Published : 27-03-2015
By Alaa Al Barghouti- Exclusive to the AGPS
Two lovers were distanced by the MIG warplane, the siege prevented their meeting, and a sniper shot separates them and reunited them in another world, a world with no planes, no injustice, no mercenaries, and no siege. The story of the martyr lovers "Sarah and Alaa" is a story that some people might think that its heroes came out of its sad lines, or maybe they are a Hollywood movie heroes.
"Sarah and Alaa" is a real story its heroes are Palestinian refugees from the Yarmouk camp in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"AlaaFarha" is a student who could not manage to graduate from the engineering department in a private collage in Syria due to the war; he loved his young relative "Sarah Ouda" since he was a high school student.
A love story between "Sarah and Alaa" who always dreamt of completing their life together side by side which is not a fairy dreamwhich should have been crowned by the story, but the war that killed thousands of children, women, and civilians is capable of killing any hope or lovestory.
The MIG Rockets Distance the Lovers…
Over the roar beat of the MIG warplane that hovered over the Yarmouk refugee camp on 16th of December 2012, as its missiles draw lines of blood, in a tragic day with all sense of the word. The rockets flattened Abdul-Qader al-Husseini mosque in the Yarmouk refugee camp, leaving a massacre and put the fate of more than two hundred thousand refugees at a crossroads since that date.
A massacre that formed a serious turning point in the history of the Palestinians in Syria; thousands of the camp's residents have fled on foot in a tragic scene that brought to mind the first Nakba of Palestinians in 1948. An old man holds his tearsover the consecutive catastrophes he lives, a father carries his children and running quickly with his family for fear of repeating the bombing of the camp, and other hundreds of black scenes. Between the crowds were "Sarah" and her family, who left in a hurry, adrift on her face, distressed of what happened, and did not occur to Sarah's mind that her lover had remained inside the camp, and that the next meeting would be only passing through the impossible, that Sarah decided to break into.
The Meeting is Forbidden by the Siege
After hours "Sarah" knew that "Alaa" is still inside the Camp, the events were accelerated and the camp was closed. The residents were prevented of returning back to it and the remaining residents were imprisoned inside, and so "Alaa" remained trapped inside and "Sarah" abroad.
Days, weeks and months passed by and the siege became stricter and the cases of starving to death and disease were spread. In front of this disaster, the residents of the camp who fled to escape the bombing searching for safety started to lose hope to return to their homes.
After this tragedy, Sarah's family decided to leave Syria, in a new wave of asylum took away tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to Europe, the risk taken by Sarah's family in hope of protectingherself from the shadow of death, which now haunts the Palestinian refugees from one place to another. The journey of the bitter asylum has started through the death corridors by land and sea in search of the minimum life standards.
From the Yarmouk to Bulgaria
Bulgaria was the last step that separates Sarah of her hope; with every km away of "Alaa," their souls were further related.
To overcome the plight, and to stick to hope, Sarah and Alaa decided to legally marry despite the distance and siege through the virtual world that enable them of contact by Skype program which gave them a new window of better future.
A relative of "Alaa" commented on this story; he said " May be Alaa felt that the life is not worthy without Sarah, and Sarah realized that there is no safety but being with her soulmate Alaa who are the security she seeks inside the Yarmouk besieged camp.
The Wall of Fear Breaks Down in front of the Insistence of Hope
After a few months, Sarah made the decision to join her husband, a decision more likely to commit suicide! The Syrian regime and PFGC groups imposed a strict siege on the Yarmouk refugee camp, and the dozens victims of starvation are falling at a time when the media were full of pictures of the martyrs of starvation; Sarah had begun her way back to Yarmouk.
Sarah's conviction was stronger than all those fears; she packed her luggage and headed to Syria. After her arrival at Damascus Sarah found that the rifles and checkpoints surrounding the camp, turning her from her dream, but it is impossible to despair after she cut thousands of kilometers, and only a few dozen meters separating her from Alaa.
All those guns did not discouraged "Sarah" from attempting to access to her husband, even if the decision of passing such road where anyone try to cross it would be killed or arrest, all she was thinking about at this time was to meet her husband and to complete her life beside him, even if they are under siege.
Sarah is Approaching and Alaa is Away
The besieged "Alaa" did not know that a treacherous sniper would end the dream in a second, and prevent him from meeting his wife. On 28th of January 2014, the sniper did not wait few days and perhaps hours for Alaa to meet Sarah. Alaa was assassinated by a sniper bullet; the snipers who refer the camp's life into hell, ending his chapter in life at this painful experience.
Most of Sarah's relatives and friends that she will think of returning back to her family after the tragedy she passed through, but she did not. Alaa's absence does not the absence of his grave, the thing that became her new dream.
