UNRWA Commemorates 1948: A wedding in Al-Jish (Gush Halav)

My husband’s family asked my father for us to be married. I was engaged for a year and then in 1947, when I was 15 years old, we got married during my fiancée’s annual leave.

The women in the village used to sing, dance and trill with joy for three nights before the wedding day; the men would dance debka and one amongst them would sing.

On the wedding day, there would be a big feast and all the people of the village would gather together to eat. The bride would change her dress during her wedding day. Unlike today’s tradition, she didn’t start by wearing a white wedding dress - it was the last dress she wore. I started my wedding day wearing a pink dress, then I changed into a black one and only when it was time to leave my family home to go to my husband’s house did I put on my white dress.

In line with our tradition, the women brought me a horse to ride, but I refused because I was too scared, so I walked to my husband’s house instead. The bride used to wear a colourful scarf around her wrist and she would keep her hand raised all the way to her husband’s house as a sign that she was honest, respectful and a virgin.

When I reached my husband’s house, the women gave me a ball of dough mixed with flowers to stick on the door. This was the traditional way of saying I will stay in that house and have a successful marriage.

When I was 16 years old, I had a baby girl, whom we named Jouhara ("diamond"). My husband, who was 20 years old at the time, was working as a policeman in Haifa. I stayed in Al-Jish for a year and then moved to join him in Haifa, where we stayed for a further year.

I used to love Haifa. Life there was different to village life – it was more modern. In the summer, though, we returned to the village to spend the hot months with the family. While the children were playing, the women would gather together and paint their hands with henna or prepare coloured eggs and candy. We would sit in the fields in the evenings talking and laughing. We were so happy. I can still smell the perfume of the olive trees, the almonds, the grapes, figs and apple trees. Palestine was God’s paradise on this earth.

Suhiala Khaled Ziedan was born in 1932 in Al-Jish. She now lives in Neirab camp, Syria. This is her personal story.

Interview conducted by Najwa Sheikh Ahmed
Photo: copyright Palestinian Archive of Nazareth