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A one-woman ministry of information

RELATED STORIES

Meeting with social activist Raymonda Tawil
Uri Avnery Social activist
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אחרי מלחמת ששת הימים, מיד אחרי הכיבוש, היה לי בתנועת "העולם הזה" וגם בעיתון "העולם הזה" איש יליד עיראק שידע ערבית על בוריה. ערבית פשוטה, לא ספרותית. ואצל הערבים זה הבדל גדול מאוד. אבל ערבית פשוטה, טובה ופשוטה, בשם גלעדי. והוא היה באותה עת של "מלחמת ששת הימים" עורך, מוציא ומפיץ של "העולם הזה" בערבית. מיד אחרי המלחמה הוא ביקר בשכם, ושמה הוא מצא שקבוצה של נשים עשתה שביתת שבת נגד הכיבוש הישראלי. היה עוצר וכל מיני דברים כאלה, והם רצו שהמושל הישראלי יחזיר את החיים לקדמותם. והמנהיגה שלהם הייתה רימונדה טאוויל. למה רימונדה טאוויל? רימונדה נולדה וגדלה בישראל. היא הייתה ממשפחה ערבית מעכו והיא הייתה בבי"ס לבנות ערביות בנצרת. ולכן כששכם נכבשה היא גרה בשכם, כי שלחו אותה מעכו לירדן להתחתן, למצוא חתן, והיא מצאה חתן, טאוויל, מבוגר ממנה, מנהל בנק, וניהל בנק בזרקא או באיזשהו מקום בירדן והיא רצתה לחזור לארץ, אז הוא קיבל העברה לנהל בנק בשכם וכך הם גרו בשכם כשבא הכיבוש הישראלי. בא הכיבוש הישראלי, הערבים לא ידעו מה זה,  פחדו פחד מוות. הרי כל הזמן שמעו שהישראלים הם מפלצות. ואז הייתה רימונדה שלא פחדה מהישראלים. היא הכירה את הישראלים ודיברה עברית. אז השביתה הזאת הייתה בהנהגת רימונדה, היא ארגנה את השביתה הזאת. והערביות ראו שאפשר לשבות נגד הכיבוש, נגד המושל. ואז גלעדי, האיש שלי, ביקר אצלם. ורימונדה אמרה היא רוצה לראות את אורי אבנרי, שיבוא לשם. והוא קרא לי. הלכתי לשם ומצאתי את עצמי אני חושב שזה היה בבניין העירייה בשכם, עם קבוצה של איזה 30 נשים ערביות וכך הכרתי את רימונדה. ורימונדה אמרה: "בוא, אם אתה מוכן, קח אותנו אל המושל כמשלחת, אנחנו רוצים לדבר עם המושל”. לקחתי אותם אל המושל. המושל היה איש שהכרתי אותו מקודם, לא היה חייל, היה אזרח מגויס, שכחתי את שמו. והוא למעשה זרק אותי החוצה. הוא אמר: "אתה צריך לעזוב את שכם תוך חצי שעה, אני אתן לך קצין שילווה אותך”. וככה רימונדה חזרה לשביתה ואני גורשתי משכם.‏‏‏‎.‏‎.‏

After the Six Day War, immediately after the occupation, I had in the HaOlam Hazeh movement and also on the HaOlam Hazeh newspaper an Iraqi-born man who spoke Arabic fluently.  Simple Arabic, not literary; among the Arabs there is a very big difference. But he knew simple Arabic, good and simple, and his name was Giladi. At the time of the Six Day War he was the editor, publisher and distributor of the Arabic edition of HaOlam HaZeh. Immediately after the war, he visited Nablus where he found a group of women conducting a sit-in strike against the Israeli occupation. There was a curfew and things like that, and they wanted the Israeli rulers to restore life to what it had been before. Their leader was Raymonda Tawil. Why Raymonda Tawil? Raymonda was born and raised in Israel. She was from one of the Arab families in Acre and she had gone to an Arab school for girls in Nazareth. When Nablus was captured, she was living in Nablus because she had been sent from Acre to Jordan to get married, find a husband, and she found a husband, Tawil, who was older than her, a bank manager, and he managed a bank in Zarqa or somewhere in Jordan. She wanted to return to Israel so he got transferred to manage a bank in Nablus and they lived in Nablus when the Israeli occupation started.

The Israeli occupation started; the Arabs didn't know what it was and they were scared to death. They had always heard that the Israelis are monsters. And then there was Raymonda who was not afraid of the Israelis. She knew the Israelis and spoke Hebrew. So this strike was led by Raymonda, she organized the strike. And the Arab women realised that it was possible to strike against the occupation, against the governor. Then Giladi, my man, visited them. Raymonda said she would like to see Uri Avnery – that I should come there. And he called me. I went there and I found myself, I think it was in the municipal building in Nablus, a group of some 30 Arab women and this I how I met Raymonda. Raymonda said: 'Come on, if you are willing, take us as a delegation to the governor, we want to talk with governor'. I took them to the governor. The governor was a man whom I had known from earlier, he was not a soldier, he was an enlisted civilian, I forgot his name. He actually threw me out. He said: 'You have to leave Nablus within half an hour; I'll give you an officer to accompany you'. And so Raymonda went back to the strike and I was expelled from Nablus.

Uri Avnery (1923-2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. As a teenager, he joined the Zionist paramilitary group, Irgun. Later, Avnery was elected to the Knesset from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981. He was also the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine, 'HaOlam HaZeh' from 1950 until it closed in 1993. He famously crossed the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yasser Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader ever met with an Israeli. Avnery was the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including '1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem' (2008); 'Israel's Vicious Circle' (2008); and 'My Friend, the Enemy' (1986).

Listeners: Anat Saragusti

Anat Saragusti is a film-maker, book editor and a freelance journalist and writer. She was a senior staff member at the weekly news magazine Ha'olam Hazeh, where she was prominent in covering major events in Israel. Uri Avnery was the publisher and chief editor of the Magazine, and Saragusti worked closely with him for over a decade. With the closing of Ha'olam Hazeh in 1993, Anat Saragusti joined the group that established TV Channel 2 News Company and was appointed as its reporter in Gaza. She later became the chief editor of the evening news bulletin. Concurrently, she studied law and gained a Master's degree from Tel Aviv University.

Tags: Nablus, Acre, Nazareth, Jordan, Six Day War, Raymonda Tawil Hawa, Naeim Giladi

Duration: 4 minutes, 10 seconds

Date story recorded: October 2015

Date story went live: 11 May 2017