The Voice of a 1948 Palestinian Refugee
“Some countries are like this:
It’s hard to get in, hard to get out. It is difficult to stay in it, and you have no homeland but it…”
Mourid Barghouti, I Was Born There I Was Born Here
Palestine is one of those countries. It is hard to return to it, it is hard to stay in it but, there is no other place they would rather call home.
Not every displaced Palestinian accepts to call him/herself a refugee.
According to the UNHCR, the term refugee means “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Manou Saleh Al Abdullah, a Palestinian survivor, refuses to call herself a refugee. Every time I used the word Refugee or Laji’a, she would lift up her brows and her upper lips, expressing deep contempt. “I am not a refugee,” she says .“They did this to us and the day will come when we will return to our homes!”
She has witnessed multiple moments of exile since she was 10 years old. Despite her eighty-three years of displacement, she still strongly insists on her right to return back home, to Palestine.
The following timeline summarizes the main events in her life and documents the dates and locations where she moved throughout the years.
According to Dr. Nur Masalha (2008), Manou Al Abdullah is considered one of over 5 million 1984 Palestinian refugees. One of the main approaches to highlight the importance of collective identity and refugees’ right to return is the ‘history from below approach.’
History was originally considered a field of research, but in the case of Palestine, history reemerged as an “emergency science” in order to guard against the disappearance of proof and evidence (Sanbar, 2001).
The compilation and recording of oral memoirs ensures the passage of the Palestinian narrative by documenting detailed recollections of all the tragic events that took place in the past years.
Remembrance allows the victims of the Nakba to live on generations forward and opens up possibilities for survivors to fight for their right to return home.
Masalha (2008) attests that remembrance protects against the denial of the Nakba and “relocates the right of return at the center of peacemaking in the Middle East.”
The following video provides oral documentation of the tragic events that Manou went through while she roamed around Lebanon in search of a ‘home’.
She still holds the keys to her home in Palestine. She refuses to let go of them because she believes that one day she will return to her homeland, where she once lived in peace and dignity.
Alon Harel argues that the vagueness around the right of return is one of the main barriers to a ‘peaceful resolution for the Middle East conflict.’ The lack of a consistent definition and scope allows extremists to manipulate the term and question if and who has the right to return: Palestinians who witnessed expulsion or their decedents?
The right of return is a universal right bound under international law. Following the Nakba in 1948, the United Nations proclaimed the already existing right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under Article 13(b), stating that all people from all nations have the right to move freely to and from their countries.
Palestinian people are no exception. Under international law, their freedom of movement should be guaranteed and protected!
Palestinian’s right of return has been heightened within several resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), including resolutions 2535, 3236, 194, and UN Security Council resolution 237. All these resolutions affirm the right that Palestinians have to return to their homeland.
“The homeland does not leave the body until the last moment, the moment of death…” Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah
References
Al Jazeera [Al Jazzeera English]. (2017, December 24). Palestinian refugees in Lebanon denied many rights [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzEFfq-aPG0
Al Naqab Center. (2020, June 20). Mar Elias Camp [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G86Svnc538
Associated Press [AP Archive]. (2015, July 24). SYND 20 7 76 FIGHTING IN TAL ZAATAR CAMP IN BEIRUT [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7fLInmGIE
Barghouti, M. (2005). I saw Ramallah (A. Soueif, Trans.). London, United Kingdom. Bloomsbury. (Original work published 2000).
Barghouti, M. (2011). I was born there, I was born here (H. Davies, Trans.). London, United Kingdom. Bloomsbury. (Original work published 2009).
DW [DW Arabiyya]. (2017, February 23). بالأرقام: مأساة اللاجئين الفلسطينيين منذ 1948 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNL2ezO7guE
Harel, A. (2018, June 28). Why there is no Right of Return. Oxford Human Rights Hub. https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/why-there-is-no-right-of-return
Masalha, N. (2008). Remembering the Palestinian Nakba: Commemoration, Oral History and Narratives of Memory. Holy Land Studies, 7(2), 123/156.
Odeh, O. [Messages From Palestine]. (2014, May 22). Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon to Pope: Support Our Right to Retun [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDsIV2oTcsY
Sanbar, E. (2001) Out of place, out of time. Mediterranean Historical Review, 16(1), 87–94.
UNHCR. (n.d.). What is a Refugee. UNRefugees. https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/
UNRWA. (2020, June 22). Palestine Refugees and UNRWA: A History of Displacement, Dispossession and Hope [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRf0rhu2H7o
