Personal Family Immigration Story - Essay Example

My grandfather refutes these claims, saying that they were forced to leave due to the attack on their city and other cities. During this war, approximately 700,000 Arabs were forced out of their homes (Pappé 76). At the time, my grandfather Juan had just fallen in love with a young, beautiful woman known as Tina. They had just had their first born child when the war broke out. Their home had become a battleground; the air was filled with smoke and dust. Dead bodies were strewn all over since there was no possible way of disposing them as their numbers grew significantly by the second.

The villagers were filled with fear and uncertainty. No one was sure about what lay for them the next day. Businesses were destroyed making it difficult for the residents to earn their daily bread. Most people were dying of hunger, since everyone who had food had decided to hoard it due the uncertainty presented by the war. My grandfather’s textile business had been destroyed; his business premises had been burnt down and the Jews had frozen their accounts, making them economically stagnant.

At this point of desolation, my grandfather made a wise decision to leave the war-torn Palestine in search of a better place to raise their infant son. The “Nakba” as is referred by my grandfather was the mass exodus of the Arabs from their Palestine homes. According to my grandfather, he moved his father, mother, two sisters and his family from the war-torn country. His brother had been killed in a blast, and they were not ready to lose another member of their family. They moved to the Dheisheh refugee camp in West Bank in 1949.

This camp was like a prison; it was fenced and had a fence made of metal turnstile (Mattar 590). According to my grandfather, the Jews were afraid that the refugees would stone their cars; hence, the fence. The situation at the camp was not humane. People were dying on a daily