"Our entire land is still waiting for us to return to it" teaches Palestinian grandfather on PA TV
Official PA TV program Tell Me, Grandpa
Girl: “Gramps, your community is close to here, maybe we’ll see it?”
Grandfather: “Yes, it’s close, it’s the closest city. Come on, I’ll show it to you right now, sweetie. Here, come on, come on, here, you see? You see that green? You see the green there?”
Girl: “Yes.”
Grandfather: “That is my community, Hirbiya(i.e., Arab village abandoned in the 1948 War of Independence). We’re in Beit Lahia here. This is Beit Lahia in the northwest Gaza Strip. We’re in northwest Beit Lahia, in other words, in the north. You see the first community within the wall? After that, is my community. You see this orchard? This is my orchard here, here, in Beit Lahia. And I have an orchard that my father, grandfather, and uncles left, you see? That orchard remains as it was. The land is not our land yet. They occupied our land. Sweetie, 70 to 72 years in the life of a people is not a lot. Allah willing, Allah willing you will complete your life in the land.”
Girl: “Is there a nearby community other than your community?”
Grandfather: “Yes, here there is Deir Sneid, and there is Dimra, and there is Barbara, and Al-Jura, and there is Simsim, and there is, what’s it called, Najd, and Dimra. Our entire land was and still is waiting for us to return to it. Even the prickly pear cactus is still waiting for us, and the land is still there – despite all the Hebraization they have done to it, it still speaks Arabic. It will continue to speak Arabic when we return to it, and we will return to our homes and our lands, we will cultivate our land, we will return to the crops of our field, and we will work our land in quiet, without an attacker attacking us, destroying our fields, and stripping our lands.”
Girl: “Grandpa, we need to defend and protect it so that we will be able to return to it.”
Grandfather: “Of course. Palestine is precious and the sacrifice is also precious, because it is a beautiful and wonderful ‘bride,’ and its bride price will be great.”