Thread by @muhammadshehad2

Left: Khalil Sakakini's home in 1934 Jerusalem; which he put everything he had into building.

Zionist Haganah militants took his home in 1948.

Right: #Israel gave the house to the Women's International Zionist Org.

Sakakini became a penniless refugee & died of a broken heart🧵

2\ In 1934, Khalil Sakakini sent a jubilant letter to his son Sari, who was studying in the US, telling him that they finally have a place to call home. He described his relief that he can retire peacefully & his wife's excitement of not having to move between rented places...

3\Khalil Sakakini (1878 – 1953), who was one of the most influential Palestinian intellectuals, named each room in his house after an Arab capital: Cairo, Damascus, Sanaa, Baghdad

His home had a rich library & was a meeting place for artists, poets & leaders from the MENA region

4\ In 1948, the Zionist Palmach militia wreaked havoc on Sakakini's neighborhood "Qatamon" in #Jerusalem; forced its people to flee & looted their homes.

2 days later, Sakakini found himself a refugee in Cairo listening to the radio telling him that his home was taken over!

5\ After #Israel's founding in 1948, Sakakini's home was given to an Israeli family. His library was looted & taken to the Jewish National Library at the Hebrew University. The house is adorned with Israeli flags obfuscating its history.

Sakakini was never allowed to return!

6\ In 2014, a journalist visited Sakakini's house & met its resident, Rafael, a Jewish Israeli from Kurdistan. Next door is a Jewish woman from the US who thinks Rafael is "primitive."

At the house' entrance is a picture of "Rabbi Ovadia Yosef" who called Arabs "rats and snakes"

7\ Ironically, Sakakini who was imprisoned in 1917 for giving refuge to an illegal Jewish migrant in Palestine (poet Alter Levine) was made a refugee himself by Israel

#Israeli law allows ONLY Jewish Israelis to reclaim properties they once owned before 1948, even if compensated