Salalha, Ahmad

Son of Yosef and Rada. The family, most of whose members live on agriculture, is very respectable in the Druze village of Beit Jann, located near Mount Meron. Ahmed was born in 1948 in Beit Jann in the Upper Galilee. He graduated from elementary school in his village. Where he showed his inclination to public activity when he joined the Scouts organization, underwent courses and succeeded in them, and finally was the instructor of a group of “Tsofim” from schoolchildren: his influence on his friends was great. He also had a tendency to sports – especially volleyball and soccer. After a while he studied at the vocational high school and two years later left him because of his financial situation and continued high school in Rama High School, where he studied until the end of 10th grade. In his spare time he would love to read, besides literature and novels, psychology. He used to buy army booklets, especially the Air Force magazine, and sometimes he was engaged in carpentry and making wooden toys, and was inclined to express his feelings and thoughts in poetry – in Arabic and Hebrew. During the period of his service he was an outstanding soldier and his commanders appreciated him for this, and he was recognized as a talented person. Afterward, he was sent to an officer’s course and in this course he was very fond of his friends. He did not enjoy his military success because he was wounded and then transferred to the hospital in Safed, where he fought for his life for two weeks, died on January 12, 1969. The next day he was laid to rest in his village and at the funeral Hundreds of Druze and other people participated; Among them were representatives of the government institutions and the Histadrut, and his fellow officers and his comrades participated in the officers’ course. He was loved by all his friends in the village and the IDF and recognized in all the Druze villages.