A Family Connected to Its Battered Land

A Lebanese couple begin anew at a home = that has=20 been rebuilt repeatedly after Israeli operations. `I cried for = joy' to be=20 back, the wife says.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff = Writer
September=20 5, 2006

GHANDOURIYE, Lebanon =97 It was six years = ago when the=20 tobacco farmer and his wife planted grapes alongside their home in = this=20 lush valley of rocky ridges and steep slopes, picking up the = pieces of=20 their lives once more after the last wave of war = subsided.

The=20 farmer watched with satisfaction as the vines spread across the = wooden=20 trellises. On slow afternoons, after tending to his fields, he = basked in=20 the sun and picked sweet grapes.

"This is a life," Mahmoud = Kadouh says.=20 "The water, the land, the air =97 this is the life of a person." =

His=20 boisterous wife, Alia Hamoud, contented herself with caring for = the=20 younger of their five daughters and two sons. It was a happy time. = The=20 crops brought in a handsome $10,000 a year, with another $10,000 = in income=20 from jobs taken on by his sons. Cousins and nephews from Beirut = and Tyre=20 paid visits. Their elder son and his fiancee were to move into a = third=20 floor they were building atop the house.

Their home was a = simple,=20 gracious concrete rectangle, partially submerged in the craggy=20 mountainside. The roof had red decorative tiles. A lone portrait = of a=20 cleric looked over the few pieces of store-bought furniture = serving as a=20 living room. At night the couple and their younger children slept = in the=20 rooms downstairs, a half-cellar that is cooler in the summer and = warmer in=20 the winter.

Much of that is gone now, burned and bombed by = ordnance=20 and gunfire that badly damaged the home and dispersed the family.=20

Like the rings of a tree, the house tells some of the = history of=20 Arab-Israeli conflict. It was bulldozed by Israelis in 1978, = destroyed in=20 1982, damaged in 1993 and again during the 1996 incursion, called = the=20 Grapes of Wrath.

Each time, the house has been rebuilt.=20

Alia and a gaggle of young nieces from nearby villages = have spent=20 the days since their arrival from their refuge up north cleaning = up the=20 broken glass and sweeping out the debris, preparing for guests = coming to=20 pay their respects to a nephew, Imad Hussein Kadouh, a 35-year-old = Hezbollah fighter slain while battling the Israelis.

Alia = tries=20 her best to make guests feel comfortable. She apologizes that = there is=20 little tea and no food to offer.

"It's not fair to have = these=20 things happen to us," she says with a rueful smile. "God never = said that=20 our lives should be so bitter like this."

The family's troubles started with the Israeli incursions = in the=20 late 1970s, meant to rid southern Lebanon of Palestinian militants = who=20 were launching attacks against the Jewish state. Alia and Mahmoud = rattle=20 off the names of relatives lost to the wars that went on and on. = Alia's=20 mother, killed in the 1978 invasion. Ali Hamoud and his wife, = Zainab,=20 their daughters Sabah and Nizar and sons Hamoud and Abbas, crushed = when=20 their house was struck by ordnance in a subsequent = war.

Mariam=20 Bazzi, their visiting sister-in-law, lost her 7-year-old son, = Hossein,=20 along with his 6-year-old cousin and a neighbor's 3-year-old = child. They=20 died playing with a piece of ordnance after the 1982 invasion that = gave=20 birth to the Hezbollah movement.

"We plant our bodies in = the land;=20 the harvest is coming and it is liberation," intones Hassan = Kadouh, a=20 nephew visiting from Germany, where he operates a sandwich shop = near the=20 Berlin Zoo.

Mahmoud winces, but stays silent. Over and = over, the=20 young men and women who filter in and out of the house to pay = their=20 respects mouth revolutionary slogans, as well as blustery talk = about the=20 resistance and the enemy, the bravery of the fighters and = cowardice of the=20 Israelis.

Ghandouriye has long been a front line in the = fighting=20 between Hezbollah and the Israelis, its sweeping hillsides scarred = in=20 battle. A disabled Israeli tank lies along the road, a war trophy. = An=20 annual festival near the site marks Israel's 2000 withdrawal. = "This town=20 has always been a target," said Jihad Kadouh, another of the = visiting=20 nephews. "Ghandouriye is called the gateway of = liberation."

Mahmoud=20 stares at the ground, letting the young men have their say before = he=20 speaks.

"I only have two sons, but we are about 50 people = in the=20 family, living in this valley," Mahmoud says. "But we all have one = soul.=20 Islam is my religion. It's the religion of God and the land." =

The=20 minute the Aug. 14 cease-fire took effect, the Kadouhs piled into = their=20 car and rushed back to their home, enduring an hours-long traffic = jam=20 along a coastal road dotted with bomb craters and pushing their = car=20 through the shallow waters of the Litani River.

"My soul = had gone=20 away when we left," Alia says. "Your land is equivalent to your = soul.=20 There's nothing like your home, even if it's a tent. We feared = that the=20 Israelis would never let us back to our land. We are farmers."=20

When they finally arrived home, they found it standing but = badly=20 damaged. A bomb, probably from an Israeli warplane, had crushed = one wing=20 of the house. Gunfire had strafed the interior and exterior walls. = The=20 third floor that was to house their son, almost complete before = the war,=20 was ruined. Bombs had smashed Mahmoud's tractor and burned his = crops.=20

Alia was overwhelmed. "Yes, I cried," she says. "I cried = for joy.=20 Because there's nothing like getting back home=85. You can always = rebuild."=20

Mahmoud was more melancholy. He'd poured $100,000 into the = house.=20 His grapevine was gone, its trellises charred.

Walking = through the=20 twisted metal girders and crushed concrete of the patio, he picked = up a=20 rotting grape and tossed it into the tobacco fields.

Not = to worry,=20 Alia says. It can all be rebuilt. "The young men lost, that's the = most=20 expensive sacrifice," she says.

A cool mountain wind has = picked up.=20 The late summer sky has darkened. The guests arrive to pay = respects to the=20 family and honor fallen nephew Imad.

Their son Ali = arrives. "I'm=20 sad because I left," he says. "I didn't stay. I would have wanted = to stay=20 and fight. But my father didn't let me."

Mahmoud is = dismissive.=20 "He hadn't done enough training. He didn't have enough experience = to=20 fight." He pauses.

"Of course," he says. "There's another = part to=20 it, why I wouldn't let him fight."

He falls = silent.

"Your=20 son is the product of your loins," he says finally. "And like I = said=20 before, I only have two sons."

*

daragahi@latimes.com

More = World=20 News

-	The=20 Enemies in Their Midst
-	Caught=20 in a Power Struggle
-	Chinese=20 Log On for = Retribution

More World News

-	The=20 Enemies in Their Midst
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