Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 21)
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- Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 21)
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we would give him a chance to prove he was not a collaborator,
but a true patriot, and he agreed enthusiastically. At this point
we began to prepare to carry out our idea.
We sent the driver out several times to keep watch on the
road and see how searches were carried out. When we were
confident that our plans had a chance of success, we decided to
move. We sent for the driver and had him sleep at our place. At
4 a.m. we got into the trunk of the car. We had instructed the
driver how to act, and also threatened him in case he thought
of giving us away to the enemy. We had taken our arms with us
- four klashnikovs, two guns and some hand grenades. When
we reached the checkpoint, the car stopped. We could hear the
conversation between our driver and the Zionists. When the
search was over, the driver went on for an hour. Then the car
stopped in a deserted area. The driver got out and came around
and congratulated us on the success of the first part of our
plan.
At around 9 a.m. the car stopped again and the driver let us
out. We found ourselves in Ain Al Sultan camp (on the West
Bank, where the Zionists had evacuated all the families during
the 1967 war due to the camp’s proximity to the Jordan River).
We jumped into the first house which was near the main road,
and stayed there till about 6 p.m. We got acquainted with the
camp where one of us had formerly worked as a laborer ina
grove. When we reached the house, comrades who had been on
the lookout for us came and gave us food, as well as a rope and
deflated car tire. We stayed in the house all day. The only thing
we lacked was water. We noticed a pool of rainwater and
drank from the top, using a handkerchief as a filter. The date
was February 21, 1972.
At around 6 p.m. we left the house, hanging a sock in front
of it as the signal that we had left. We moved eastwards, led by
the comrade who knew the directions of the area, but not all
the details. After walking about three kilometers, we came up
against a road covered with special material to pick up foot-
prints. Beyond that there was barbed wire and then a
minefield. We were braced for the situation. The fact that we
might die before getting out was a possibility and we were fully
prepared to take the risk. We crossed the road, the barbed wire
and the minefield. We came upon a stream and walked close to
the bank where it would have been difficult to plant mines. We
came upon another stretch of barbed wire and crossed it. After
that was a stretch of rocky heights. We began to feel acute
thirst about this time. To save energy, every time we got to the
top of a hill, we would slide down instead of climbing. At the
bottom were salt marshes which we had to swim across. We
were so thirsty that we hazarded drinking this water, but it was
so salty we vomited. We walked non-stop until 4 a.m. the next
day when we came upon a grassy area. We sat down and
gradually we discerned the sound of running water. We got up
and walked toward the sound. We found a river (the Jordan
River). One of the group tried swimming to the other side, but
the current was too strong. We then built a fire; after getting
warm, we slept.
At around 6 a.m. we woke up. The first thing we saw was an
Israeli lookout post. We hastened to hide in the trees. We then
began to search for a good place to cross the river, a place
where it was wider and shallower so the current would not be
so strong. Luckily we found such a place. One of us tied one
end of the rope to a tree and got in the tire to swim to the
eastern bank. When he got to the other side, he tied his end of
the rope to a tree, and we began to cross one by one with the
aid of the rope. Our kKlashnikovs got wet and muddy, and
could only have been a burden from then on, so we cast them
aside, but kept our guns and hand grenades. Again we had to
cross a field of landmines, but luckily it was obvious where the
mines had been planted, so we made it across safely. By the
time we got to the main road it was around noon, and we were
extremely hungry and thirsty.
IMPRISONED IN JORDAN
We were still in doubt as to whether we had actually made it
to Jordan, but then we saw cars with Jordanian license plates.
We hitched a ride with a Jordanian military vehicle. We had no
alternative but to tell the driver we were fedayeen coming from
the occupied territories. He asked for our IDs, but of course,
we had no papers; we showed him our guns and hand grenades.
Then another military vehicle came and the officer started
asking us who we were. We told him. They took us to a
military camp and gave us food and clothes. We were
transferred to Amman and questioned by the military in-
telligence for fifteen days. After that, we were moved to the
general intelligence. They took our pictures with us holding up
a number, full-face and in profile. Then we were locked up in
cells one meter by two meters. The cell I was put in contained
about twelve men. Most of them were people in the resistance
movement, who had been arrested after Black September. We
were careful about what we said. I got to know one man whose
family I was well acquainted with in the occupied territories.
After I gave him details about his family, he was reassured,
and the other prisoners were encouraged to talk with me.
We remained in the general intelligence prison for about a
week or ten days. They then gathered all of us before the in-
terrogation officer who asked us what we wanted. When we
told him we wanted our weapons back, he laughed at us. We
were then sentenced and transferred to Mahatta prison where
we should remain until someone could bail us out; then we
would have to check in at a police station twice daily. At
Mahatta, they shaved our heads. I had pictures of my friends
who had been martyred in the occupied territories. The prison
warden tore them up, heedless of my attempts to stop him.
They were scornful of us.
When we entered the prison, we began to look for a place to
sleep. In the process, one of my comrades said, «There’s your
brother!» I did not know that he had been deported after the
Zionist authorities had arrested him, keeping him hostage to
press me to turn myself in. It was a highly emotional moment
for me. My brother said he had not expected to ever see me
again, thinking I had been martyred. He took me to a special
room for deportees from the occupied territories, supervised
by the ICRC. Some members of my family were there for a
visit. They then informed the underground resistance of my
presence in Mahatta. I remained there one month. Then com-
rades bailed me out. )
Seventeen years later, comrade Hassan is still a revolutionary.
He works in the PFLP’s military section and Is active in train-
ing new recruits how to fight the enemy.
21 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 24
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- مايو ١٩٨٧
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- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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