Last update - 16:04 21/04/2005
Family Affair / The Al-Wakhvakhs- Lod
[actually should be Al-Wahwah]
The Al-Wakhvakh family in their living room in Lod.
From left to right: Baha on his father Naim's lap, Mehamad, Yusuf, Khalil, Zaheir, Ibrahim and Hadiya. (Reli Avrahami)
By Avner Avrahami
The cast: Naim (40), Zaheir (40), Khalil (19), Hadiya (16), Yusuf (14), Ibrahim (10), Mehamad (8), Baha (3).
The home: Two floors, detached on a half-dunam lot (an eighth of an acre), within a family compound of seven homes, next to the railway line. In theory the family's home is a villa on pillars (140 meters); in practice it is an unfinished jumble that was prematurely occupied. In front are a large olive tree and a ful patch, in back are chickens, some of them brooding in biscuit tins and plastic baskets, between are many children. Before entering, we step over a few water channels that are irrigating vegetables the family grows.
Moving inside: The gray concrete floor, untiled, sets the tone. We ascend a wounded staircase (from which little Baha has already fallen twice and been rushed to ER) and cross the threshold. We are in the living room. It is a large space with one sofa (wrapped in cloth), a rattan armchair, a television set attached to the ceiling (by a metal arm), a faded carpet and an iron stove. The window (like all the windows in the house) is covered by a makeshift blind. The absence of glass panes means it's cold at night. Adjacent is a naked kitchen with two refrigerators ("one is broken"), a small Formica table, an oven and gas burners. A pot of maklubeh (a stew of chicken with rice and vegetables) is cooking on the fire. Also on the same floor are the four bedrooms, one shared by Ibrahim and Mehamad, another by Khalil and Yusuf (plus computer), a third by Hadiya and little Baha. The parents have a room of their own, though the double bed in it is made of two beds of uneven height that have been shoved together. Things are scattered all over in every room and there is a scent of unruliness in the air.
The unruliness: The Lod Municipality is going to demolish the house, along with the other six houses in the compound (and may already have done so).
Livelihoods and occupations: Naim is a heavy-truck mechanic ("mainly DAFs"); he has worked for 23 years at Ta'avura (a large transport company) as a repairman for breakdowns on the road. Driving a "service vehicle" (a Volkswagen Transporter), he travels from one semitrailer to another from 8 A.M. until 7 P.M., unless he is needed, in which case he works on into the night. He arrives at the company's offices (at the entrance to Ramle) every morning in his own car, a 1986 Subaru - sometimes Zaheir drops him off. He likes his work very much, as he does Bondi (Avraham Livnat), the big boss ("Everyone should have a head honcho like him").
Zaheir's activities: Housewife ("I have a child of 3"). She is either cooking or cleaning all the time, and "when the children come home from school, we do homework and there goes the day."
The children: Khalil completed Ramle-Lod High School ("I still have to do the matriculation in Arabic"), getting 96 in mathematics (five units - the highest level), and is currently working at a pastry shop in Tel Aviv ("Angel's Bakery") which is busy (more than busy) with "kosher-for-Pesach cookies," traveling back and forth by taxi. He has no plans to backpack in the Far East; if he completes the matriculation certificate, he will study mathematics at university. Hadiya is in 11th grade (at Ramle-Lod), studying for "matrics" and doing "preparation for the psychometric" exam needed for university admission. She wants to go to teachers' college. Yusuf (Yossi) is in ninth grade in the junior high in the nearby neighborhood of Neve Yerek. Ibrahim and Mehamad attend Al-Manar Elementary School. In the morning they get a lift with mom or dad, and they return by foot ("20 minutes"). Baha is still at home, touching everything he can get his hands on (Zaheir: "He is a tricky kid"); he might go to kindergarten next year.
Naim's bio: Born in 1965. His father worked as a gardener for the municipality ("He died eight years ago"), his mother is a housewife. Naim has five brothers and four sisters. His family, which is from the Bedouin Al-Huzeil tribe, has lived in Lod since the 1950s, since arriving from Be'er Sheva. After attending Al-Manar Elementary School, he went to work as a mechanic. As a boy he got a job in Tel Aviv, where he learned the profession, moving to Ta'avura in 1982, where he has worked ever since.
Zaheir's bio: Born in Lod in 1964, one of 14 siblings. Her father ("He is now at home, due to a road accident") worked in a junk yard ("He has no pension"), her mother is a housewife. Her family, she says, has lived in Lod for at least six generations, and all her neighbors - those in the houses earmarked for demolition - are also relatives. After Al-Manar she attended Timon High School ("Now it is in the Chabad neighborhood"), stopped studying (at age 18) and then lived at home until she married Naim.
