Tuma Hazou

"I was born in January 1935 in Jerusalem, Palestine where I grew up and had my education up to Secondary Level. and graduated with 8 GEC subjects.
At age 12 we became refugees after our home came under very heavy gunfire from the nearby Mia Sherem Jewish quarter. The family took refuge in Bethlehem which was spared the violent clashes between Arab and Jew because no Jews lived there.
Upon graduating in 1953 from High School with 8 GCE subjects, I was offered a free scholarship by New York’s Columbia University. Unfortunately, my father with his modest salary could not afford the fare to New York and boarding costs. He also had four younger sons at school,
Shortly after that I joined an Arab radio station, run by the British in Cyprus, as a junior Records Librarian: a tedious job of shuttling tapes and records between the library and the studios for broadcast, However, after two years at that post I was able to out an hour or so a day as an announcer, At the height of the Suez Canal crisis, the staff of the radio station, including its British Director General resigned en mass in protest against London’s decision to turn the station into a vicious anti Egyptian President Nasser who had nationalised the Canal. The BBC decided to fill the resulting vacuum by enlarging its own Arabic Service. A team came out to Cyprus to recruit capable staff and I was offered a job at London. At 22 I was the youbgest announcer at the BBC.
After 10 years with the BBC, I located myself in Amman Jordan and worked as a news correspondent and radio programmes producerwith the BBC and other media outlets. In 1967 I joined NBC Radio reporter and Tv cameraman and on the morning of the 5th of June that year I had my first ;Dance with Death; when I lost an NBC colleague at the start of the Six Day War which Israel launched against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, That was one of numerous life threatening brushes with death which I relate in my book."