Review: Returning to Haifa (A’idun Ila Haifa)

The God-blessed land of Palestine has been broken by the terrorism of Israelis. The cruel activities that Palestinians are suffering — that story is written by Ghassan Kanafani in his book A’idun Ila Haifa (Returning to Haifa). In this book, there are two main characters. This is not just the story of two people, but the story of lakhs of Palestinians who are being forced away from their own land. Their families, their loved ones, their houses, and their dreams are falling in front of them.

Every page of this book made me cry. The cruel ones are killing Arab children who are newly born. They even shoot the bride and groom who are ready to marry with happiness. Those devils are drinking the blood of the poor and playing with guns like mad people. How many tiny children are falling every day there? How many poor are dying? Those blood-drinkers are not stopping their cruel activities. Kanafani shows us all the suffering that Palestinians face and the days they survive without food.

A couple, Saeed and Safiyya, are going very fast from their home in Ramallah, silent with fear and hope. Suddenly he stops and says, “Yes, we reached our land Haifa after a long twenty years.” Safiyya is silent. He knows what she is thinking — the day when their whole life changed.

Saeed drives quickly to their home. There were only his wife (Safiyya) and their five-month-old baby that day. She was still young. Suddenly Saeed saw soldiers running everywhere and pushing people to the sea. Saeed could not reach his home. He stopped the car and tried to find his wife among the crowd. The child Khaldun was left on the bed. Safiyya was frightened because Saeed was late. She went to search for him. The town was full of smoke and violence. At last, she reached the crowd and shouted, “Saeed! Saeed!” After some time, she found him. He was tired. Then she remembered her child and cried, “Khaldun! Khaldun!” Before she could do anything, they were forced onto a boat. They were taken away from the land.

Suddenly Saeed comes out of his memories. He is shocked to see his old home in Haifa. The house looks exactly the same as it was twenty years ago. They step out of the car and see everything unchanged. After a few moments, Saeed rings the bell. A Jewish woman opens the door. “Welcome. Were you the owners of this house?” she asks and invites them inside.

Saeed is shocked by everything happening. They go to the living room. He sees a bowl with peacock feathers. They were fewer than before. “These feathers are less,” he says. “Dov did that,” she replies. “Who is Dov?” he asks. “I got him when I came here.”

“Where is he?” Saeed asks.