Sarah managed finally to enter the camp at a time that most of the international organizations failed to enter aid because of the strict siege of the camp and its residents. Sarah toke the advantage and pass through the death and its ways and finally reached Alaa's grave inside the camp.
The two lovers meeting, but in a different worlds
Sarah met her husband who was lying under the dust, she read Al Fatiha for him grieving of her dream that was assassinated by the sniper before it accomplished. Sarah remained besieged almost a year with Alaa's family, where everything in the camp was grieving; the residents begun to die one after the other from the intensity of starvation and disease, where human rights organizations have documented the death of "172" refugees died of starvation inside the besieged camp.
About this case tells us a relative of the martyr "Ala", describing the tragedy, "We were living in the camp and Sarah was living with the family of the martyr Ala, many days we spent without food, there is no electricity, and the water was undrinkable and with little quantities, every day we bid farewell to a neighbors who did not bear the long days of hunger."
No one knows the extent of the grief that was at the heart of "Sarah," who lost her husband, her lover, and her partner who did not meet with him in one house, where the sniper was faster than her to her husband.
The sniper again and the first meeting after marriage
Sarah who was able to withstand such disasters striking example of loyal sincere Palestinian women who sacrifice herself in order to be near her husband, did not know that the sniper who distanced between her and her husband will bring them back together, but in another world!
In 19thof March 2015, Sarah was on a date with a meeting of her husband, a meeting not like others, where Alaa lying alone in that cemetery. During the distribution of some relief urgent aid to the residents, treacherous bullet of the siege sniper killed "Sarah" and sent her to her husband Ala after long absence.
In front of the astonishment of those moments Alaa's relative said, describing the scene "one bullet was enough to kill Sarah and cause a sharp bleeding which cannot be treated by the camp's hospitals which are already not working; no doctors or medicine and no electricity, since the regime besieged the camp and prevents the entry of these materials."
A martyr funeral or a bride wedding
Hundreds of the camp's residents participated in the funeral of "Sarah," which was not a funeral literal sense, they were wed Sarah to her husband lying in close proximity in the same cemetery, how much is an injustice for a couple to meet only after being martyred and buried under the soil.
The story of "Alaa and Sarah" is one of many stories that contains the suffering of Palestinian refugees during the war in Syria; those who became a companion to death wherever they are, both within the besieged camps, in the cellars of torture, in asylum tents, or on board the boats of death.
By Alaa Al Barghouti- Exclusive to the AGPS
Two lovers were distanced by the MIG warplane, the siege prevented their meeting, and a sniper shot separates them and reunited them in another world, a world with no planes, no injustice, no mercenaries, and no siege. The story of the martyr lovers "Sarah and Alaa" is a story that some people might think that its heroes came out of its sad lines, or maybe they are a Hollywood movie heroes.
"Sarah and Alaa" is a real story its heroes are Palestinian refugees from the Yarmouk camp in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"AlaaFarha" is a student who could not manage to graduate from the engineering department in a private collage in Syria due to the war; he loved his young relative "Sarah Ouda" since he was a high school student.
A love story between "Sarah and Alaa" who always dreamt of completing their life together side by side which is not a fairy dreamwhich should have been crowned by the story, but the war that killed thousands of children, women, and civilians is capable of killing any hope or lovestory.
The MIG Rockets Distance the Lovers…
Over the roar beat of the MIG warplane that hovered over the Yarmouk refugee camp on 16th of December 2012, as its missiles draw lines of blood, in a tragic day with all sense of the word. The rockets flattened Abdul-Qader al-Husseini mosque in the Yarmouk refugee camp, leaving a massacre and put the fate of more than two hundred thousand refugees at a crossroads since that date.
A massacre that formed a serious turning point in the history of the Palestinians in Syria; thousands of the camp's residents have fled on foot in a tragic scene that brought to mind the first Nakba of Palestinians in 1948. An old man holds his tearsover the consecutive catastrophes he lives, a father carries his children and running quickly with his family for fear of repeating the bombing of the camp, and other hundreds of black scenes. Between the crowds were "Sarah" and her family, who left in a hurry, adrift on her face, distressed of what happened, and did not occur to Sarah's mind that her lover had remained inside the camp, and that the next meeting would be only passing through the impossible, that Sarah decided to break into.
The Meeting is Forbidden by the Siege
After hours "Sarah" knew that "Alaa" is still inside the Camp, the events were accelerated and the camp was closed. The residents were prevented of returning back to it and the remaining residents were imprisoned inside, and so "Alaa" remained trapped inside and "Sarah" abroad.
Days, weeks and months passed by and the siege became stricter and the cases of starving to death and disease were spread. In front of this disaster, the residents of the camp who fled to escape the bombing searching for safety started to lose hope to return to their homes.
