The Haj - Leon Uris [189]
‘We must meet on the other side,’ Father said.
‘I agree,’ Charles Maan answered.
‘Do you know Sheik Taji in the Hebron Camp?’
‘Yes, he is very dependable. A good man.’
‘I will bring him also,’ Father said.
‘I agree.’
‘How do we make contact?’ Father asked.
‘When you and Taji are ready, send your son Ishmael up to Ramallah. I am in the Birah Camp. I have been able to open a small classroom. He will have no trouble finding me.’
‘Our meeting should be carefully concealed,’ Father said.
‘I have a safe place in the Old City of Jerusalem. Do you know the Sisters of Zion Convent?’
‘No,’ Father answered.
‘Enter the Old City through the Lions’ Gate. It is on the Via Dolorosa at the Ecco Homo Arch between the second and third Stations of the Cross. Ask for Sister Mary Amelia. She runs the school and will be aware of the exact time to expect you.’
‘I do not mean to offend you, but she is a woman. Is she entirely trustworthy?’
‘She is my daughter,’ Charles Maan said.
‘Someone is coming,’ I whispered.
My father arranged himself quickly as Mr. Maan buttoned up his trousers. ‘In a few weeks,’ Ibrahim said and left quickly with me.
The afternoon of the final day of the conference saw a parade of chairmen of the various committees present their resolutions for approval of all the delegates at the Roman amphitheater.
Resolutions rolled like heads being chopped off by an executioner.
Resolved. What was gained by blood will be regained by blood.
Resolved. Infidels corrupt Islamic values and are not fit to exist in Islamic lands.
Resolved. All Arab nations are one and never before so unified.
Resolved. Arabs who remained in the Zionist entity have committed enormous sin. Such Arabs, who carry passports of the Zionist entity, will not be permitted to enter Arab nations.
Resolved. Arabs who remained in the Zionist entity are leprous in nature and are forbidden to make the Haj to Mecca and Medina.
Resolved. Arabs who remained in the Zionist entity have been contaminated and are unfit to pray at the Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and will be forbidden entry.
Resolved. Arabs who remained in the Zionist entity are treacherous at heart and cannot reunite or otherwise visit members of their exiled families.
Thus the clergy and the committees on aspects of Islam had two dozen resolutions passed with only a smattering of opposition, soon subdued.
By evening over a hundred resolutions had been passed establishing the principle of eternal war against the Jews. When they were done, the final three major committees brought the conference to its predestined crescendo.
The Committee on Refugees, to which my father had been assigned, put forth a glowing report on how well things were being run in the Jordanian camps in contrast to the West Bank camps. The intent was to give the illusion that life would get much better for everyone under the national banner of Jordan. Father and I knew by now that Jordan had not delivered on the jobs, land, rehabilitation, or opportunities that had been promised. The only Palestinians who prospered were those who threw themselves to the Jordanians. Otherwise, one side of the river was as destitute as the other.
The vital Armistice Line Committee then gave its report. The end of the war had seen a zigzag truce line become a semi-permanent boundary, for the troops merely froze in place, making an impossible common border of three hundred miles. This put hundreds of thousands of dunams of former Arab fields on the Zionist side of the line. A Jordanian Border Commission had been established to try to retrieve as much land as possible.
The report of the Armistice Line Committee was that all claims had been resolved in favor of the refugees’ being able to regain their lands. Individual claims as well as group or village claims would be honored as soon as the matter of West