He Kissed the Land—and Never Got Up: The Not-So-Anonymous Immigrant Who Moved a Nation

On his headstone, which stood in the small cemetery of the kibbutz Beit HaArava, the words "Here lies Avraham ben Avraham. ת.נ.צ.ב.ה" were engraved.

A few years earlier, in early 1940, the kibbutz Beit HaArava was founded by members of the Kibbutz HaMeuhad movement. They settled on the sandy, saline soils north of the Dead Sea and began the long process of washing the land to grow bananas, tomatoes, and other vegetables.

Even before the kibbutz could celebrate its first anniversary, two residents were murdered by an Arab gang. They became the first to inaugurate the settlement’s desert cemetery.

Kibbutz Beit HaArava continued to exist until 1948, when, during the War of Independence, it was decided there was no point in trying to defend the isolated area. The northern Dead Sea region was evacuated of its Jewish residents, and the entire area passed into Jordanian control.

The years and desert sands took their toll, and when the area returned to Israeli control during the Six-Day War, no trace of the settlement remained. Everything had become barren desert.

The only thing that could attest that a Jewish community had ever existed there were the five graves in the settlement’s cemetery: the two murder victims, a child who drowned in a pit at the kibbutz, a Palmach fighter killed there, and the grave of the anonymous immigrant.

But the original headstones were no longer there. Arabs desecrated the graves during the Jordanian occupation and even removed the bones from their resting places.

In 1967, a large mass grave was dug there, and the bones of the five deceased that were found on the site were interred within it. The headstone of the mass grave restored the inscriptions that had appeared on the original stones, including the inscription for the anonymous immigrant, Avraham ben Avraham.

Following these events, the story of the anonymous immigrant became known. Knesset Member David Koren, whose two-year-old son is among those buried there, shared the details in a radio interview.

It was 1947. A few members of the kibbutz were doing farm work when an unknown Jew, who had come from the eastern bank of the Jordan, crossed the river on foot and headed toward them.

The stranger approached the workers and asked, with longing: had he reached the Land of Israel? They told him that indeed, his feet were standing on the soil of the Land of Israel. The man bent to the ground, lay down full length, and fervently kissed the soil of the holy land.

When moments passed and the man did not rise, the workers went over to see what had happened to him.

To their surprise, they discovered that he had breathed his last while kissing the soil of the land he had so deeply longed for.

Since there was no information about the man, they engraved on his headstone the words "Here lies Avraham ben Avraham. ת.נ.צ.ב.ה".

One radio listener took in the story with rapt attention. It sounded familiar—too familiar. She checked a few details, and to her astonishment discovered that the anonymous immigrant was none other than her father, who had disappeared during that period.

Her father, Eliyahu Abd al-Nabi (Abd al-Nabi), set out from Iraq on September 11, 1947, at the age of 48, to make his way on foot to the Land of Israel. He crossed several borders on his long journey until he reached the Jordan River, exhausted and worn out.

Now she learned that her father had merited what even Moshe Rabbeinu was not granted.

Moshe Rabbeinu prayed 515 prayers to Hashem to be allowed to enter the Land of Israel and be buried there, but he was not granted that wish. He saw the land from afar and was buried beyond the Jordan, opposite the gates of the Land of Israel.

Her father—the anonymous immigrant, Eliyahu Abd al-Nabi—was privileged to enter the Land of Israel, to take a few steps upon it, and to be buried in its holy soil. May his soul be bound in the bond of life.