For Palestinians now displaced to southern Gaza, memories of their homes in the north feel increasingly distant. They serve as a painful reminder of their ancestors’ homes and villages in historic Palestine, which they were forced to leave after the creation of Israel in 1948. Back then, Palestinians—including my grandparents-- thought that they would be able to go back to their homes within a week.
YOUSEF ALJAMAL is Gaza Coordinator at the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Aljamal holds a doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies, is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza and is a senior non-resident scholar at the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has contributed to a number of books on Palestine, including Gaza Writes Back and Light in Gaza.
