Magical Beliefs From Palestine

Magical beliefs from Palestine Gaza became the largest concentration camp in the history of mankind which lasts for over 40 years. With the world watching, Israel expelled millions of Palestinians from their homes, continuing their Nazi policy and killing innocent people without regard whether it is a small child, a woman or an old man. For them the Palestinians are a people that need to perish and without a doubt in that regard they are copying Hitler and Nazi Germany- anyone who watches the news will notice that Israel usually kills ten Palestinians, with no regards of the gender or age, for every solider they lose. It is ironical that the people who are presenting themselves as victims of the holocaust are committing the same atrocities over the Palestinian people. The once "holly land" is everything but holly, today it is a land filled with blood of the worst crimes and everyday killings. The Israelites are no longer a people who experience genocide but a people who commit genocide. But no matter what Palestine is still alive and breathing. We need to write and talk  about Palestine and its people and we should never let the memory of Palestine fade f ade from existence. The Palestine people as well as the rest of the Arab world have a rich store of  folklore and beliefs. The most famous beliefs relate to spellbound eyes and their detrimental effect on people, especially children. According to the beliefs in Palestine, if a child falls ill suddenly after a visit from guest and starts crying for no reason and starts to reject food, it is then believed that it had fallen prey to the guest's spellbound eyes. The ritual of annulling spellbound eyes is usually done by the mother or some old lady surrounded by a couple of curious women that are anxiously observing the ritual. To neutralize foreign evil the mother needs to take three fingers of flour and salt, that need to be clean for this occasion, and repeat the following magical formula:  „Bism al-ain, bismi en-nadra, bism el-hasud“. And then throw the salt and flour in a metal container filled with hot coals adding to that mixture some dust from four rooms, seven grains of barley, a piece of Alum, and then she takes one hair from all the present inhabitants of the house („min atarha“). If one knows for sure who has spellbound the child, then it is only necessary to take a piece of thread from that person. To the hot coal a couple of seed of incense are added and one needs to wait for the thick fog to form in which the child will be bathed while pronouncing the magical formula. While holding the metal container (bassat nar) the woman that is conducting the ritual circles around the child saying: „Smallah alek! Hawattak ballah udachiltak lallah...“.

The magical formula is repeated three times and then th en the woman dips hands into a prepared vessel full of water and shaking it off in the direction of the fire she pronounces: „Ih! Intefi ja uwenw bin nuwere! En-nar lamakanha wel-ain Allah la'anha“. If squeaking sound are heard coming from the fire, that is deemed as a good sign-the effect of spellbound eyes is disappearing. Animated by what she hears the woman continues with the pronunciation of another magical formula to neutralize the evil: „Takhat, sahat. Ain el-adu rahat kusch! El-ebid“. But if the effect is not forthcoming then the present women whisper and conclude that the spellbound eyes have resisted the power of the fire. Because of this revelation everyone is awaiting for the fire to burn down and for all the ingredients to melt and for it to cool down and form some kind of a figure, mostly it is determined who caused the child to be spellbound, the evil starts to lose its power.  A detrimental item for spellbound eyes is garlic, as is believed in Palastine, whose smell keeps away most evil from human beings.