The meeting: There was no meeting. Naim and Zaheir are cousins and have known each other since childhood, being neighbors and attending the same school. One day in 1986, her father (Ibrahim), who is Naim's uncle, said, "First choice goes to a cousin and not a stranger." Things moved quickly: the wedding took place in eight months. They do not remember meeting during that period, certainly not alone. "I knew he was a good guy," Zaheir says, and reveals that someone had asked for her hand earlier but she turned down the proposal.
The wedding: September 20, 1986, at the Al-Wakhvakh home, three consecutive days. He bought her a gold ring in Ramle, she rented a bridal gown at Dolphin Salon (also in Ramle). The orchestra, they recall, was from Taibeh ("eight musicians with darbukas and violins"). They did not go on a honeymoon ("There was no way").
Travel abroad: "We have never been out of the country." Zaheir dares to dream of Antalya in Turkey. Paris? "I will never get there."
Daily routine: Zaheir gets up first ("at 6:15") and wakes up Khalil, the eldest ("He has to leave the house at a quarter to seven"), and then the rest of the children. She has a cup of tea ("Wissotzky tea, regular black, not herbal") and makes breakfast (pitas, 9-percent cheese, Choco). She lets Naim sleep until 7 ("because he gets home late at night"). When he wakes up, a cup of coffee will be waiting for him next to the bed (Naim: "Elite coffee"). They start dropping off the kids at 7:30, taking turns.
Driving license: Zaheir got her license in 1996, on her eighth try ("Because I had just become pregnant and there were already small children, and I started and stopped - in short, I was busy with other things").
Lunch: Naim finds something on the road ("baguette with tuna"). Zaheir serves the children majadra, stuffed vine leaves, squash and maluhiya (cooked leaves in chicken broth). In the evening they will have hummus or an omelet ("Something quick"). The menu does not include cornflakes.
Chicken: Now only once a week ("Because of the situation").
Help in the kitchen: Hadiya ("I have one daughter and she helps me"). The boys are exempt.
Eggs: The children don't like what the chickens in the yard lay ("Because it's dark yellow"). They prefer eggs from the grocery store, Zaheir says.
Television: They rarely watch, but if they do, it's Channel 2 (the investigative series "Fact," the consumer program "Kolbotek," the current affairs program hosted by Nissim Mishal).
Lights out: 9:30 ("on regular days"). Now ("because of the situation") the children are awake until 1 A.M. ("They keep hearing tractors").
Dreams: Zaheir - "Just for the house to remain"; Naim - "If the house is demolished, our whole life will be demolished - 23 years of work will go down the drain."
Another house: "One time we came to finalize a contract, $62,000, in Ganei Aviv [a Jewish neighborhood]. The seller, a Bukharan, heard us speaking Arabic and got scared. He said he had a commitment that Arabs would not live there."
Alternative: None. "There are only two neighborhoods for Arabs in Lod. No more were built. They don't take away the garbage in the Arab neighborhood and we don't want to live there."
The legal way: "They won't let us, no matter how much we ask. This has been our land since 1927, we didn't fall out of the sky. Zaheir's grandfather, Salim al-Barghouti, who died in 1979, left the land to the family. We submitted plans, we submitted requests, but one of the city engineers said, You will not get a permit because you're an Arab. In those words."
Nearly a solution: "We sat with Maxim Levy of blessed memory [the late mayor of Lod] and he told us, we will not demolish, we will bring in engineers and find a solution, and suddenly Maxim dies on us."
Fines: Until the bulldozers arrive they are paying NIS 3,300 a month ("We took a loan from the family").
Overdraft: "The biggest in Lod."
The law: "We are trying to go with the law, but the law is not meeting us halfway. We know we built without a permit, but we tried every possible way and no one is willing to sit down with us."
Police: "They're always wandering around and making people uptight, and we're not criminals and not offenders."
Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): "Happiness is the house. That is all we think about. It could happen at any minute and we want to be rescued. Where will we go? If you demolish the house, then throw us into Jordan already, like the refugees of `48."
The place
Lod - Population 74,000, of whom 20,000 are Arabs. "Here, people live together, side by side, Jews and Arabs, in coexistence founded on values and tolerance" (from the Lod Municipality's Internet site).
The family house: "we wanted to build it legally".