Confessions of a Patriot

This interview was conducted ten years ago and is essentially the recollections of an old fighter who took part in the struggle against the colonialist forces of Zionist imperialist oppression in Palestine in the closing days of British rule.

To protect the gentleman's identity and his family's, names have been omitted and instead I only use abbreviations. Sadly, the person interviewed has since passed on.

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M. B., then in his late teens, was an above average student of life and grabbed every opportunity that presented itself. He was a talented classically trained violinist, the youngest of a family of eight, but above all he was a patriot. In the years before the Palestinian Nakba, or great catastrophic defeat, M. B. lived his turbulent teenage years in cosmopolitan Haifa, where urban Arabs and Jews rubbed shoulders in a bustling, dynamic port city.

M. was a student of the violin, his tutor was a European Jew, his friends were a healthy mix of Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, like himself, and European Jews. Then as tensions grew between Arabs and Jews and the date for British withdrawal neared, everything changed for this young man.

"In the months before May 1948, I joined a secret organization. It was formed by like minded patriots to resist the British forces in Palestine and the various militant Jewish gangs and ultimately establish a free and independent Palestinian state," M. said.

M. remembers well the great defeat or Nakba in Arabic when the dream of an independent Palestinian state was lost. M. nearly lost his brother to the violence and terror perpetrated by both Arabs and Jews against one another's communities. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time, M's brother K was sitting in a cafe along Kingsway Street when a bomb, planted by the Jewish Stern gang, went off. Members of this same gang are today part of the patriotic myth of the State of Israel, an artificial construct which Arabs feel the need to make peace with today.

‘WE HAD TO BE RUTHLESS’

M. explained how the Stern and Haganah gangs committed the worst atrocities and would plant bombs in the busiest places in the Arab neighborhoods.

"They would plant a bomb at a vegetable market in the early morning or at night when the farmers would bring their produce to market. The bomb would be timed to go off at peak hours when casualties would be the maximum. The device, though crude, would be concealed in a crate or in the trash. These people were ruthless and to fight back we had to be ruthless like them," M. said.

M. joined the organization, which he refers to only as the 'secret cells', in 1947. The cells were backed by the Arab Baath party. "Regretfully I didn't get to do much as a member of this organization. I worked for the Iraqi Petroleum Company (IPC) at the time and early in 1948 our offices were moved, first to Tripoli and then to Beirut, and I along with them.

"Our work was shrouded in secrecy and our organization was structured in such a way as not to create the least suspicion. We ran a pirate radio station among our many activities. My older cousin E. K. was a founding member of this organization. He used to be an RAF volunteer during the war, I believe he was a machine gunner on a bomber."

CLOAKS, DAGGERS AND BOMBS

Members of this secret organization had a number of specific instructions to follow. "No one would know what the other was doing, and no one would be aware of the ultimate target or objective until the operation was complete.

"We agreed to meet in the back room of a grocery whose owner was sympathetic to our cause. Each of us would go to that location at a predetermined time to see if there were any instructions for him with his number on it," M. said. He explained that in case any one of the group were caught nothing incriminating in writing with their real names would be found.

"Once I was instructed to leave a Morris van at a specific location. The van belonged to my family, we owned a small factory and I used to make deliveries with the van," he continues.

"I recall our cell planted two bombs at bus stops in Jewish neighborhoods, one was planted at a bus stop in the Jewish business district. We continuously delivered packages which we were not allowed to open and we never knew what it was we were delivering!

"The radio station we ran was located in the house of one of our members, E. A. and his brother A. A. who was also a member. Their family knew nothing about our work; in fact I don't think they even knew what the brothers were involved in or how deeply committed they were."

EVACUATION

After the great defeat the cell members were evacuated to Damascus in May 1948, A. rose in the Baath party hierarchy to become press secretary to the Syrian President. "All the cell members were taken under the wing of the Baathists in Syria," M. added. While he had the option of choosing exile in Syria, he had a job in Lebanon and his mother and siblings to support.

Asked how the organization gathered intelligence, M. said: "E. A. worked for the telephone company in Haifa, he would listen in on the telephone conversations of Jewish gang leaders, as they would communicate using the telephone system, therefore we would know in advance when and where they were planning to strike next and we would warn people in code using our radio station."

When British forces started using more accurate tracking equipment to discover the source of the pirate radio station’s signal the cell decided it was time to go mobile. “We used the back of a van as our radio studio and all the time we were broadcasting we kept driving around so the British could never find the source of the signal,” M. said.

SOBERING WAKE UP CALL

M. described how his older brother K. almost died as a result of a terrorist bomb.

"We heard immediately on the radio that Cafe Edmond had been bombed and we knew that it was K's favorite haunt. Authorities told us he was injured in the blast and that he had been taken to the government hospital, so we went there.

"K. was in critical condition, in fact doctors at the hospital told us he had no chance, he received no treatment and was left in a corridor since the hospital was swamped with victims of the blast.

"We made a decision and took K. by ambulance to an Italian hospital where a good Italian doctor saved his life. A kilogram of shrapnel (it was weighed) was removed from his body, only a small piece was left inside as it was too close to the spine to be safely removed," M. said.

M. described the great betrayal, the aid and comfort given by British forces in Palestine to the Zionist aspirants for an Israeli state, which jolted the Arab populace from its stupor.

"I was there when the British left, each soldier took a single suit case with him, they did not even take their personal arms, all their weapons were given to the Jews.

"I recall on one dark night I saw with my own eyes trucks laden with weapons heading towards the Jewish district, our house bordered the Jewish neighborhood. I can never forget or forgive the British for this betrayal," M. said.

CURFEWS

Curfews were frequent in the last couple of months before the Naqba and many ordinary Palestinians heading to work in the mornings would be routinely stopped and detained for hours by British patrols, M. recalled.

"One night I was standing outside our building, inside the courtyard behind the closed gate, when a British army jeep stopped nearby. Some friends who were with me quickly ran inside, I hesitated. A British soldier got out and came towards me; he stuck the muzzle of his rifle in my face and ordered me into the jeep.

"They took me along with several others to an open field guarded by troops. There were around 800 curfew breakers in the field. It was 8am and most were on their way to their jobs, jobs they would lose if they missed any more days of work.

"I even met my cousin R. B. there. He worked in the Palestine Railways and he was in uniform and was on his way to work when he was arrested. This was how they (British) operated," M. continues.

CIVIL DEFENCE

A few Arab states were serious about helping Palestinians resist the newly emergent Jewish State. Egypt sent rifles and ammunition that turned out to be unusable. “I remember each building in our neighborhood was given one rifle and four bullets. We took turns standing guard on the roof, watching the other side across the street,” M. said.

“One night, a bunch of us were spending a quiet evening on the roof and decided to try out the rifle. It was a design from the first great war and parts of it were showing a little rust. I loaded one cartridge, I took aim at a can and pulled the trigger, nothing happened,” M. said.

“After several attempts we gave up at put the rifle down muzzle up, seconds later the round went off in a loud bang breaking the rifle in two! We were glad at least it did not blow up in our faces in the heat of battle.”

M. believes firmly that the Zionists cannot make peace with anyone. “If we take Jewish history from biblical times to the present, every attempt to lay their hands on Palestine was accomplished by force. Their first state lasted barely 60 years.

"Joshua, Moses' cousin, lead his people into Palestine armed to the teeth and ready for conquest, so how can I believe God gave it to them as they claim," M. continued.

"Netanyahu is a modern day Joshua, his posturing and street wise language is rooted in a militant tradition that the Zionists have rejuvenated in modern times. The day will come however when all will be lost for them."