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Seventy-four years because the Palestinian Nakba, Abder Raouf Misleh nonetheless clings to the hope that he’ll return to the village from the place he was displaced in 1948. His reminiscence is contemporary concerning the particulars of the ethnic cleaning and what the nascent Israeli occupation forces did to his village and his household.
“I keep in mind it as if it have been yesterday,” Misleh instructed me. “I keep in mind when Israeli forces entered my village after I was about 12 years outdated. My village had a mosque and it had just one nook the place lots of people all the time gathered on the finish of day to speak and trade concepts. At round 5 or 6 o’clock, the Israeli forces bombed that nook and killed greater than 38 folks.”
The survivors ran away to the following village. “We thought that we’d return the following day when the bombing can be over, however we now have by no means gone again. I can not overlook the face of my father. He was crying like a toddler, and shouting, ‘My home, my home, sooner or later I’ll come again.’ We stored strolling till we arrived in Balaa. We left with nothing; nothing in any respect.”
Abder Raouf Misleh is 87 years outdated and has lived in Brazil since 1956. His village of Kakun close to Tulkarem had a inhabitants of two,000 when it was attacked they usually have been pushed out in 1948. Kakun was certainly one of greater than 500 villages destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces throughout and because the Nakba. Misleh and his household have been among the many 800,000 Palestinians who have been ethnically cleansed in 1948. He had 11 siblings they usually have been displaced throughout many international locations.
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“Two of my brothers have been wounded; certainly one of them misplaced an ear; one other was wounded within the backbone. One was detained for six months in a city 11km away from the village. He died three months after he was launched by the Israelis.”
Misleh has all the time dreamed about returning to Palestine, however like many different refugees he did not take Brazilian citizenship as a result of he thought that he may lose his Palestinian nationality if he did. “After my father handed manner, two of my brothers got here to Brazil after which I got here to be able to work, get cash and ship it to our household. I went to Brazil with solely $10 in my pocket and a small suitcase. It took 12 days by ship.”
In Brazil, he bought garments door to door, and skilled as a carpenter. He and his Palestinian-Brazilian spouse — they married in 1964 — have two daughters and 5 grandchildren.
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“My plan was to return to Palestine in just a few years, however I could not. Nobody has ever returned. I couldn’t return to my village, and I didn’t get hold of a overseas passport that might allow me to enter Palestine after that. I labored right here and began a household. My daughter Soraya, although, has continued my journey by means of her writing.”
Soraya Misleh is likely one of the most outstanding Palestinian activists in Brazil and Latin America. She is a member of the Brazilian Press Union and the Coordination Committee of the Entrance for the Defence of the Palestinian Individuals, and can also be an activist in Brazil’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion. She has written a two-volume e-book concerning the Nakba; her Grasp’s diploma instructed the story of her father’s village. She additionally has a PhD from the College of Sao Paulo (USP) on the Historical past of Palestinian Ladies; it has been beneficial for publication. She has visited Palestine and the place the place her father´s village was once. Her father could be very completely happy that she was ready to do that. “My daughter went to Palestine and represented me there. She is a part of my life; it’s the reality of future.”
Yearly, on 15 Could, 12.4 million Palestinians around the globe commemorate the Nakba as they proceed to wrestle for his or her authentic proper to return to their homeland. In Brazil, Nakba Day is synonymous with the Palestinian refugee Abder Raouf Misleh who fled from his village and lives in Brazil. He would go to his homeland tomorrow if he may. “That’s my want,” he added.
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