Muhammad al-Sheikh, aged 90 from Bethlehem discussing the Ottoman period and World War I

Muhammad al-Sheikh (90 years old from Bethlehem), from the Salah family, interviewed by Sara Abu Kamel on 1 April 1994. He discusses the following: Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II refused to allow the Zionist movement to create a Jewish national home in Palestine; locust plague; the government ordered local people to collect and burn locusts; the great snow of 1920 lasted for a week; starvation during World War I and ‘seferberlik’ (Ottoman military conscription); modes of transportation on camel and horseback; houses were made from clay and rocks; spread of diseases.

Original audio recording: cassette tape. Transcript: summary. In the original collection at Bethlehem University this cassette tape was categorised as File 12 of Box 12.