Jad Allah .. Muqaddam Muammar warrior tells the memories of the Nakba

Aseel Soldier - Occupied Jerusalem

Many of the visitors to the village of Sur Bahir, south of Jerusalem, do not know that fierce battles took place on their land in the 1948 war. One of the participants in the fighting is still alive and is about to extinguish his 100th birthday candle.

He is the Jerusalemite warrior Muhammad Jadallah (98 years), who still retains a presence and a memory that did not survive the days. For three hours of meeting with him at his home, the man recounts the history of the land and the story of a war not only chronicled but fought with the least potential and primitive weapons Time and drink.

The stories that he tells are of eloquence in the defense of the land, and the disappointment of the Arab governments that did not provide the Palestinians with military weapons and what they need to confront the Argonne, Stern, Safi Lumi and Haganah Zionist gangs, all of whose equipment was left in the camps scattered throughout Palestine.

Creation
Muhammad Jadallah was born on 17 May 1921 in the village of Sur Baher. He joined several schools until he finished high school. He then began working as a waiter in several places, the most recent of which was the King David Hotel in Jerusalem before the war, which he lost after being blown up by Menachem Begin He was the head of the Zionist Argun gang at the time.

At the age of 26, the Arab Higher Committee in Palestine, in cooperation with the Palestinian Arab Party in Jerusalem, selected youth from several regions for the purpose of sending them to military training in Syria, in coordination with the League of Arab States.

Jadallah's father was a member of the Arab League and the Palestinian Arab Party, and immediately ordered his son to meet the Supreme Court's request, and thus began his struggle.

In the summer of 1947, Muhammad Jadallah arrived at the Qatana camp in Syrian territory, received his military uniform and completed registration and discipline procedures as required by the army.

He was trained in the preparation of mines and "commando", and before they graduated from the camp one week visited by the martyr Abdul Qadir al-Husseini and had lunch with them.

Among the positions mentioned by Gadullah about the meeting, that Husseini was sitting opposite him on the table and that the meal provided them on the day contains the bulgur, and while he chewed hair with a small stone in his mouth turned to him Husseini asked him what your speech? Jadallah pointed to the existence of a "sting" in the burghul, Al-Husseini said: "Reel, but they returned to the country, you eat the rocks", referring to the bitter fighting expected in the battles.

The warrior returned to Jerusalem and trained the sons of his village to shoot and use weapons, and engaged in the fourth secret "Third Regiment" at the rank of lieutenant. "The remnants of the arms of the armies were brought from the remnants of World War II, they were full of rust and sand, and the ammunition was scarce," he said. "We were forced to fight unequally with the Zionist gangs that got the British army's equipment in full."

The fourth secret began digging a ditch and erecting military fortifications along the border with the settlements built on the territory of the village of Sur Baher, assisted by the arrival of Muslim Brotherhood forces from Egypt under the leadership of Uzbashi Mahmoud Abdo.

Wins and disappointments
He fought several battles in 1948 directly and indirectly, including the Battle of Qastal, Sheikh Jarrah, the Prophet Jacob, Jabal al-Mukaber, Dheisheh, Beit Safafa, Al-Katamoun and Kfar Asion.

"I, myself and the volunteer warriors, always echo these words:" Palestine, remind us of our record in the Ketaba, record of those who were martyred and wounded in the mountains and valleys, on our land front lines. Sons of Holy Jihad protects our country and our people, guard the night and the day before us, the sons of Sur Baher Ashaos .. God Almighty protect us. "

The fall of al-Qastal in the hands of the Zionist gangs and the martyrdom of the commander Abdul Qader al-Husseini during the battle had a profound negative psychological impact, according to Gadullah, who said: "The women came from neighboring villages, but the Jews were superior to the weapons and the military equipment. Control of the battlefield .. He responded to our ears the news of the martyrdom of Husseini, and before the dawn of the withdrawal we hold the coffin of the martyr leader and Zionist gangs occupied Qastal. "

The old warrior asserts that the Battle of Qastal brought down the curtain on an important stage that constituted a serious turning point in the conflict with the occupation. The bad news followed the massacre of Deir Yassin and the successive disappointments of the Arabs who abandoned Palestine.

The battles fought by the victories despite the lack of potential, including a qualitative operation carried out after preparing a large mine in coordination with the Egyptian forces, as a number of fighters towards the Arnona neighborhood near Sur Bahir on Friday towards a house controlled by the Jews.

"The drums were knocking and the celebrations were going on Saturday at the noisy two-story house," said the man, "some of them were deployed in a trench that connects the building and the settlement of Tel-Biot, the attack started from the east, we laid the mine and we were given a signal to return. "The Jews fled with terror. The mine exploded and blew up the house. None of them escaped, while a lieutenant from our ranks was killed and another wounded."

"We left our land and our sites to the enemy, and we saw the Zionist soldiers entering the trenches we dug and inspecting sandbags and barricades from the colonies facing the country." And we have called the region with sadness, sorrow and doubt, our command to God who gives and does not neglect. "