Nakba

Personal Story Zakia Jabre Hajjar: “What I Had in Jerusalem Was Like a Treasure, a Precious Gift, and I Lost it”

A Palestinian Jerusalemite’s memories of growing up in Jerusalem before the Nakba, as shared with her daughter through letters in later years

Video “We Are Here”—A Jerusalemite Family Story

A Palestinian whose family was forced to relocate from West to East Jerusalem in 1948 returns to one of the family homes in West Jerusalem that Israel confiscated and shares his family’s story and memories.

Bio Mahmoud Shukair

A prolific novelist who was exiled from Jerusalem for almost two decades, yet says “Jerusalem is a part of me and I am part of Jerusalem.”

Bio Sami Hadawi

A foremost authority on Palestinian land ownership before 1948 who provided future generations with crucial documentation on the Nakba and Palestinian refugees

Interview Rereading Jerusalem’s History

Palestinian Jerusalemites view the history of their city through a different lens. A conversation with Palestinian historian Nazmi Jubeh.

Graphic Hand-drawn Map of Qatamon

Who lived in the New City Palestinian neighborhood of Qatamon, which ceased to exist as such after 1948?

Personal Story The End of Arab Qatamon—A Memoir

A vivid memoir attesting to what it was like to live through the violent transformation of the New City of Jerusalem into West Jerusalem in 1947–48

Blog Post Book Review: Karmi Memoir Tells Jerusalem Story of Loss and Rediscovery

A woman’s attempt to reconcile her English and Palestinian identities leads her to Jerusalem to search for the Qatamon home her family left in 1948.

Video The Great Book Robbery

The story of how Palestinian homes in Jerusalem (and elsewhere) whose owners fled in search of temporary safety were systematically looted, including their libraries, even before the war had ended