By Joelle Abi Rached---

ÒThere is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here [Palestine] to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them; not one village, not one tribe, should be left.Ó Joseph Weitz (Jewish National Fund, administrator responsible for Zionist colonization) ÒSome people talk of expelling 700,000 to 800,000 Arabs in the event of a new war, and instruments have been prepared.Ó Aharon Yariv (Former chief of Israeli military intelligence, 1980) [A dark jail cell] A soldier: Confess old woman, who gave the order to Abou Daoud to blow himself up? A woman veiled in black: [with an ironic smile] You my lord ... you. [The soldier hits the old woman with the back of his submachine gun, leaves the room and slams the door.] The woman: I always wished to touch the sun. It is under the same sun that a child has died, next to his father. [Silence.] He died like a dog. [Silence.] He was a child until... trapped like rats, the father and his child were killed with a dreadful indifference. They had to be killed. [Silence.] They were men in excess. [Silence.] The blue sky of Beirut embraces the world. [The soldier re-enters. His voice is a mixture of brutality and cynism.] The soldier: We decided to raze a whole town if you insist on playing the fool and not denouncing those terrorists. Do you understand? We donÕt give a damn about the Geneva accords. Our crimes remain [laughter] unpunished and ...unnoticed. Money talks to the world old woman. Money and nothing else. YouÕd better speak! Do you understand? [He leaves. A spotlight on the woman. Echoes of a voice can be heard.] The voice: 1948 ...silence. The voice: 1956 ...silence. The voice: 1967 ...silence. The voice: 1972 ...silence. The voice: 1982 ...silence. The voice: 2002 ...silence. The woman: Muhammad was out of breath when he managed to reach my house. Muhammad is nine years old. He is the son of Nahla, my neighbor. He told me that the invaders had reached one of the cityÕs gates and started yelling through a loudspeaker: ÒTake pity on your wives and children. Get out of this bloodbath. . . . Get out by the Jericho Road. This is still open to you. If you stay you invite disaster.Ó1 [Hysterical screams of children, women, and men] We had to leave, avoid hell and leave. [Silence.] Runaway ... as far as possible. Then I got mad: ÒRita, Muhammad!Ó I screamed. ÒWhere is my daughter? WasnÕt she playing with you on the square?Ó Rita was only thirteen. Muhammad was crying. I knew that the world had ceased to exist, and so had I. [The soldierÕs frightening voice piercing across the silence and darkness of the ceiling] The soldier: Another coward has just blown himself up! Be ready for the worst! Do you understand, old woman? The woman: Blindfolded men, aged 16 to 40 years, their hands behind their backs, were kneeling in front of a wall. When they were shot, a bullet in their heads, they ceased to be men. They were nothing more than shadows. Shadows quickly fade. They can hardly be remembered. [Silence.] Where are you my dear poet? Where are your words that wove my nights together? The world is ungrateful and deaf. The world easily forgets. The amnesiac night is unbearable. [The curtain falls down] 1Levin, Harry. Jerusalem Embattled: a diary of the city under siege, March 25,1948 to July 18, 1948. Gollancz: London, 1950. P. 160.