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May 18, 2011
Ha'aretz Interviewee Recalls Past Life Memories?
While Mahmoud Abbas was busy rewriting 1948 history in the New York Times yesterday, another, lesser-known, Arab public figure was apparently peddling his bobe-mayse in Ha'aretz . In a "Head to Head" interview with Eli Ashkenazi, Salman Fakherldeen, the public relations officer of Al-Marsad, the Arab Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Golan, refers to the "Nakba Day" infiltrations into Majdal Shams, and recalls:
It was as if the clock turned back, to 1948. I remember the village then full of refugees expelled from their homes, walking in the opposite direction, toward where their children and grandchildren came from on Sunday. I can really hear the echo of past history.
A powerful image, and a powerful memory. It apparently moved Ha'aretz editors, who selected it for a pull quote:
There's just one problem. The events of 1948 transpired 63 years ago. According to the article, Salman Fakherldeen is 57. The first sentence reads:
Salman Fakherldeen, 57, of Majdal Shams, is the public relations officer of Al-Marsad, the Arab Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Golan.
As we see it, there are three possible explanations for this conundrum.
1) Ha'aretz misreported his age. At the very minimum, how old would Mr. Fakherldeen have to be to so clearly remember events of 63 years ago? Probably around 67. Is this the image of a man closing in on his 70s?
2) He is recalling memories from a past life.
3) He is fabricating.
(See here for another personal 1948 conundrum.)
Posted by TS at May 18, 2011 01:05 PM
Comments
If you add this phrase to the sentence, it makes a whole lot more sense. But the "lo m'shané" editors at Haaretz possibly cut it out - shooting their already destroyed credibility in the foot yet again.
It was as if the clock turned back, to 1948. I remember the village then full of refugees expelled from their homes, walking in the opposite direction, toward where their children and grandchildren came from on Sunday. I can really hear the echo of past history.
Posted by: ruvy kossover at May 20, 2011 05:46 AM
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