Alexandar Qamar: “Every day, I wish
that my son will have a better
future”
Alexander Qamar is retired. He used
to live together with his wife in
Katamon, now a Jewish quarter in
Jerusalem. He has one son and one
daughter. Also his sister lives with
him.
“For
eighteen years, we worked in a
factory in Jerusalem, and had also a
souvenir shop there. But after the
war of 1948, the Israelis didn’t
allow us anymore to work in
Jerusalem. We had to leave all our
properties, went to Bethlehem and
settled down in a rented house.
We
started a small towel factory. Our
business went well, and step by
step, we were able to expand our
factory. But in 1968 an Israeli
officer was killed by Palestinian
rebels in front of the factory. The
Israeli occupation decided to
destroy the factory within 24 hours.
We therefore had to move again to
another place.
In
the same year, the mayor of
Bethlehem gave us permission to
build a new residence on a piece of
land we bought near Aida Camp. We
opened a new factory on the first
and second floor, and constructed a
home on the third floor. The house
was built in 38 days.
We
bought new machines and were able to
hire even more workers. Our products
were sent to Tel Aviv, Haifa and
Jerusalem.
In
2002, the Separation Wall was
constructed. Since then we were not
allowed to go to Jerusalem.
Moreover, it became much more costly
to export our products to Jerusalem,
Haifa and Tel Aviv. As a result
production decreased dramatically.
There was even no money for the
salaries of our workers. Then the
workers stopped doing their jobs.
Finally, there was nothing else left
than to close the factory. Here,
employees have the right to get
financial compensation. Because I
did not have enough money, I had to
break the machines and sell the iron
to pay for the compensation.
So
this is my story. Now I am older. I
live with my wife and my sister. My
son and daughter have their own
life. I don’t have any income
anymore. I am completely dependent
on my son. Every day, I wish that my
son and his family will have a
better future. As for me and my
wife, we will live on our memories
to keep going on and to have
patience and hope.
The interview was conducte
By Sytske van Bruggen (AEI
volunteer) and Rania Mourra (staff
Sumud Story House)
Bethlehem, May 2009
