Just about the time that the UK Labour Party conference looked “like the Last Night of the Proms on the Gaza Strip” we discovered the Al-Mona Gardens, one of Israel’s best kept open secrets set in the Lower Galilee Druze village of Julis.
A half-hour and approximate 20 kilometer drive from Karmiel, it is difficult to avoid using lyrical clichés about the enormous house and gracious gardens owned by Naji Abbas and named after his late mother.
So, rather than adding my own gloss or even that of other visitors, I will leave Naji to tell the story in his own (translated) words:
““El Mona Garden is a memorial to the memory of my parents Rasheed and Mona Abbas.
“The story of the garden goes back to my grandfather Saeed, who lived in the thirties of the last century. After the death of my grandfather, my father Rasheed continued his path of hard work and giving. Today I am following their path and continuing their journey on the route that they carved with their own hands in sweat and tears.
“Twenty-five years ago my dear wife and I decided to honour my parents’ memory by establishing a garden holding their names. We started restoring and nurturing my house’s surroundings with the desire to turn it into a memorial site. Mission and dedication accompanied our work in order to fulfill this vision that surrounds my home and life.
“Were it not for my wife and children who spared no effort and faith in the idea, these gardens could not be established in the way they exist today. They say a good woman is the light of the family, my wife fills our home with a light that reminds us of my late mother, God bless her soul.
“’Water is the basis of life’”, thus we believe, therefore we saw this as the central underlying theme in our garden which is the symbol of life, giving and continuity. We worked hard in order to inject water into all parts of the garden. Species of plants, trees and flowers live in harmony in which each individual lives in peace and love with the colorful surroundings.
“The numerous doors in the garden represent crossroads and stations in life. This is part of the belief that life is a journey through the stations from which everyone chooses the direction of his life so the train may ontinue its journey without restraint. Each station is a beginning of a new phase in the passenger’s life for the sake of continuity and life. My grandfather and my father came through a station and left through another station. My father’s death was sudden, on the same day he left us I received a gift from God - my daughter came into the world.
“We believe that one who has no past has no present and no future. Immortalisation is the preservation of the past and turning it into an important stop on the way of the future generations”.
© Natalie Wood (30 September 2018)
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