Grapes keep Palestine’s memory alive

When he was kicked out of his village in Palestine 63 years ago, painter Farouk Jalal was only a little boy not exceeding five years. Farouk was told he would be back home just within a year but he is now nearly 68 years and is still waiting.

More than six decades of living away from his home village in North Palestine and moving from one place to another have not obliterated his memory of what he described as his beautiful tiny village, especially its grapes.

Farouk was born in Miroun village near the town of Safad in Upper Jaleeli in North Palestine. He was expelled from his home along with family and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces in 1948.

“When I was forced to leave my home village, I was just a child…only a few years old…but the nature in Upper Jaleeli and my village is still very much alive in my mind,” said Farouk, who had lived in Lebanon before settling in Germany following the 1983 Israeli invasion of the Arab country.

“After our exodus from our fatherland, I thought I shall be back to my paradise village Miroun the following year…. year after year passed and there was no return….but the memory of the green fields there is still alive in my mind and eyes…I still remember the magnificent beauty of the land, the trees, the mountains, the valleys and the fruits hanging with their colour shining and glittering by the sun…these fruits are always igniting my memory and inviting me to paint more…this helps keep my dream of return alive…..the colour of grapes in the hills, valleys and fields surrounding my village will never disappear from my mind…they will always be before my eyes until we return home some day.”

Farouk is married with several children and grandchildren. His father Jalal was the first Palestinian martyr in Lebanon as he was killed in early 1960s by the Lebanese intelligence for staging military operations against Israel.

Farouk has staged many art shows in Lebanon and most of his paintings illustrate his nostalgic feelings and love of his birthplace.

Farouk’s tribe that lived in Miroun did not exceed a couple of hundred people when the village was seized by the Israeli invaders. It has now swelled to more than 1,500 who live in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gulf and other countries.

Farouk and other family seniors describe their village as “one of the brides” of Upper Jaleeli given its green hills and valleys, fountains and rich crop.

Despite its tiny farming potential compared to the total area of Palestine, Miroun had emerged before the occupation as a key exporter of tobacco to Jerusalem, one of the oldest and holiest cities in history.

While most of the crop had been used to meet the domestic needs of the Mirounians, a large part of the tobacco produced in the village was exported to Jerusalem and other cities by truck owned by some of its citizens.

In terms of population, Miroun was one of the smallest villages in North Palestine, not exceeding 250 people in 1948. But the village had one of the richest farming seasons in that area and the bulk of its inhabitants were big landlords who cultivated dozens of types of crop.

Crop included tobacco, grape, olive, wheat, fig, cucumber, white corn, onion, tomato and other kinds of vegetable, fruit and cereal but the main agricultural seasons in the village were for tobacco, wheat and olive.

Primitive tools and equipment had been used in the farming process that involved plantation, cultivation, irrigation, and harvesting. A mule-run mill was built in the heart of the village to produce oil while corn was ground at a massive belt-run machine known as dharrassa at a nearby village. Tobacco was dried, cut and minced in a tiny tool in Miroun before it is laden on a truck and taken to Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities and towns.

“Miroun was one of the largest tobacco producing towns in Palestine…it was a major farming season in our village as it used to last more than a month during summer…green tobacco leaves that covered large areas in Miroun were picked by a special stick and taken home for drying…it took nearly a month for the tobacco leaves to completely dry and become ready for cutting and mincing,” said the 75-year-old Umm Anwar, a native of Miroun.

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