Abdullah Zaqut, Isdud and Majdal
[align=justify]Testimony collected in preparation for Zochrot's booklet and tours of Isdud (August 15, 2003) and Majdal (September 20, 2003).
I was born in Isdud in 1923. Close to four thousand people lived there. I was born to a family of falahim [peasants], farmers. We had lands, vineyards, orchards. Isdud was one of the large villages. Close to 60,000 dunams. The residents lived off agriculture. During World War II they worked at the British army camps. A simple life. People were not hungry. There were many orchards and vineyards.
At age 9 we went to school. I studied in Isdud for 5 years and in Majdal for 3 years and in Gaza two years. Afterwards I started instruction as a school teacher. I was a teacher in Isdud. Until 1948, Isdud was in the Palestinian part of the partition plan. The Egyptian army came. There was a war against the British army. At the end of 1948 the Egyptian army retreated. We remained in the village and we encouraged people to stay, we wanted to live with the Jews in coexistence. In Isdud there were about four thousand residents and more than 500 remained.
The Israeli army came and enacted a curfew. Afterwards the military rulers came to look for planes that had fallen. The following day they told us to go out to the street. We didn’t think they would take us prisoner. The young people, above age 17, were taken prisoner. The elderly and the women were expelled to Majdal.
In 1948 the Palestinians mostly did not fight, the Egyptians fought. The Egyptians didn’t want the Palestinians to fight. Anyone who had a rifle, they took it away from him. There were isolated people who defended the place. The Egyptian headquarters were in Majdal. They took me prisoner to Gadera. There were also Egyptians there. They sorted us. There were hundreds from the Egyptian army together with us.
After a few days the military leaders opened the way from Gaza to Majdal. At the end of 1948 there was no longer an Arab majority. They expelled them. But so that no one would say they were expelled, they said that the Arab armies had called the people to leave, and that’s not correct. They expelled us. They expelled me to Majdal. I was a teacher there. There was a military governor in Gadera, Zuckerman, who tried to help. People started to leave. At night there was a curfew. We lived in a ghetto. Go out to work with guards and return with guards. People worked, made a living. After three months they decided to expel the residents. The army would come at night to scare people. They gave money, bribes to people to sell belongings and move to Gaza. Those who didn’t want to leave for Gaza, they brought to Lod. Part of my family is in Gaza.
In the beginning of 1950 Zuckerman was no longer the governor. Others came. They decided to expel people at the beginning of 1950. They couldn’t just drive people out. Israel was recognized by the United Nations. I was one of the people who opposed the expulsion. We thought there would be peace, that people would return and we would live in our villages. They saw that it wasn’t working out that way. Israel was new, couldn’t do what we planned. They were clever about it, so the world would see that it wasn’t them who were driving people out right away. They didn’t act directly.
They didn’t let me teach school. I wanted to stay in Majdal. I didn’t leave. We were a group who opposed the expulsion, young educated men. I didn’t collaborate. They deported me to Acre. They hadn’t started expelling people then. They couldn’t, the world saw. In the Majdal ghetto people worked. Jewish contractors arrived to take laborers to work. About three thousand people lived in the ghetto. In the middle of 1949 Jews started arriving in Majdal. The Jews lived outside of the ghetto. I worked in the harvest with Jews. People from Amal would come to the ghetto to drink coffee. In April 1950 I was deported to Acre.
We would present ourselves to the military governor of the Western Galilee. Every few villages in the Galilee had a governor. Every morning we would present ourselves there. After a few weeks they deported me to Tarshicha. The governor drove me from Acre to Tarshicha. His name was Moshe Reiss. He said that we were spreading propaganda against the government. They deported me because I opposed the expulsion from Majdal.
We arrived in Tarshicha. I had to appear twice a day at the police station. No house, no work, nothing, and it was forbidden to go out of the village. Come to the police, sign. I asked where the Bishara family was, I looked for someone who had been a guest at my family. When Ramle was occupied, the residents surrendered under military conditions, but nonetheless they expelled all the residents after a few days. There was a man who stayed and demanded the lands and then they deported him to Tarshicha. I heard that he was staying with the Bishara family. I lived there. I would present myself at the police station every day.
One day I heard there was an assembly in Pki’in. I wanted to come to the assembly, to know what was happening with my wife and daughter. It was forbidden to go out of Tarshicha. My wife and my daughter had stayed in Majdal. I arrived at the assembly in Pki’in. The police came to look for us and some people took me to the house of some falahim [peasants]. The police didn’t find me. The following day I came to Tarshicha. They told me that the police had been looking for me. The captain told me that I had been in Pki’in, told me to clean the stables. I refused. He beat me. I told him he would pay for it. He brought me back to Acre. From there they brought me back to Tarshicha. I was detained. In the evening people from the army came, apologized for the beating, and said that I would be free on the condition that I would not complain about it to the Knesset or to a lawyer. Free to be in Tarshicha. If I submitted a complaint they would put me on trial. I agreed. I returned to the Bishara family. I wanted to go out to work, to leave the prison. I agreed not to complain. People from the communist party wanted me to complain. They submitted a parliamentary question to the Knesset. They took me to court and sentenced me to four months in Jaffa prison. I was released in September 1950.
I arrived in Majdal. The army controlled the city. I saw people with furniture and clothing, there were people who wanted to leave for Jordan. Some of the people wanted to stay. The following day they took me to Acre and to Tarshicha. I hadn’t presented myself at the police station. I worked a little while. In November 1950 I got a letter that my wife and daughter were in Lod. I returned to Acre to get a permit to return. Reiss, the governor, was responsible for the whole Galilee. He said he would give me a house, I could go back to work. I told him that as long as he was in military uniform I didn’t want it. He gave me a letter. I returned to Lod, and from there to Ramle at the instructions of the communist party, to manage the branch. I didn’t want to be in the prison of Tarshicha. In Tarshicha I was in prison, I couldn’t leave the borders of the village. In Ramle I worked in agriculture and later in a factory, until I retired. I raised seven children.
Before 1948 in Majdal they would weave, weaving was an important source of income for the residents of Majdal. Every house had a loom and people would make a living from it. The whole family would work. The standard of living was good. During World War II Majdal became wealthy, they let them bring fabric from India for weaving. The whole family would work on the loom. There were also lands and orchards. A large and wealthy city. They would come here from every area, to the shuk, to the flour mill. During the period of martial law they continued to work in weaving and agriculture in cooperation with the Histadrut [Israeli national labor union]. Mor, from the Histadrut, didn’t let them expel people. They were helpful. They couldn’t expel people without their agreement. [/align]