Many in the Palestine movement have supported the work of the Mapping Project but there have been critics as well. Nora Lester Murad writes that while the project is a Herculean effort that provides lots of useful information, it is a poor piece of research and a destructive piece of activism.
Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village is a valuable resource that centers Palestinian experiences for young adult readers.
Nora Lester Murad: “‘I Found Myself in Palestine’ is intentionally not a book about Palestine. It’s not about the Israeli occupation or politics—at least not primarily. It’s not even about Palestinians. Rather, it is a collection of reflections by non-Palestinians whose stories are also a gift of this place.”
Nora Lester Murad and her friends organize an Iftar dinner next to the rubble of a demolished Palestinian house in East Jerusalem, “We planned the Iftar to show solidarity with Ashraf and Islam, and the tens of thousands of Palestinian families whose homes have been demolished, partially demolished, or sealed, and who live every day under the imminent threat of demolitions by the Israel authorities. Home demolition is not merely an Israeli administrative policy, as it is often presented in the western media. Home demolition is part of Israel’s political strategy to expel Palestinians from any place they want control, often through the establishment of Jewish settlements. My friends and I felt that the least we could do to show these families–families who are on the frontline of the continuing Nakba–that they have real allies, that they are not alone.”
Every single home demolition is devastating to a family. Every single demolished family tells a unique and surreal story about the day when Israeli bulldozers rolled over their children’s schoolbooks, their grandmother’s prescription medicines, and letters from their uncle overseas. Nora Lester Murad tells the story of Ashraf and Islam Fawaqa and their four daughters — Ritaj, 9; Rimas, 7; Saba, 4; and Aya, a newborn whose Jerusalem home was demolished while they were taking Aya to an infant checkup.