Avraham Saide: The 100th anniversary of British-Palestinian passport No. 1
Avraham Saide grew up wearing a Turkish fez before donning a British trilby, and obtaining, upon request, the first known passport issued during the British Mandatory rule.
In 1906, Avraham Saide, my grandfather, was born in Jerusalem during the late Ottoman rule. His parents, Sion and Esther, were impoverished, often scavenging for food from Ottoman barracks. Tragedy struck in 1910 when Avraham's mother passed away from tuberculosis, likely contracted from contaminated donated clothing.
After World War I, Jerusalem fell under British rule. Avraham's father remarried, and astonishingly, had seven more children. However, Avraham did not get along with his stepmother and, at the age of 17, left Jerusalem to reunite with his Syrian Jewish first cousins in Argentina.
Upon arrival in Argentina, Avraham sought a British-Palestine passport. He obtained the first registered British-Palestine passport in 1925, following the passage of the British Government's Palestinian Citizenship in the Mandate Act. This journey took him through Syria, then occupied by the French, before reaching Buenos Aires.
Once back in the Yishuv (the Jewish settlement in Palestine), Avraham worked to support his family. He met his future wife, Mazal Fortuna, at a synagogue in Alexandria. Despite her initial engagement to someone else, the family – enthusiastic Zionists – welcomed Avraham, considering his Jerusalem roots as "the Holy City."
The family returned to Jerusalem following the 1929 Arab riots, which led to the murders of Jews in Jerusalem, Safed, and Hebron. Avraham's opposition to British colonial rule intensified after witnessing the 1937 Peel Commission Report, the 1938 Woodhead Commission, and the 1939 White Paper. These documents confirmed his fears that the British were reneging on their commitments outlined in the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
As World War II progressed, with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's advance, Avraham became a medical orderly, even participating in the struggle for the establishment of a Jewish state. He served in the Irgun underground, secretly delivering messages to key figures such as Yitzhak Shamir and Dov Gruner. His family, including his three-year-old son Shlomo, was forced to flee the Old City during the 1948 War of Independence.
The Royal Jordanian Legion, led by British military officer Lt. Col. Abdullah al-Tell, advanced under Sir John Glubb. The family fled to western Jerusalem, surrounded by multiple Arab forces. Jerusalem was under siege, and food was scarce. The family subsisted on meager rations of eight grains of bread per day.
Just hours before the UN ceasefire, Israeli forces bypassed the Arab lines leading to Jerusalem, constructing an improvised Burma Road. This broke the Arab blockade, allowing provisions to reach the beleaguered city. The family remained in Romema until the Six Day War.
Avraham, an Anglophile, grew to oppose the British presence. He lived to experience various forms of rule – Ottoman, British, and Israeli – throughout his life. His sons fought in all post-independence wars, and Avraham continued his medical profession for the Health Ministry. He passed away in 1993, survived by five sons and three daughters.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
