Palestinian filmaker Wafaa Aburahama packs a lot into this stirring 8 minute Nakba film, intertwining emotional testimony and educational narration and imagery. Halfway through is footage of refugee camps showing actual conditions inside these supposedly temporary communities.
The testimony of centenarian Naifeh Abu Ayadah beginning at 5:25 ensures this little video will be viewed long into the future.
We were happy back then, our land was really beautiful and had big fortune. When you see our homeland you cry because of being away. If I had to choose between the wealth of the world and going back home I would go back to smell it. One grain of sand is better than all the money. If they ask me to go back I will crawl only to see it.
Aburahama is a refugee living in Gaza. An English language lecturer and translator, she is originally from Aqer village, Palestine.
(Hat tip Mondoweiss contributor Yousef M. Aljamal)
Germany should be giving its nuclear-capable subs to the Palestinians, not to Israel?
And the US should support Germany in this switch?
There’s a fascinating article up at Haaretz regarding Ben Gurion’s attempts to disguise the Nakba because he knew it was catastrophic to the Jewish narrative.
‘Catastrophic Thinking – did Ben Gurion try to Rewrite History?’
“By the end of the 1950s, Ben-Gurion had reached the conclusion that the events of 1948 would be at the forefront of Israel’s diplomatic struggle, in particular the struggle against the Palestinian national movement. If the Palestinians had been expelled from their land, as they had maintained already in 1948, the international community would view their claim to return to their homeland as justified. However, Ben-Gurion believed, if it turned out that they had left “by choice,” having been persuaded by their leaders that it was best to depart temporarily and return after the Arab victory, the world community would be less supportive of their claim”
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/catastrophic-thinking-did-ben-gurion-try-to-rewrite-history.premium-1.524308
Part of normal human rights in connection with a home or a homeland is that you can leave it when you see fit without explaining yourself to anyone. That’s part of the difference between a home and a prison, freedom and serfdom. Leaving home because it has become part of a war zone is acting with reasonably good reason, wouldn’t you say? A lot of people did that during WW2 and it wasn’t regarded as giving the Nazis a greater right to their conquests. Ben Gurion’s propaganda was no doubt brilliant but then he told people in the West what they wanted to hear.
The head of Hamas is interviewed today at foreignpolicy.com.
Why he broke with Syrian gov’t.
Why Hamas wants Israel out of West Bank.
Great to see Palestinians making the point that the right to return home is central and will not be given up.