Taking on the Israelis

Dubai: The Six Day War of 1967 ended so soon that Emirati volunteer fighter Ebrahim Jum'a had to turn around and head back to Dubai before even setting foot in Palestine.

It was at dawn on the third day of the war on June 7 that 18-year-old Jum'a and another 20 volunteers from Dubai boarded a specially arranged Kuwait Airways flight on their way to Palestine to fight the advancing Israeli army.

Jum'a recalls massive street rallies in solidarity with the Arab nation in the then scarcely populated pre-federation Dubai.

"Hundreds of people took to the streets shouting pro-Arab slogans and singing nationalistic songs," he said.

At the time, added Jum'a, there was a heightened spirit of Arab nationalism due to charismatic personalities such as Jamal Abdul Nasser and the songs of Umm Kulthoom.

Training in Iraq

"Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed obliged us by arranging a flight to Kuwait city, following which we would go to Palestine via Iraq," he said.

The volunteers spent that night in Kuwait city and headed for Baghdad by road the next day, where they were expected to undergo basic military training before moving on to Palestine.

"We were very nervous initially. We had no training and many of us were young, but when we entered Iraq we were filled with confidence after seeing the spirit of the Iraqis. Everyone was preparing for war, even women." he said.

"We weren't expecting to fight on the front lines, but perhaps have guarding roles in neighbourhoods," he said.

But after only a few days of training at the Al Rashid military camp in Baghdad, the guns fell silent and Israel had captured Arab territory three times its size, including Jerusalem.

There was a sense of disbelief, shock and anger in the camp. "We all wept together."

"Then, a commander delivered a speech, saying we could not lose confidence. We believed that as long as Nasser was alive, Jerus-alem would be returned to the Arabs. We wouldn't accept defeat".

Jum'a then returned to Dubai, where his family and neighbours gave him a hero's welcome. Having expected the worst, they assumed that Jum'a had died fighting the Israelis. Jum'a recalls charcoal graffiti writing on one of his neighbourhood walls reading, "The martyr Ebrahim Jum'a lives".

"I remember how I felt when I hugged my mother on my return. I was filled with happiness at seeing her, but devastated about our failings in the war."

Despite his experiences, Jum'a, who is now a retired singer and songwriter, believes that Palestine cannot be taken back through guns and violence, but won back through 'the power of the pen and the mind'.