Occupied Jerusalem -

The Jerusalemite writer Mahmoud Shukair was impressed by the Palestinian plastic artist Tammam Al-Akhal's book, entitled "The Hand Sees and the Heart Draws."

The story of “Ismail’s two-colored shoes” contained in the book was what attracted his attention the most, then many shoes came to his mind in various situations and different circumstances, and from here he decided to write a new story for girls and boys entitled “House of Colors”, in which he goes back many years back when He met the artists Tammam and Ismail for the first time in Jerusalem.

At his home in the town of Jabal Mukaber in occupied Jerusalem, the writer Mahmoud Shukair spoke to Al Jazeera Net about his latest literary publications, and what he drew on Ismail and Tammam's journey, and they became the heroes of his last story.

The book "A House of Colors" is based on the story "Ismail's Two-Colored Shoes" from the book of the artist Tammam Al-Akhal (Al-Jazeera)

cross stories

Shukair says that the idea came from a discussion he had with a colleague specialized in children’s literature, when she stated that “you can imagine and write a good material inspired by the “Ismail two-colored shoes” that the camp school gave to the artist Shammout while he was working as a volunteer in Gaza after he was displaced from the city of Lydda in 1948".

Indeed, Shukair relied on facts and information contained in Tammam al-Akhal’s book about Ismail’s shoes, and many sub-stories emerged from this story, such as the poem of the poet and novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah in satire on shoes and his sympathy for the barefoot, and the character of “Handala” always barefoot in Naji al-Ali’s drawings, and other stories.

The reader of the story “A House of Colors” can sense the element of humor and fun in the sub-stories emanating from the story of Ismail’s shoes, and Choucair says that the writer should take this element into account specifically when writing for children, girls and boys.


year of tragedy

In 1948, Ismail Shammout was forced to leave the city of Lydda on foot towards Ramallah, and he was 18 years old at the time, and the shoes he was wearing were torn and frayed due to the long exhausting walk in the rugged roads that take off the toughest shoes on their rocks and thorns, according to Shukair’s description.

After his temporary residence in Ramallah, where he worked as a mobile bread seller, Shamout moved with his family to Hebron and worked in selling kerosene, and from there to Khan Yunis in Gaza, where he worked as a seller of “Maamoul” sweets. My job".

On one of the days of the asylum, the young man decided to volunteer to teach the children of the camp the art of drawing, and there he would forget the pain of displacement and the torments of living when he saw them lying on paper, coloring the houses they draw under his guidance.

After months of work, the school administration decided to give the volunteer teachers fish, onions, old clothes, and shoes. In the poverty of the camp and the winter season, the shoes had an urgent need to protect the feet from the mud of the roads. As for Ismail’s share, he wore one blue shoe and the other white.

From this incident, Mahmoud Shukair wove many stories with different titles, such as "Cinderella's shoes", "Ali and Zahra's shoes", "Nahed's shoes", "Percy's shoes", "My old shoes" and others.

Shukair's old shoes have a remarkable story within the chapters of the book, in which he says, "Years ago, I went on a visit from Jerusalem to Amman, and I was preparing for the visit by going to the Kandarji store in the Khan al-Zayt market, which installed a new shoe for my old shoes."

On the Karama Bridge (the border point between Palestine and Jordan), the Israeli security man suspected that I was hiding a secret message under the sole of the shoe, and he asked me while contemplating the shoe as if it were a time bomb, What did I hide under this insole?

I replied, I did not hide anything.

He threatened to tear me apart if I did not confess. Indeed, he brought a knife and separated the new sole from the leather of the shoes and found nothing. Then he handed me the shoes and I walked with difficulty to the bus, and when I arrived in Amman I went to the nearest store and bought new shoes.

Mahmoud Shukair's book reflects the similarity of the refugees' fates during and after the Nakba (Al-Jazeera)

The similarity of fate and stories of shoes

In addition to the story of Ismail’s shoes, the writer Shukair talks about the “Tamam” shoes that she wore when she and her family left Jaffa for Beirut in the Nakba in 1948, and about her having to wear her sister’s shoes there, which was pressing on her toes and was white in color and she decided to dye it black, and with the rain it faded Its color is between gray and colorless, and it has strange shapes that change whenever you re-dye it every two or three days.

Many stations of hope and pain stopped by Shukair in his new book, which he called "House of Colors" because it tells the story of a couple of Palestinian plastic artists, one of whom's heart stopped and the other was still beating to continue the journey.

And he concluded his book, in which he spoke about the Nakba and the suffering of the Palestinians after that, in a smooth and interesting manner, where he says, "Ismail continued to take Palestine to the world with all sincerity, and Tammam continued to take Palestine to the world, and still after the departure of Ismail, the path that they started together continues with all hope, find and diligence." .

It is noteworthy that the Jerusalemite writer Mahmoud Shukair was born in Jerusalem in 1941, and began writing in 1959 with unpublished attempts, and in 1962 he published his first story in the Jerusalemite “The New Horizon” magazine, after which his writing continued in the literary and political article and story until today.

During these long years, he completed 75 books on stories, novels, travel literature, diaries, biographies, children's literature, girls and boys, in addition to writing theatrical scripts and scripts for television series.