al-Baq‘a

Scene from the video “What Have I Forgotten to Tell You?” featuring Abla Dajani
Video “What Have I Forgotten to Tell You?” Featuring Abla Dajani

Palestinian Jerusalemite Abla Dajani pays a bittersweet visit to her family home in al-Baq‘a, West Jerusalem, which was seized by Israel in 1948 and given to Jewish ownership. 

Feature Story “These Are Our Homes”: Visiting West Jerusalem’s Neighborhoods with Ibrahim Matar

Ibrahim Matar has made it his mission to record the history of the Palestinian properties in West Jerusalem, as he recently shared with friends on a walk there.

Backgrounder The West Side Story, Part 1: Jerusalem before “East” and “West”

Before 1948, Jerusalem was not split between an “East” and a “West.” Rather, a cosmopolitan, multiethnic New City grew organically out of the Old City.

Personal Story The Baq‘a Zone Ghetto: A Memoir of a Palestinian Jerusalemite Who Remained in West Jerusalem after the War

Jacob Nammar, whose family established the al-Nammamreh neighborhood in al-Baq‘a, shares the trauma his family went through as one of the few Palestinian families who remained.