In that political framework, Omar started his national struggle. A friend of Omar says: “We discovered in Omar an early eagerness and readiness for sacrifice. We were attracted to the idea of challenging the Israelis by throwing stones across the fence of barbed wire, when we were still twelve to thirteen years of age. Our living on the line of fire and the sight of the Israeli caravan heading for “Hodassa” in the heart of the Arab sector have provoked in us a deep-feeling of frustration. Omar and I thought for a long time on how to challenge the Israeli caravan. We succeeded in hitting it with a sound-device, homeland from cork and wire. This has caused a collision of the wagons, and the overthrow of its cargo of vegetables and fruits. That success has encouraged us to repeat it many times”.
Now, the “Cause” became Omar’s focal point. His personal initiatives were not limited to one area. One of his brothers says: “Omar started at an early time to get in contact with the tourists visiting Jerusalem with the aim of explaining to them the Palestinian problem. That led him to learn English. Very often he would bring home with him those tourists sympathetic with the Palestinian cause and ask his mother to extend her hospitality to them”. Physical exercises used to make Omar feel strong and ready for confrontation. He learned swimming, wrestling and weight-lifting.
After primary school, Omar moved to Al-Rashidiyeh secondary school known to be the bastion of nationalists and a centre for organizing mass protests. Hundreds of Palestinian cadre militants graduated from there. Upon joining this school, Omar left behind his individual initiatives and started the organized militant work.
In the middle of the fifties, the political arena has witnessed a revival of the sole of the national, pan-national and progressive parties, within the context of the general national awareness in the West Bank and Jordan. Omar grew up amidst the struggle against the U.S. plan for the settlement of the Palestinians, against Baghdad pact and the aggression of 1956. Dr Samir Ghosheh says: “We were surprised to see the quiet and serious Omar at the head of the popular manifestations in Jerusalem, protesting against Baghdad pact. The marches were brutally repressed by the Jordanian security men and that caused the martyrdom of Raja Abu Amache. I realized that the quietness and seriousness of Omar were shielding a strong militant power”.
During the tripartite aggression on Egypt, there was a great popular ebullition in Jerusalem and other cities in the West Bank and Jordan. The National forces proposed to train the people on the use of arms and first aids in preparation for an eventual Israeli attack. They succeeded on imposing that demand on the Jordanian government. Omar was among the activists who responded to that call shouldered that mission, and trained assiduously the people on the use of arms and civil defence. He was resolute on armed struggle until the last movement.
As a result of his active role in ignoring mass manifestation, the Jordanian security men started learning him. Omar’s father, along with the parents of other activist students were threatened by the Jordanian security men that their children will be expelled from the city if they continue to agitate.
Omar finished his secondary school in 1958. He then worked as a teacher in Jerusalem and applied at the same time to the University of Damascus to study English literature. He graduated with a bachelor degree. At the beginning of his university years, he joined the ranks of the Arab Nationalists Movement.
His organized militant work was reflected in his teaching. At the beginning of his lessons, Omar would explain to his students the current events and the urgent tasks a waiting the nationalists.
In other words, Omar’s creative work was to implement in his students the love of their homeland and the will to fight for it along with the curricular teaching necessary for their education. He was serious in both and that won him the respect and love of his students. Omar became subject to harassment and transfer from one school to another as a punishment for his leading militant role. One of these schools was in Beit Safafa, a town split between the Palestinian and the Israelis. This arbitrary division of the town and its citizens was a subject of provocation for Omar. He used it skilfully as an example to incite the students and their parents against the occupation. They responded to their teacher either by joining the protest mass movements of getting organized in the Arab Nationalists Movement.
Then Omar got transferred to the secondary school of Jenin. That school was an active arena for him.
Secondary school student are a reverse of national forces, quick to respond and move in the national struggle. He stayed there until he was arrested in 1966, in the context of a massive repression campaign launched against the national parties.
The relationship between Omar and his students was very close, not because of his leading national role, and his devotion to his carrier but because of his interest in them as human beings. He used to take them on trips to strengthen his ties with them and also to make them know better their homeland and its importance in history.
He volunteered to teach also in Al-Maqassed Schools to eliminate illiteracy among workers and small vegetable and sweet ventures. He managed to make many of them literate. His teaching was tightly linked with educating them politically and that owned him their love and admiration. His relationship with the simple people used to make him proud and very happy.
On the eve of the June war of 1967, the national forces with their different parties were dramatically weak as a result of the brutal repression campaign waged against them by the Jordanian regime.
Under the pressure of the momentum created by the unjust aggression, they called for the organization of the “Popular Resistance Groups”, in the village, towns and cities of the West Bank especially in Jerusalem. Omar was among the activist who urged the people to join them. He was a firm advocate for the coalition of different national parties in front of the common enemy. Witnesses to that are the joint national popular protest movements that have confronted the Jordanian regime and its capitulationist policy in face of the Israeli aggression on the village of Al-Samouh. Nabil Qablawe said “Omar had a good relationship with the Jordanian Communist party. He tried also to bring the other national force into a joint common stand. At that moment I felt that Omar really enjoys a spirit for alliance work. He was very close to the idea of a ‘national front’ something yet unknown in the annuals of the national movement.”
When the Israeli aggression on Egypt and Syria started in 1967 the Palestinian national movement in the West Bank took the initiative in mobilizing the masses, and organizing the popular resistance to meet the serious and urgent task. |
