Personal Story

The author reflects on growing up in al-Baq‘a during the British Mandate and her family’s experience of the Nakba.

The pain of collective trauma as experienced by successive generations: A Jerusalem family’s story.

The author returns to Shu‘fat to live in her ancestral home and finds happiness despite the emotional stress of living in a settler-colonial state.

The author recalls her happy years attending Schmidt’s School, before the Nakba, her brief visit years later, and what it meant to her. 

An acclaimed academic, writer, and translator recalls his Old City childhood

Ibrahim and his family have no choice but to keep living in a collapsing building in Bir ‘Awna to afford rent and keep their Jerusalem residency permits.

A Palestinian in exile remembers Jerusalem’s Old City—the sights and sounds, the tight-knit community—during his last days with his formidable grandfather, the Mukhtar.

Mounir Kleibo, former ILO Special Representative, tells the story of his mother’s family home in Lower Baq‘a in today’s West Jerusalem.

Huda Imam is banned from entering the home her father built in Qatamon before 1948, but that does not stop her from standing outside it weekly.