A Near Miss

In January 1948, a day before Zionist terrorists bombed and destroyed the Ottoman Historical Seraya Building in Jaffa, which was converted into a Social Assistance Center for needy children and administered by a Jaffite Elite of qualified and educated youth, I and my secondary school classmates decided to convene the following day to celebrate our graduation at a famous sweets house located just beneath it, if the weather was favorable. Thank heavens the day was stormy and rainy, and we all stayed home—otherwise we would have been murdered along with the scores of innocent civilians and children who lost their lives.

A few months later, on April 28, 1948, after Zionists had succeeded in occupying the Manshiyyeh quarter adjacent to Tel Aviv, humiliating its residents and looting and destroying their homes, they advanced with their mortars and shelled the Jaffa town center, near our home. We were forced to leave our home precipitously, not carrying any of our belongings, because no one expected that such an historically unprecedented injustice would be internationally tolerated and allowed to endure!!

We thought it would be a week or a fortnight—certainly less than a month—before we would return home. Now it is almost 60 years later…but still never too late to return.

Only when Justice prevails will Peace be possible.

By A. Anwar Sacca, Jordan.