Antonio of Bethlehem

The Author's IntroductionIt was nine o'clock when I left my house in a hot July morning in 1969. It took me about half an hour to get to my work place in the center of Kuwait, where I have been living for several years. I had just entered my office when the telephone rang. On the other end of the line was my friend Abd al-Fattah, the Egyptian journalist for al-Hadaf, a Kuwaiti newspaper. He soon moved the conversation toward politics and gave me the latest developments in Arabic countries. He then asked me, if I would like to meet an important international fighter whom he was going to interview this evening about his experiences. "Yes, by all means!" was my immediate answer. Abd al-Fattah told me that man's name was Antonio and that he was of Colombian and Palestinian origin. He happened to be visiting one of his relatives in Kuwait. My friend added that he had an extensive history with the resistance movement in Palestine, but also in Cuba and other South American countries. I asked Abd al-Fattah, if he knew Antonio's relative. "It is Nassri, a friend who has been living in Kuwait for a long time. He is a businessman who owns three shops in Hawalli and al-Nuqra where he sells some Palestinian products." He then added, "I'll come over at six to pick you up, and we shall go together to his home, which is also in Hawalli."We ended our phone conversation. I was excited about what I had heard from Abd al-Fattah. I was sure that, with his distinguished status as a journalist, he would serve the readers of al-Hadaf best in delivering them information about the international scope of a unique resistance movement. His brilliant writings about the problems of the Arabs had after all always a wide-reaching impact on the media when political platforms were concerned. At six in the evening, Abd al-Fattah came over with his car and we left for his friend's home. In Hawalli, he stopped in front of a building on Ibn Khaldoun Street. We knocked on the door of a flat on the first floor. Nassri opened the door with a lovely smile, and Abd al-Fattah introduced me to him. In the living room, we met two men whom Nassri introduced to us. They were his relatives, Antonio and Fadhel Rasheed. Both men started talking about events they lived through in Palestine before 1948. I felt overwhelmed by what I was hearing about the resistance movement. With the words of a veteran fighter, Antonio talked about the lessons learned from the war of June 1967, which had taken place a short while ago. He spoke bitterly: "It was a major setback. We were robbed of the beauty of life within merely six days. When Arabs suffered a great defeat and their land became largely an occupied territory, all our dreams were destroyed. Everything around us changed in a short period of time, a change that left in me an everlasting sorrow."Silence prevailed. Antonio then once again spoke with melancholy: "We hope that our efforts will spread and strengthen us against these terrible attacks." [...]