. Those who didn’t want to leave for Gaza, they brought to Lod. Part of my family is in Gaza.
"In the beginning of 1950 Zuckerman was no longer the governor. Others came. They decided to expel people at the beginning of 1950. They couldn’t just drive people out. Israel was recognized by the United Nations. I was one of the people who opposed the expulsion. We thought there would be peace, that people would return and we would live in our villages. They saw that it wasn’t working out that way. Israel was new, couldn’t do what we planned. They were clever about it, so the world would see that it wasn’t them who were driving people out right away. They didn’t act directly.
"They didn’t let me teach school. I wanted to stay in Majdal. I didn’t leave. We were a group who opposed the expulsion, young educated men. I didn’t collaborate. They deported me to Acre. They hadn’t started expelling people then. They couldn’t, the world saw. In the Majdal ghetto people worked. Jewish contractors arrived to take laborers to work. About three thousand people lived in the ghetto. In the middle of 1949 Jews started arriving in Majdal. The Jews lived outside of the ghetto. I worked in the harvest with Jews. People from Amal would come to the ghetto to drink coffee. In April 1950 I was deported to Acre.
"We would present ourselves to the military governor of the Western Galilee. Every few villages in the Galilee had a governor. Every morning we would present ourselves there. After a few weeks they deported me to Tarshicha. The governor drove me from Acre to Tarshicha. His name was Moshe Reiss. He said that we were spreading propaganda against the government. They deported me because I opposed the expulsion from Majdal.
"We arrived in Tarshicha. I had to appear twice a day at the police station. No house, no work, nothing, and it was forbidden to go out of the village. Come to the police, sign. I asked where the Bishara family was, I looked for someone who had been a guest at my family. When Ramle was occupied, the residents surrendered under military conditions, but nonetheless they expelled all the residents after a few days. There was a man who stayed and demanded the lands and then they deported him to Tarshicha. I heard that he was staying with the Bishara family. I lived there. I would present myself at the police station every day.
"One day I heard there was an assembly in Pki’in. I wanted to come to the assembly, to know what was happening with my wife and daughter. It was forbidden to go out of Tarshicha. My wife and my daughter had stayed in Majdal. I arrived at the assembly in Pki’in. The police came to look for us and some people took me to the house of some falahim [peasants]. The police didn’t find me. The following day I came to Tarshicha. They told me that the police had been looking for me. The captain told me that I had been in Pki’in, told me to clean the stables. I refused. He beat me. I told him he would pay for it. He brought me back to Acre. From there they brought me back to Tarshicha. I was detained. In the evening people from the army came, apologized for the beating, and said that I would be free on the condition that I would not complain about it to the Knesset or to a lawyer. Free to be in Tarshicha. If I submitted a complaint they would put me on trial. I agreed. I returned to the Bishara family. I wanted to go out to work, to leave the prison. I agreed not to complain. People from the communist party wanted me to complain. They submitted a parliamentary question to the Knesset. They took me to court and sentenced me to four months in Jaffa prison. I was released in September 1950.
"I arrived in Majdal. The army controlled the city. I saw people with furniture and clothing, there were people who wanted to leave for Jordan. Some of the people wanted to stay. The following day they took me to Acre and to Tarshicha. I hadn’t presented myself at the police station. I worked a little while. In November 1950 I got a letter that my wife and daughter were in Lod. I returned to Acre to get a permit to return. Reiss, the g