Umm al-Zinat - ام الزينات: Umm el Zeinat visit in 1994

I never lived in Umm El Zeinat but my roots are traced back to this historic village. It is where all my father's family once lived. I took a tour of the West Bank and Palestinian towns inside Israel in 1994 with relatives that live in Umm El Fahm. Along with us was an distant relative, an elderly women with a vivid memory of Umm El Zeinat before 1948, she was to help my father remember where his house was. The area was completely destroyed and deserted. Grass and weeds and Sabr cactus grew everywhere wildly. It was difficult to even imagine that this was once a flourishing Palestinian village. We walked around the entire village with our elderly relative as she pointed out areas and what they were. My father was amazed and at the same time, began to remember the area. His house was found, the pillars knocked onto the ground where they were covered in wild thorn bushes. Down the valley nearby was an Israeli Military Training base. We could here their Rifles going off in bursts. Scattered around the deserted Palestinian Village were combat boots, some barely in one piece. I wondered whether they were from the war of '48 or maybe some Israeli military men from down below. The experience in the village that day opened my eyes to the atrocities that have been committed by the Israeli terrorist groups to establish a racist state of modern day Israel.