Back to Palestine

             June 2010

While I was playing in the school playground with my friends Mariam, Amina and Nawal, on a sunny Saturday, suddenly a huge and ugly looking man came toward us. He said to us in his low voice, “Your parents told me to take you to the park. You will have fun. Come!”

I didn’t believe him, but Amina wanted to go. She told us if we are going to have fun in a park, why we wouldn’t go. Then she got in the car, and the man asked us if we wanted to come. We said, “No, thanks.” The man went inside the car and drove slowly. We ran to the car and stopped him. We went inside because we couldn’t let our friend go alone.

While we were in the car, Nawal whispered into my ear saying, “We shouldn’t have listened to this man because he is from Israel. Look at that small flag! Now what are we going to do?” I opened the window, and we tried to jump from it, but the man quickly closed it. I smiled sadly. I felt scared and started thinking, “What if he kills us or put us in jail?” I was so scared.

After driving for what felt like hours, the car stopped. The man told us to go down, but it was not a park! We stopped in front of a tall building. We went down from the car but with a plan in mind. When we wanted to carry out our plan, seven men came and pushed us to a jail.

We stayed in the jail for three days with no food and no water. We were so bored. I started to remember my mom and dad. I was so thirsty. We had nothing to do. We stayed sitting inside the ugly room.

On the fourth day, in the morning, two men came with a girl. They put her in our jail. I asked her about the place we were in. She said that we were in Ramallah, and that that building was for Israelis. She also told us that she was from Al Quds. She lost her mom and dad.

We started thinking of how we were going to get out of the jail. The girl had two keys but they did not open the door. Nawal saw a long nail on the floor. She tried to open the lock with it. It worked! Nawal is the best at getting out of trouble. We went out of the room. The girl said that we could go with her to her house. I thanked God a lot and asked him to help us. I was still not scared. We had to go outside. We walked slowly until we heard footsteps. Then I was scared.

Nawal whispered, “Hide!” We hid behind a big green thing. I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t care to know. Two men walked near us. When they were gone, we walked slowly again and saw a door. We were outside after a while.

We walked a bit. Then we saw a car with Israeli soldiers in it. We hid behind a tree. Then we asked a man about a bus that goes to Al Quds. He showed us an old bus that was about to leave. It took us to Al Quds. We had to walk a bit more. Then we arrived to the house. Before we went in, the girl told us her name was Iman.

Now we all went inside her house. Her house was small, and it was really messy. The fridge was open and empty. The couches were so dirty. We went with Iman to her bedroom. “Oh! My God!” A fat and ugly man that looked like he was an Israeli was sleeping on the bed. We were so scared, but Nawal said, “Don’t worry.” She got an iron pail and gave me a squeegee from the bathroom and we hit him hard.

 “Devils in the house! Devils!” he cried and he ran outside.

            Iman, Amina and Mariam went to help Nawal and me. We all kicked and pushed the man on the stairs and locked the outside door.

We cleaned the mess. We were so hungry, but the fridge was empty. At that moment, Iman said, “Oh, I forgot. We have beans and fruits in the backyard.”

Nawal said, “Did you forget what you have in your house?”

            Iman said, “Yes! I didn’t see my house for one month because I was lost in Ramallah.”

            Amina and Mariam went outside to get some beans and fruits. The plants were so dry, so they just got some and put them in a small basket. While they were coming back, a dog jumped on them. Then it ran away. Mariam was wounded on her hands and legs.

Inside we were eating our food and we were scared. I said, “I hope no Israelis come again.” Then we saw three Israeli men looking from the window. Suddenly, they jumped inside the house. One jumped from the window, one was under the bed and one was beside the fridge. They came to fight us, but we didn’t know how to fight. Iman told us that her dad has lots of guns in the bedroom. We all got guns. I tried to hit one of the men, but I hit two! Nawal and Iman dragged the men outside far away.

It was a nice, sunny day. We decided to go to the mountain because we had nothing to do! We started our trip in the morning. Each of us had her own bag. We climbed the mountain rocks and went inside a cave.

We continued climbing until we arrived to the top of the mountain. We ate our food. Then we went inside a dark cave. We walked in and in. We were so scared. Suddenly, I saw a black dog, but I was not scared because it was small. Then I saw an Israeli. He talked with us in Hebrew, so we had no idea what he was saying. When he realized that we were Muslims, he was scared. May be he thought we were going to throw rocks at him.

            On our way back home, we saw another dog. It ran beside Mariam. Then it went away. At home the radio was on and it said loudly, “Palestine is free because there are no more Israelis.” And the radio also said, “All Israelis went to America, and some of them became Muslims now! This is because all the children of Palestine are so strong and they are fighting the Israeli soldiers. Yes, Palestine is free. The children are free.”

            We were so happy when we heard this. At that moment, I looked outside and I saw a huge bus coming. It was beeping and the people inside were clapping. We all went to see who was in it. We saw lots of people. While I was looking, I saw Nawal’s mom. Then I saw Mariam and Amina’s daddy. Finally, I saw my mom and my dad. We were all happy.

            Iman was happy for us, but she was sad because she didn’t see her parents. When my mom saw me, and saw all my friends, Iman asked my mom if she saw her mom. My mom said, “Is this woman your mom?” Iman didn’t answer, but she ran and hugged the woman while crying.

            I heard my dad saying that all the people in that bus were coming back to Palestine to stay there forever! All were happy. We will live in our big, nice house in Palestine, and our neighbor will be Iman.

            All our relatives are in Palestine. We all are happy here. No more Israel at all now. We all live in peace.