jq-abstract

Sitting in his home in the southwestern suburb of Jerusalem of al-Baq’a, on a side street off the Bethlehem road, Jeryis al-Salti wrote in an unused calendar book from 1937 what became the first line in his year long diary. “We started writing in this diary on Friday May 13, 1949.” It had been a whole year since Salti, or any of the members of his household who remained with him at home, had seen any of their loved ones who departed for, or were living in, what had become the Jordanian side of the city.