MY ROOTS ARE DEEP IN PALESTINE
By Ibrahim Ebeid
Many people have asked me to publish the story of my life in a series to enable them to read it. I respond willingly and gladly:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ibrahim Ebeid was born in Palestine before the country was a casualty of WWII and a large portion was occupied by the Zionist forces to become Israel in 1948. He left his country of birth in his early 20s and went on to live in Germany and the United States,
where he resides today. Along his journey, he spent extended periods of time in various Arab countries, especially Iraq.
Ebeid’s childhood was initially quite idyllic as he and his friends enjoyed the natural beauty of Palestine and spent much
time among the orange groves and hills and woods.
At the end of World War II, storm clouds began to emerge that forecasted a drastic change to his life as well as every inhabitant of Palestine.
The victors drew up maps to reflect their geopolitical desires and Palestine was about to lose its identity of the past two millennia. The British were occupying Palestine but realized they had to leave. The result was the creation of the country of Israel, a supposed home for Jews of the world to relocate to and create a Jewish state. Palestinians were quite perplexed by the new powers to be because, for centuries, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived side-by-side with no problem. Now, millions of outsiders were moving to the newly-declared country of Israel and foreign Zionism began to
separate the Jews from the non-Jews.
In 1959, Ebeid left his beloved Palestine and moved to Germany,
where he worked and lived for one year. The following year, he moved to the US. Eventually, he gained US citizenship and served in the US Army.
He met his future wife, Maria, and they got married and had two children; one boy and one girl.
Despite his living in foreign countries, his love of Palestine was Ebeid’s passion for his entire life. He has relentlessly been active, and still is, with Palestinian issues. Once he moved to the US, he never gave up on the Arab cause, especially for Palestine. He regularly spoke at rallies, forums, institutions, and universities.
In the US, Ebeid became involved in writing and publishing. He was
the English editor for the publication, al-Moharer, which had a worldwide circulation. Many of his articles were re-printed in various media. He wrote in-depth articles about Palestine, Iraq, and the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party. He also published an English-language newspaper from 1969 to the mid-1970s, The Vanguard. It was mostly distributed among Ba’ath Party members in the US and other interested parties to keep them up to date on issues.
During the 1970s, Ebeid lived in Baghdad and was a member of the
Foreign Relations Bureau of the national leadership of the Ba’ath Party.
He was in charge of coordinating communications with progressive US and European political activists. He also traveled to the Soviet Union and East Germany within a delegation to sign accords with the Ba’ath Party and the Communist Parties of those countries.
The reason for writing this book is two-fold: to describe Ibrahim
Ebeid’s lifelong relentless support for Palestine, as well as the Arab world, and for a brief genealogy of his family.
He was always interested in his family history since his childhood.
But, he wanted to know more. He took more than 15 years in a relentless search for information about the Farr family, from which the Ebeids descended. He wants to pass on to his children and grandchildren, and future members of the Ebeid family, the family information he has compiled so they, as well as other interested people, can learn about their origins and roots. He realized that no one had chronicled the family history in writing and that his descendants would not have access to the people who are now deceased that he spoke to. This magnificent story of Ibrahim Ebeid’s intriguing life shows that Palestine is still foremost in his heart after 80 years. Rarely is such emotion and commitment made by any human being.
Jeff Archer
Author of The Mother of All Battles: The Endless US-Iraq War
DEDICATION
With Love To: Maria my beloved wife, my son Yazid,
daughter Carolina, my grandchildren Isabel, Sylvia and
Patrick and the descendants of the Ebeid family
