In Search of a Homeland

 

Bader Abu Zahra

 

Bader was born in Jerusalem, Palestine in a family of 7, including the mother and father. At the time of his birth, Palestine was not occupied by the Zionists and was still an Arab country with Jews, Christians and Muslims living in relative peace and harmony. A few years later, the Zionists, who were entirely made up of immigrants from Europe, waged war against the native inhabitants of the land, the Palestinians, and in 1948 created the state of Israel. The Palestinians refer to this usurpation of their land as Al-Nakbah or “The Catastrophe”.

 

 When Bader reached his young adulthood, he became aware that as a young Palestinian, of the Muslim faith, he had little or no future in the Zionist state of Israel since he was treated like a third class citizen – the first class being the European Jews and the second class being the Arab Jews. He decided to immigrate to Germany in search of a better future for himself. His family was very unhappy to see him go but they realized that a young, ambitious man like him found it very difficult to live under occupation and to be treated as if he were less than human.

 

Bader decided to immigrate to Germany to pursue his life-long dream of becoming a pilot. He looked forward to living on his own, becoming financially independent, and having the same human rights as everyone else. He lived in Germany for 10 years, became fluent in German and was very active socially and professionally. Unfortunately, he was not able to achieve his dream of becoming a pilot, but since he had a very organized and mechanically oriented mind, he became a mechanical engineer. Another unexpected occurrence was that he met a young English woman who was also working in Germany, fell in love, and married her.

 

In 1971, Bader was 27, and he heard of this wonderful country called Canada where there were many work opportunities, an excellent education system, and where getting a passport was not as difficult as it was, and still is, in Europe, especially for those who were non-Europeans. Bader and his family decided to seek out this new frontier and on January 8, 1971, he arrived in Canada. His first stop was Montreal, which seemed bitterly cold to him and very vast compared to the smaller scale of Europe. The biggest challenge he faced was not being able to speak fluent English, for although his wife was British they spoke German to one another. At first, he didn’t mingle with many Canadian families because he felt out of place, and like many immigrants who don’t speak the language fluently, he felt inadequate. However, after 3 months of roughing it out in the cold and with the language, he began to feel at home and settled. According to Bader, the openness of the Canadian environment and the sense of peace and security that this country gives to the newcomer made his transition very smooth.

 

Bader and his family moved to Toronto where he was employed by IBM. By now he had one daughter and 2 sons and although they were of Palestinian and English parents, they grew up like most other average Canadian kids – proud of their multicultural heritage and very much at home in Canada. This is one aspect of Canada that Bader appreciates very much – our multiculturalism and the doors it opened for him to meet people from many parts of the world that he hadn’t even dreamed of. Here, Bader feels that he belongs, that he is not treated differently than others, that his children can achieve their dreams and goals. His daughter, for instance, studied International Development and has a Ph.D. from Oxford University. One of his two sons studied computer engineering at the University of Toronto and is now working as a computer engineer. Bader’s second son is working as a mathematics teacher. Bader became an active member in local community committees of the York Region District School Board, and participated in community affairs, specifically in the Arab Community Centre of Toronto. He misses his family in Jerusalem but he knows that neither he nor his children could have a future there. He is very proud of being a Canadian and describes himself as such. His favorite Canadian Prime Minister is Pierre Elliott Trudeau who is credited with putting Canada on the world map and for advancing multiculturalism in this country.

 

His advice for newcomers is: “Use whatever education you have to get Canadian experience and become meaningfully active in the labour force”. His advice for parents is “listen to your children and let their voices be heard so that our story does not end with one generation”.

 

After taking an early retirement from IBM, Bader and his wife now spend roughly one half of each year in Morocco where they own a thriving hotel, and the other half in their house in Markham which serves as a meeting place for their children… a place they can call home.