Facing Nakba gallery
I Belong There
Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) and his family were forced to leave their village in 1948 and head to Lebanon. This poem is found in Unfortunately, It Was Paradise, translated and edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché with Sinan Antoon and Amira El-Zein.
Remembering Our Village
"Remembering Our Village," Bashir Sinwar, 1985. From the Palestine Poster Project Archives.
There Was No Farewell
"There Was No Farewell, "1988.
Taha Muhammad Ali (1931-2011) was from the village of Saffurriyya in the Galilee, which was destroyed in 1948. This poem is found in So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971–2005. Translated from the Arabic by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin.
Tomorrow We Will Return
Publisher: Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. "Tomorrow We Will Return," 2007. On the annual commemoration of the Nakba. From the Palestine Poster Project Archives.
Trailer: Past Tense Continuous
"Past Tense Continuous,"Dima Hourani, 2015.
In the words of artist Dima Hourani: "Three Palestinian refugee families, with different ages, regions, and fears, carrying their basic and personal belongings along with them in an old truck, through a continuous journey that started 66 years ago. An intervention artwork performing and re-interpreting the Black and White shaded gradients in the Palestinian collective memory and photography archives about Al-Nakba; the 1948 Palestinian catastrophe." For more information about how this piece was brought to life and to see additional photos, click here.
Nation Estate (fragment) / BIEFF 2013
"Nation Estate," Larissa Sansour, 2012.
In the words of artist Larissa Sansour: "The Nation Estate project consists of a 9-minute sci-fi short film and a photo series offering a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East. With its glossy mixture of computer generated imagery, live actors and an arabesque electronica soundtrack, the Nation Estate film explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population - now finally living the high life." For more information about the piece, click here.
Udna - al-Ghabisiyya
"Welcome to al-Ghabsia," 2015. A model for the return to their village, created by descendents of those displaced during the Nakba.
About the creators: "Udna (Our Return) is a political-educational project started in 2012. It is a joint project of the Arab Association for Human Rights, the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced, Baladna - Association for Arab Youth, and Zochrot. The aim of the project is to visualize Return to the displaced villages through workshops with youth groups made up of internally displaced young people."