to begrudge so. sth. jmd. etw. missgönnen, neiden breed Sorte, Rasse, hier: Menschenschlag to chase sth. etwas jagen, hinterherjagen compassion Mitgefühl, Mitleid enlightened aufgeklärt epithet Zusatz, Beiwort, Attribut to gain a foothold Fuß fassen hazardous riskant, gefährlich hypocritical heuchlerisch, scheinheilig impetus Schwung, Auftrieb, Antrieb impetuousness Ungestüm, Impulsivität inexorably unaufhaltsam, unerbittlich peasant (adj.) bäuerlich quick-witted schlagfertig, gewitzt rugged robust, wild to snatch sth. sich etw. schnappen, ergattern to yearn for so./sth. sich nach jmd./etw. sehnen M 2 Ghada Karmi, The 1948 Exodus: A Family Story (1994) Dr Ghada Karmi (b. 1939), a public health specialist in London, is also a research associate at the Middle East Institute at the University of London. Dr. Karmi has lectured and written widely on the Arab-Israeli conflict. I was born in Jerusalem to a comfortably off, middle-class family. We were not natives of Jerusalem, my father had come to live and work there as a young man. At the time of my birth, we lived in a house in Qatamon [a neighborhood in south Jerusalem]. As a child, I remember it as a beautiful, leafy residential area of villas set in gardens full of flowers. Most of its inhabitants were well-to-do Palestinians, and there was also a very small number of European Jews who had come over to Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s. My father worked as an inspector in the education department of the Mandate government of Palestine. I was the youngest of three children and we lived the life typical of people of our class. We had a peasant woman, Fatima, who came daily to look after us. My mother did the cooking and spent a great deal of time visiting or being visited. While I played with my toys and learned to take my first steps, great events were sweeping Palestine that would inexorably lead to the destruction of that world I barely knew. As a family we did not feel the effects personally until after 1943. By that time, World War II had begun and the Nazi extermination of Jews, already underway, gave enormous impetus to a mass immigration of Jews into Palestine. At the same time as this was happening, a new terror was beginning to grip Palestine in the shape of the Stem and Irgun gangs, extreme Jewish nationalists bent on creating a state for Jews in Palestine no matter what the cost. These two were responsible for acts of terror against Arabs, against the British, and against Jews who did not agree with them. They were guided by hatred and a passion for revenge without pity or compassion. By 1947 a third of Jerusalem had been fenced off for security reasons by the British. Such a zone existed in an area of Qatamon. By the end of 1947 our neighborhood had become so hazardous that my sister could only walk to school through this security area. There were many snipers, both Jewish and Arab, and many passers-by were caught in the crossfire. l can remember seeing one of these shot in front of our house one morning, a poor Bedouin carrying a tin of olive oil. By the first months of 1948, life in our part of Jerusalem had become intolerable. One of my most vivid memories of that wretched time was the Haganah attack on the Semiramis Hotel, which was a center of Arab resistance. The streets around us became no-go areas, and from the beginning of 1948 my brother and l could no longer go to school. Getting food into the house was becoming harder and we hardly saw our father at all at this time. At some point during those early months of 1948, he must have made the decision that we should leave Jerusalem. This would become the most shattering event of our lives. Our last months in Jerusalem were totally disrupted and extremely unhappy. As a child, l did not of course understand the great historical and political events that were swirling around me. Accordingly, on 27 April, we left for Damascus where my mother’s family lived and where we could remain with my grandparents for a short while. On that morning of 27 April 1948, we saw our house for the last time. But we did not know that then, and when my mother packed for our journey, she only took one suitcase, certain we would be back soon. All our belongings, papers and documents, family photographs and mementos – our whole history was left behind forever. That event marked the end of my childhood. Ghada Karmi, The 1948 Exodus. A Family Story, in: Journal of Palestine Studies XXIII, No. 2 (Winter 1994), pp 31 40 (abridged) 1. In groups: Draw a timeline of historical and political events/incidents of the Middle East and a timeline of events/incidents of Ghada Karmi’s family. 2. Explain what the author means by saying “That event marked the end of my childhood.” 3. Imagine Ms Karmi and Mr Oz discussing the Middle Eastern Conflict. Based on the unit and your knowledge: Take the role of either Ms Karmi or Mr Oz and discuss the issue including their different experiences. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 139Childhoods in Palestine N u r zu P rü fz w e c k n E ig e n tu m d e s C .C . B u c h n e r V rl g s