In 1937, Ayesh Khatib, the second eldest of eight children from a farming family in al-Qubab, Palestine, moved to Haifa. At 14 years old, he had to leave school in order to find work with a mechanic in Haifa and help provide for his family. There, at 18 he met and married Khadija Rasheed, the daughter of a carpenter who owned the shop next to the garage where Ayesh worked. Soon after, they moved to Akka (now Acre), where they decided to settle down and had three children: Nuha, Ahmad, and Yusuf.
Al-Nakba
Approximate location of al-Qubab before it was destroyed
Ayesh and Khadija’s lives were abruptly interrupted in 1948 when war broke out and forced the family from their home. Like many Palestinians during the Nakba, they fled but expected to return home as soon as the fighting ended; they left for Saida, Lebanon with few possessions to join Khadija’s family for what they thought was a temporary stay. However, it quickly became evident that a return home for Khadija, Ayesh, and their children was impossible, as news of the Israeli capture of Acre in May 1948 reached them.
While Acre was captured by Israel and repopulated by citizens of the new state, al-Qubab suffered a worse fate. Ayesh’s village, which was home to approximately 2,000 people, was attacked and virtually leveled, making it one of the around 400 Arab towns and villages that was evacuated or destroyed during the Nakba in 1948. Nearly the entire village was demolished, and today there is almost no sign of it ever having been there. Such was the fate of 60 villages in the Ramle Subdistrict—of which al-Qubab was a part—alone. If it were still standing today, al-Qubab would be in Israel’s Center District, as pictured in the map.
Ramallah
After two years in Saida, Ayesh and Khadija decided to return to Palestine, or rather, the area that came under control of Jordan in the aftermath of the war. Ayesh’s family had fled al-Qubab for Ramallah in the West Bank, and was soon joined by Ayesh, Khadija, and their three children. There, Ayesh and Khadija finally settled down, had nine more children, and were able to live in relative peace—at least until 1967.
Six-Day War
In 1967, Adel Khatib, the third youngest of Ayesh and Khadija’s twelve children, was eight years old. He was at home when he heard about Israeli attacks in areas of the West Bank on the news. Shortly after, Ayesh’s mother and sister—Adel’s grandmother and aunt—both rushed to warn Adel’s family and urged them to leave, as they could hear explosions from where they lived in southern Ramallah. Upon news of the Israeli advances and the sudden threat to their safety, Ayesh and Khadija decided it was time to flee and once again leave their home and lives behind. This time, however, they had to make the trip with eight of their children (including Adel), Adel’s paternal grandmother, and his aunt along with her whole family (including her husband and six children, the youngest of whom was a year old). Adel’s father stayed in Ramallah to try to find a truck and take the entire family over the border of the West Bank to Jordan. In the meantime, eight-year-old Adel and his family were encouraged to begin leaving because the Israelis were quickly approaching. Adel’s mother wanted to wait for his father but eventually agreed to leave on foot and regroup with him later.
Khadija Khatib c., 1985
They made the ten-day journey to Jordan by foot, taking with them nothing but a few clothes. Adel still remembers those ten days as clearly as ever, and stated while recollecting his experiences that he is likely to never forget that brief period in his life. Today, he talks of how he and his family scavenged for food and water along the way to Jordan, at times searching for any unfinished meals left behind by shepherds in fields. They had to stop frequently due to exhaustion and to avoid serious harm to Adel’s elderly grandmother and young siblings and cousins.
About half a day before their arrival on the Jordanian border, Adel’s mother grew uneasy. Khadija had heard that Palestinians who entered Jordan found it much more difficult to return home. She was also anxious about her husband, who had not caught up with them as planned. As such, she insisted on returning—again on foot.
The return journey proved to be substantially easier, as the party encountered a Bedouin in a small store along the way. This store owner provided the group of over two dozen family members with much needed food and water. His compassion made possible the Khatibs’ return to their homes.
When the group returned to Ramallah, they found the city under a curfew imposed by the Israeli military. Adel’s neighbor rushed to their home with the news that Ayesh had not been able to meet them near the border as planned because he had been injured. Despite the curfew, Khadija insisted on finding him at the hospital. She left the house after curfew, desperate to see Ayesh and make sure he was okay. Along her way, Khadija was stopped by two Israeli soldiers and was told to go home. She told them her husband was in the hospital and that she needed to see him, but they refused to let her pass. They told her that if she kept walking, they would shoot her, to which she replied, “Fine, shoot me. But I’m going to see my husband.” Luckily, the soldiers decided to let her go rather than shoot her as she walked away. Ayesh, however, was not so lucky.
Ayesh and Khadija c. 1986
Khadija found him lying in a hospital bed, wrapped in bandages from head to toes and unrecognizable. While he was trying to get a truck with which to drive his family to Jordan, Ayesh had been shot thirteen times by Israeli soldiers, who had opened fire on the car he and his friend were driving. One bullet proved to be fatal for his friend, but Ayesh rolled over into a ditch and played dead until the soldiers left. Eventually, two Palestinian civilians passed by and heard Ayesh’s calls for help. They dragged him to the nearest hospital, where he had to stay for seven months in order to fully recover.
Adel at the age of 17, shortly before his trip to the U.S.
Adel returned to school for the second grade when he returned to Ramallah. He continued in school until the 11th grade, at which point his parents wanted him to leave for the United States because many boys his age had been imprisoned. Fearing for his safety, Ayesh and Khadija sent him to live and work in the U.S., where most of his older siblings already lived.
In November 1977, Adel arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at age 17. Looking back on that time, Adel says he probably knew around 20 words in English. Three years later he had met and married Carol, who was born and raised in Cleveland. Adel’s two younger siblings eventually finished their schooling and moved in with Adel and Carol to continue their education in the U.S. After moving around the U.S. for a few years, Adel and Carol settled down in Wilmington, North Carolina and had four children.
Adel c., 1986 pictured in his store in Midland, Texas
The oral history presented above was obtained in an interview with Adel Khatib, conducted by Thao Nguyen and Zaid Khatib, Adel’s youngest child.
