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Moreover, they are often disguised by the ideological constructions of chauvinist male elites, which seek to sustain and expand their privilege in the name of national liberation, leaving women and other oppressed groups behind once ‘liberation’ has been achieved. This is not to say that imperialist power should not be struggled against. Rather, it is to argue that while imperialist power (like British Rule in Palestine and in many other colonial states) can collapse and be dismantled, other forms of oppression nonetheless can remain powerful at home, in both private and collective senses.

However, Nabi Sabalan’s sacred Maqam is located in the village of Sabalan. In describing the holy place of Maqam el Nabi Sabalan as a neighbourhood of Hurfaysh, Falah is distorting the history of the place and erases the history of the village of Sabalan, my mother’s village, which was destroyed in 1948. Hurfaysh is a neighbouring village, where my mother’s family found refuge when the residents of Sabalan were expelled when the village was occupied in 1948. Falah’s writing is not only erasing the history of the village Sabalan, my family stories  but also is generating false knowledge and history in accordance with the State of Israel’s Zionist agenda.

She explained that if we tied a piece of cloth to one of the branches and made a wish, it would come true because the trees were sacred. I only learned later in my life that Sabalan was my mother’s home until 1948. There is no valid historical information about who Sabalan actually was. Yizhaq Ben Zvi (1953) identifies Sabalan with Zebulun, one of Jacob’s sons. The Druze regard Sabalan as one of their religious founders and a holy prophet (Falah, 2003). 5 Each year on 10 September the Druze visit Sabalan for prayer and celebration.