Ahmad Quais discussing the Ottoman period and World War I

He discusses the following: World War I; Ottomans took men for military conscription and some people paid them not to take their sons; Ahmad’s father was able to pay for his two children to avoid conscription but not the third; the reason for the Ottoman Empire's involvement in the war was to betray the Arabs; relations between the Arabs and the Ottoman Empire (Turks) were bad – Ottomans only cared about taxes; starvation set in for the Arabs while the Turkish soldiers were fine; locusts destroyed the crops during the locust plague of 1915 and people burned them; people used to be kind and respectful to each other; when the British came they brought money and took the gold; relations between Arabs and Jews at that time were good, until Britain supported Zionism and confiscated the Arabs’ firearms, giving them to Jews instead.

Original audio: 2 cassette tapes.

Transcript: summary.

In the original collection at Bethlehem University these cassette tapes were categorised as File 8 of Box 1.

This fileset exists as part of the Ottoman Empire and World War I collection within the Bethlehem University Oral History project of the Planet Bethlehem Archive.