Page 56 - issue
P. 56
people were afraid. As children, they enough, sent money out of the country her.
used to run out and play when there for safekeeping. “I was in a trance. I didn’t know what
were no sirens. Also, they did receive
news of the Israeli successes, although The day the war started, a fast day was going on.” Gila says. There was no
not every day. was proclaimed in the community. As parent in the house as her mother was
soon as the fighting began, Gila’s father still in the hospital. Gila heard a com-
“I remember that after Jerusalem and all Jewish men between the ages of motion and went to the balcony over-
was liberated someone came to our vil- 18 and 60 were arrested. They were looking the building’s courtyard. She
lage with a loudspeaker and taken to a type of concentration camp saw masses of Arabs rallying against
announced, ‘Yerushalayim beyadeinu.’” three hours away, in the desert, where the Jews and promising to kill them. A
Everyone ran out of their trenches onto conditions were terrible. In the begin- young man, the son of their Italian
the streets of the moshav, shouting to ning, while the war was going on, the Jewish neighbor, was being dragged
each other, “Yerushalayaim beyadeinu” men suffered terrible torture, and for away by the police. His young wife, with
and dancing in the street. nine months there was no communica- a new baby in one arm, was holding on
tion at all. No one knew the men’s fate. to him with her other, pleading, “Please
◆◆◆ Gila’s family feared their father was don’t take him away!” The policeman
dead. threw the woman to the ground. Gila
Gila Davis was 12 years old and living started crying, believing they would
in Cairo with her well-to-do family. The The day before the police took Gila’s never see their father again. Then all
Six Day War was when she realized that father away, her mother had gone into her siblings joined in with her tears.
it was a big deal to be a Jew living in a the hospital for emergency surgery.
Moslem land. Before the war, they had When they came to arrest him the next The Italian neighbors, an elderly
friendly Arab neighbors, and “every- afternoon, her father gave Gila the keys couple, came into the apartment and
thing was fine.” As the war drums to his business. ”Take care of your sib- arranged for the children to go to their
began beating, the Jews felt something lings and don’t let anyone in,” he told grandparents’ apartment in a different
ominous in the air. Those wealthy
48 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
used to run out and play when there for safekeeping. “I was in a trance. I didn’t know what
were no sirens. Also, they did receive
news of the Israeli successes, although The day the war started, a fast day was going on.” Gila says. There was no
not every day. was proclaimed in the community. As parent in the house as her mother was
soon as the fighting began, Gila’s father still in the hospital. Gila heard a com-
“I remember that after Jerusalem and all Jewish men between the ages of motion and went to the balcony over-
was liberated someone came to our vil- 18 and 60 were arrested. They were looking the building’s courtyard. She
lage with a loudspeaker and taken to a type of concentration camp saw masses of Arabs rallying against
announced, ‘Yerushalayim beyadeinu.’” three hours away, in the desert, where the Jews and promising to kill them. A
Everyone ran out of their trenches onto conditions were terrible. In the begin- young man, the son of their Italian
the streets of the moshav, shouting to ning, while the war was going on, the Jewish neighbor, was being dragged
each other, “Yerushalayaim beyadeinu” men suffered terrible torture, and for away by the police. His young wife, with
and dancing in the street. nine months there was no communica- a new baby in one arm, was holding on
tion at all. No one knew the men’s fate. to him with her other, pleading, “Please
◆◆◆ Gila’s family feared their father was don’t take him away!” The policeman
dead. threw the woman to the ground. Gila
Gila Davis was 12 years old and living started crying, believing they would
in Cairo with her well-to-do family. The The day before the police took Gila’s never see their father again. Then all
Six Day War was when she realized that father away, her mother had gone into her siblings joined in with her tears.
it was a big deal to be a Jew living in a the hospital for emergency surgery.
Moslem land. Before the war, they had When they came to arrest him the next The Italian neighbors, an elderly
friendly Arab neighbors, and “every- afternoon, her father gave Gila the keys couple, came into the apartment and
thing was fine.” As the war drums to his business. ”Take care of your sib- arranged for the children to go to their
began beating, the Jews felt something lings and don’t let anyone in,” he told grandparents’ apartment in a different
ominous in the air. Those wealthy
48 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