After this tragedy, Sarah's family decided to leave Syria, in a new wave of asylum took away tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to Europe, the risk taken by Sarah's family in hope of protectingherself from the shadow of death, which now haunts the Palestinian refugees from one place to another. The journey of the bitter asylum has started through the death corridors by land and sea in search of the minimum life standards.
From the Yarmouk to Bulgaria
Bulgaria was the last step that separates Sarah of her hope; with every km away of "Alaa," their souls were further related.
To overcome the plight, and to stick to hope, Sarah and Alaa decided to legally marry despite the distance and siege through the virtual world that enable them of contact by Skype program which gave them a new window of better future.
A relative of "Alaa" commented on this story; he said " May be Alaa felt that the life is not worthy without Sarah, and Sarah realized that there is no safety but being with her soulmate Alaa who are the security she seeks inside the Yarmouk besieged camp.
The Wall of Fear Breaks Down in front of the Insistence of Hope
After a few months, Sarah made the decision to join her husband, a decision more likely to commit suicide! The Syrian regime and PFGC groups imposed a strict siege on the Yarmouk refugee camp, and the dozens victims of starvation are falling at a time when the media were full of pictures of the martyrs of starvation; Sarah had begun her way back to Yarmouk.
Sarah's conviction was stronger than all those fears; she packed her luggage and headed to Syria. After her arrival at Damascus Sarah found that the rifles and checkpoints surrounding the camp, turning her from her dream, but it is impossible to despair after she cut thousands of kilometers, and only a few dozen meters separating her from Alaa.
All those guns did not discouraged "Sarah" from attempting to access to her husband, even if the decision of passing such road where anyone try to cross it would be killed or arrest, all she was thinking about at this time was to meet her husband and to complete her life beside him, even if they are under siege.
Sarah is Approaching and Alaa is Away
The besieged "Alaa" did not know that a treacherous sniper would end the dream in a second, and prevent him from meeting his wife. On 28th of January 2014, the sniper did not wait few days and perhaps hours for Alaa to meet Sarah. Alaa was assassinated by a sniper bullet; the snipers who refer the camp's life into hell, ending his chapter in life at this painful experience.
Most of Sarah's relatives and friends that she will think of returning back to her family after the tragedy she passed through, but she did not. Alaa's absence does not the absence of his grave, the thing that became her new dream.
Sarah managed finally to enter the camp at a time that most of the international organizations failed to enter aid because of the strict siege of the camp and its residents. Sarah toke the advantage and pass through the death and its ways and finally reached Alaa's grave inside the camp.
The two lovers meeting, but in a different worlds
Sarah met her husband who was lying under the dust, she read Al Fatiha for him grieving of her dream that was assassinated by the sniper before it accomplished. Sarah remained besieged almost a year with Alaa's family, where everything in the camp was grieving; the residents begun to die one after the other from the intensity of starvation and disease, where human rights organizations have documented the death of "172" refugees died of starvation inside the besieged camp.
About this case tells us a relative of the martyr "Ala", describing the tragedy, "We were living in the camp and Sarah was living with the family of the martyr Ala, many days we spent without food, there is no electricity, and the water was undrinkable and with little quantities, every day we bid farewell to a neighbors who did not bear the long days of hunger."
No one knows the extent of the grief that was at the heart of "Sarah," who lost her husband, her lover, and her partner who did not meet with him in one house, where the sniper was faster than her to her husband.
The sniper again and the first meeting after marriage
Sarah who was able to withstand such disasters striking example of loyal sincere Palestinian women who sacrifice herself in order to be near her husband, did not know that the sniper who distanced between her and her husband will bring them back together, but in another world!
In 19thof March 2015, Sarah was on a date with a meeting of her husband, a meeting not like others, where Alaa lying alone in that cemetery. During the distribution of some relief urgent aid to the residents, treacherous bullet of the siege sniper killed "Sarah" and sent her to her husband Ala after long absence.
In front of the astonishment of those moments Alaa's relative said, describing the scene "one bullet was enough to kill Sarah and cause a sharp bleeding which cannot be treated by the camp's hospitals which are already not working; no doctors or medicine and no electricity, since the regime besieged the camp and prevents the entry of these materials."
A martyr funeral or a bride wedding
Hundreds of the camp's residents participated in the funeral of "Sarah," which was not a funeral literal sense, they were wed Sarah to her husband lying in close proximity in the same cemetery, how much is an injustice for a couple to meet only after being martyred and buried under the soil.
The story of "Alaa and Sarah" is one of many stories that contains the suffering of Palestinian refugees during the war in Syria; those who became a companion to death wherever they are, both within the besieged camps, in the cellars of torture, in asylum tents, or on board the boats of death.
