Nazmieh & her brother Nazim (2003)

Nazmieh with Rania, Rami, Ryan at Haifa Beach (1997)

Michel, Ryan, Rami, Nazmieh, Rania & Amal (2004)
at Nazmieh's house in Haifa

Amal's Eulogy spoken in Arabic at her mother's funeral in Fassuta

Beloved Mother

1928-2007

Um Kamal- Nazmieh (Nazli) Aziz Khoury Atieh

Once upon a time, long ago, Nazmieh was an orphan child who lost her parents and her childhood before she turned five years old (five springs).

Nazmieh grew up at a Catholic boarding school run by a nun called "Mama Dalal" in Haifa city- separated from her younger sister Becky, and far away from her eight loving older siblings and Fassuta, her warm caring home village.

In the orphanage, Nazmieh never had gifts, or toys or fun. The girls had to work, even the littlest ones.

Nazmieh returned to her home village Fassuta by the age of 11. By the age of 15, she had become a remarkable young lady, working hard to support herself and at the same time desperately searching for her missing sister Becky.

Nazmieh had become distrustful of Nun Dalal and with the help of others who had also grown distrustful of Dalal, Nazmieh sought to find out the truth about Dalal, the nun that took many children in who were never seen again by their families and home villages.

Nazmieh had great support in her long difficult search for her sister from Bishara Al-Khoury the President of Lebanon, and from Haifa, Father Harb, the lawyer Hanna Nakara, Dr. George Abid and many others.

Nazmieh was able to find her sister on July 7th 1947, and their reunion was joyous- but sadly Nazmeih was not able to bring her sister home to live in Fassuta, their village in historic Palestine, as Israel refused to allow Becky to return as a citizen in the land of her birth.

In November 1947 Nazmieh witnessed the Haganah Jewish Troops bombing the IPC- the Iraqi Petrol Company refinery Massacre, where Nazmieh was employed at the time with a good job. More than 100 Palestinians were killed or wounded on that awful afternoon during a shift change so there were more employees at the gate where the bombing was . On the spot, Nazmieh volunteered as an angel of mercy in a time of great need and trauma, and was quite instrumental in saving the lives of many Arab victims as well as at least one Jew, Ben Shallom, whom she hid from angry crowds who wanted revenge.

Nazmieh's youth was dedicated to resistance against the crimes of the Jewish terrorists and then after 1948 the crimes of the Israeli Occupation Forces. She became involved with anti-occupation groups with Dr. Emil Tuma; the writer Emil Habibi; teachers Magee Karkabi & Olgo Tubi; Mr. Zahi Karkabi; Salma Ashour; the teacher and writer Ali Ashour; Yousra Al-Jamal; Josef Abdo; the publisher Tawfiq Toubi; poet Tawfik Zeyad; and her lifelong friend Saada Al-Sholuh and many other wonderful people including Hayh Tuma; Yanena; Irene Khamis; & Yohuvet and Benyamen Gonin.

Nazmieh's most exciting adventure was carrying a secret message to Dr. Emil Tuma from Beirut to Haifa. The new government "Israel" did not allow the Palestinian professionals to form any political groups against the Zionist occupation: Palestinians who tried ended up in jail- or simply assassinated.

While Nazmieh was trying to smuggle in the message for Dr. Emil Tuma she was detained at the boarder for three long days by Israeli troops.... Nazmieh swallowed the message and was able to smuggle it through undetected and not long after handed it to a very grateful Dr. Emil Tuma in Haifa.

Early in the 1950's, over and over Nazmieh did all she could to help her sister Becky return to their home village and become an Israeli citizen with the right to live in the land of her birth- her homeland. But the Israeli Occupation Forces exiled Becky three times.

In the mid 1950s Nazmieh married Alexander Najeeb Atieh. It was to be the one and only marriage for them both. They had four children: Amal, Naila, Johina, and Kamal.

My mother & father (God bless their souls) became devoted guardians for a brief time for the print shop Al-etihad (the Union) which published a bi-weekly Arabic newspaper. The Atiehs, my parents, protected the print shop from Jewish terrorist groups who tried to burn down the print shop more than once. Unfortunately eventually the terrorists did succeed.

In the early 1960s, A Jewish terrorist group burned my father's fishing boat as well as his nets and everything he had in storage- and they viciously beat and then stabbed him in the back, wounding him severely so as to give a message to all the local Arab men to avoid fishing at Kishon Fishing Port.

My mother Nazmieh took care of my Dad's wounds and then wisely went to the scene of the crime with a camera to document the crime scene- the burned storage, goods and boat.

Nazmieh was amazing- she simply never gave up, she firmly believed in resistance. She was persistent. And she believed in non-violent action. She was involved with the Democratic Womens Movement (Palestinian & Jewish) for women's rights, labor rights, human rights, and political prisoners rights. She was one of the first women striking in response to commemorate Land Day. Nazmieh's friends called her the nick name Nazli.

Nazli was also one of the first who helped start Women In Black- Haifa in the early 1980s; as well as Checkpoint Watch, and she was very active until the summer of 2005 when she grew too ill to be as involved.

She was very much involved with many movements to stop the Israeli occupation, believing at that time in two states... Peace Now- believing that we all can live together with respect.

As she grew too old to attend protests she became a volunteer knitter for the organization Mothers of the Prisoners Movement, making wool sweaters for prisoners to keep them warm in cold Israeli jails.

After the Israeli massacre of April 2002 in Jenin Refugee Camp she was the oldest women who walked in the 10,000 strong demonstrations to Jenin Refugee Camp, but the Israeli Occupation Forces stopped us at the entrance of Jenin city, preventing us from entering.

Nazli- as every peace activist used to call her- was very much against Israeli confiscations of Palestinian land in Upper Galilee and all other places.

Nazli was generous with love for people, and people loved her back.

Some of the songs she used to sing roughly translated from Arabic into English:

We are the children of the labor men
Tomorrow we'll grow up and be men.

We are the youth, we have the future
with dignity for ever.

&
one of Fassuta's many children's songs:

Oh God, our Lord, send us rain for our plants
They are the older generation who made all the problems
but we are the children- why must we pay the price.

& another song from Fassuta:

I'm the water running in the valley
Give drink to all plants and boil me
over the kindling wood till I evaporate

Nazmieh, Nazli, my mother faced her life with great dignity. She struggled to win with will power. She was a caring loving person, a giant with her aching heart- her mind sharp until the end.

Nazmieh- Nazli- Um Kamal, my mother and grandmother , a very kind "Teta" to my children: She had the best time of her life here, visiting us in the USA.

She was of the school of giving, compassion & strength. I learned from her patience, dignity, resistance... never give up.

Jamal Mousa, a writer, wrote about her in his Diary.

Anton Shammas- professor, wrote about her in his 1st novel "Arabesques".

Janet Powers- professor in America, wrote about her in her book "Blossoms on the Olive Tree". Janet's gifted copy to my mother was then gifted to The Dr. Emil Tuma Education Institution at Haifa in 2006.

I pray from the bottom of my heart for God's mercy & asking you to keep my mother, Nazmieh, in your prayers and forever in your heart.

Amen

Amal Atieh Jubran
Feb 18, 2007

Nazmieh & Amal at Amal's father's headstone (1994)

Amal & Nazmieh in Haifa (2005)

1st photo is of Maha, Nazmieh, Suha, Amal & Kamal
2nd photo is of my cousin Maha, my sister Naila, myself (Amal), my cousin Suha, & my youngest sister Johina (summer 1972)