expected from the peace talks. "Israel did not cancel even one of the regulations of its occupation regime", Ashraf’s mother explains. The 13 year old brother, Rami, was elected to phrase everyone’s opinion: "The street will now be more violent towards Israel. The whole deportation is not to its benefit. Israel will only lose". And while he speaks, shouts are heard from the street: Dozens of children who despite the curfew were playing in the sand had noticed a group of four soldiers coming towards them. "Hey you bastards, you soldiers,” they shouted, and withdrew to the homes, throwing stones at the advancing soldiers.

Nura. Ashraf’s sister, who had sat in the room until that moment with her face covered by a veil, following the conversation with only her eyes, is married to Jamal Salah, a bookkeeper and chairman of the Bookkeepers’ Union in the Gaza Strip. He was administratively detained in Ketziot three times. He and his three brothers, known in the neighborhood as the pillars of the most zealous believers, were also arrested last Monday. "On Friday evening", Nura recounts, after we moved into her apartment along with all of the women, "the children looked for their father among the photos broadcast on television, but did not find him. Only on Saturday morning we learned that all the four brothers had been deported". Nura expects him to return soon "and everything will return to normal", As long as they are not returned, she says, and is joined by the other young women in the room, "there is no use to continuing the talks". Nura’s face is now uncovered, and she frequently smiles, like other young women in the room. Only her mother – Ashraf’s mother – does not smile. "Most of the people here are Hamas", say the women. "No", say Ashraf’s mother and Nura, "they are all Moslems". "When the deportees return", Nura says, "we will talk".

– About what?

"Everyone wants peace", the mother says. One of the young women says that we will speak about an Islamic state from the Jordan to the sea. "Gaza and the West Bank are not enough for all of us. In an Islamic state everyone  – even Jews – will live as free people".

– How will an Islamic state be achieved?

"By stones".

"By negotiations", says another, "but Israel will not agree".

– So there will be a war.

"Yes".

– That means that you intend for your children to fight their whole lives?

"No. According to the Islamic faith war will come form outside. Nura is not afraid of existentional difficulties due to the deportation, since in any case she expects Jamal’s speedy return. She studied at the secretarial school in Ramallah, but has not yet worked outside her home, because of the children. When they grew up, she will go to work: "Certainly, my husband allows me to work". "The women have hope", one of the neighbors said, a young pious teacher, when we left Nura and Jamal’s home, and it was possible to detect a note of scorn in his voice. Another neighbor hurried to correct him: "The young women have hope, but for the elderly, who came from Beit Daras or from Haifa or from Majdal, everything becomes an extension of what happened in 1948. It is hard for them to imagine the deportation as a temporary thing".

– Money is only enough for the necessities.

Each curfew is more oppressive than the last, more paralyzing than the last, with each curfew the financial losses of the workers and store and workshop owners and teachers and clerks get heavier. In spite of the curfew, there is no lack of food in the shops, except for fresh fruit and vegetables, and whoever has money can slip out of the soldiers’ vision and sneak into ther neighborhood grocery. In any case, many have already learned the lesson of the lengthy curfew during the Gulf War, and at least keep large quantities of flour in order to bake bread at home. But from many parts of the Gaza Strip come complaints aobut people not having money to buy food beyond the most basic necessities. Thus, when the curfew was finally lifted for two or three hours – in Khan Yunis Gaza and Nusseirat – people did not flock to the shops.     ‘

Those possessing travel permits during curfews noticed that the soldiers – during this period of curfew – were more nervous than usual. You can see it on their faces, people say, that they are new in Gaza. They brought reinforcements of young soldiers, people estimate, and they are overwhelmed with fear. It can be seen by the way they stop the few cars.