She forgot how old she is, but she does remember what she went through: how she belonged to a Palestinian wealthy family; how in 1948, at the creation of
Israel, she lost her home in Shihawannes and all the orange and lemon plantations, all the camels and the cows; how she took her four children to rush off in the cold winter weather when violence stormed her village; how she left everything behind except the house keys, hoping to be back soon…. And how – in the following six years on the road as a refugee – she gave birth and lost five children, including two twin baby-girls. They all died of hunger and cold, two in the caves of Kalkilja, three in the caves of Nablus. Caves were all she could find – as thousands of others – to find refuge. She finally settled in Nablus, and she has been a refugee ever since. Sadika was allowed to go back to Shihawannes once, in 1977, to find a new owner in her house, a Jewish-Iraqi woman who told her: “I wish you could come back, it would mean that I can also go back…”.