0:01:21
- Images of war and shelling of villages
- He joins the cadre quickly (1948)
- Images of migration + interacting voices + spot mark moves inside the cadre
0:01:22- 0:01:26
- Khalid Yusuf / Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp: (The scene is horrible, horrible. God bears witness that I emerged out of the fire).
0:01:26 – 0:01:30
- Ahmad Muhammad / Al-Baq’ah Camp: (Planes were on top of our heads and the shelling was on top of our heads).
0:01:30-0:01:39
- Mahmud Al-’Atrah / Al-Hussein Camp: We had no weapons and so could not resist. They started blowing houses on top of their inhabitants. Then there was the massacre of Deir Yassin).
0:01:39 - 0:01:43
- Rasmiyah Salih / Hims Camp: (His wife had some gold jewellery, he sold them and bought a rifle).
0:01:43 - 0:01:52
- Ni’ma ‘Ali / Al-Wihdat Camp: (By Allah I had to strip my son of his shirt to cover my head as we fled. In the meantime planes shooting at us).
0:01:52 – 0:01:58
- Abu Bassam / ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp: We did not leave Palestine out of free choice. That was a conspiracy against the Palestinian people hatched by all states).
0:01:58 – 0:02:00
- Faddi Ahmad / Shnillar Camp: (I locked the house. We left and took the keys with us).
0:02:06 – 0:02:13
- Jull Al-Bahr: (Where is Palestine? Why haven’t they liberated it? We were told just a quarter of an hour and you’ll be back in your country. Where is our country)?
0:02:42 – 0:03:50
- Abu ‘Arab, sitting, remembering and singing:
A month then a year, days pass by
Over our tent night continues to cry
Children sleep in the cold tent
And oppression blows its wind
Grand dad is unwell, illnesses are eroding him
Sister and I chew our agony
Such are the landscapes which no artist can depict
Exile, blood and tears is what our life is about
0:04:15 – 0:05:00
Far from home
In the backyard of what is known as human rights
They have made a home of whatever they found .. they inhabited tents and caves
Then they moved into rooms walled with brick and roofed with metal sheets
They grew as pain grew, but their rooms never grew
The dwellings they sought refuge in five decades ago are still standing there, in Jordan, in Syria and in Lebanon
They are reminded of their plight each morning
They are Palestinians, known to the UN as refugees
No description preserves their identity
And no law restores their rights.
0:05:00 – 0:05:16
Poster Film
0:05:17 – 0:05:35
Footage of Uzu Camp
(Metal roofing sheets, drainage, children and elderly)
0:05:36 – 0:05:49
Rula Ahmad Salih
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(I very much regret this life of ours. Others lead better lives than us. We have a right to live like the rest of the world is living. We lack the security enjoyed by the people who live outside.)
0:05:54 – 0:06:03
Mustafa Hussein
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(Living here is not that good. To start with, when it rains the roof leaks. We use utensils like these to collect dripping water.)
0:06:09 – 0:06:21
Intisar Hussein:
(Indeed life here is tough. No one feels for us. Look at the piles of rubbish. It is especially tough in summer, the mosquitoes, the sick vomiting and diarrhoea-stricken children, the heat. Rubbish is to blame.)
0:06:22 – 0:06:31
Rula:
(No one says why we are here. They come only to take pictures. The UNRWA people claim they offer services. This is not true.
0:06:34 – 0:06:39
Ahmad Salih (The father)
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(World children have each a future, don’t they? Well, what am I leaving this child of mine, what will he get?)
0:06:40 – 0:06:48
The child and his brother:
We would lave to return to Palestine, Weare from Al Khalsa , We don`t like to stay in these small houses.
0:06:50 – 0:06:59
The sister (wife of Ahmad Salih) :
(We have no camp. We live here like the refugees of this camp but we do not belong to it. We just sit here taking shelter in this camp.)
0:07:03 – 0:07:49
There is no name on the map to point to a place like this where humans are found.
No road sign point to it.
In 1974, as a result of the persistent Israeli shelling of An-Nabatiyah Camp in the far end of South Lebanon, the camp became uninhabitable.
More than fifteen thousand Palestinians became homeless.
Some of them fled to this place, Uzu, a small residential area at the entrance of ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp.
Around thirty families live here as guests of the fifty thousand or more Palestinians who live in the biggest refugee camp in Lebanon.
0:07:52 – 0:08:00
Khalil Ibrahim
Taytaba, Safad - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(The one who knows Palestine will mourn it day and night. He’ll weep day and night.)
(Is the one who lives in his own country like the one who lives as refugee?)
0:08:01 – 0:08:28
Hasana Umm Nimr
Al-Manshiyah, Acre - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(The word refugee is a stab wound. I am a stranger and you are a citizen. Even if I stay here for a million years I shall remain a stranger)
(Here we have nothing. We have no jobs. A Palestinian has neither wealth nor a job. Once they see his I.D. that is it. It will do him no good even if he has a thousand degrees.)
0:08:30 – 0:08:36
Abu Hatim Khraibi
A-Manishiyah, Acre - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(We want identity, liberty and dignity. Your home gives you dignity, your home gives you dignity)
0:08:40 – 0:09:36
As soon as the Palestinians arrived in Lebanon, former President of the Lebanon Republic Bishara Al-Khouri addressed the first one hundred thousand refugees by saying: “Enter your country”.
However, due the special circumstances of the host country, and because of Western factors as well as mistakes made by every one, the slogan “sovereignty for Lebanon and dignity for the Palestinians” started losing support.
The perception changed with time. Palestinians started living in complete isolation in a country that is not without problems. Consequently, Palestinian refugee communities were transformed from centres of preparation for revolution and return to a bitter reality of jobless families drowned in illness and misery.
0:09:40 – 0:09:48
Mahmud Muhammad
Taytaba, Safad - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(This pressure is aimed at forcing young men to flee Lebanon. Since the Arab countries do not accept them, they have going to Europe.)
0:10:02 – 0:10:07
The Sun was about to set, time had caught us as it had caught these three.
0:10:10 – 0:10:15
Ahmad Al-Khatib
Ar-Ra’s Al-Ahmar, Safad – El-Miyah wa-Miyah / Lebanon
(We erected a tent. They provided a tent which we erected. We lived in a tent)
0:10:20 – 0:10:38
Fat-hiyah Ahmad Al-Khatib:
The tent was torn. Rain fell on us. Wind almost blew it away. We all pull it back and hold its pole.)
(They brought the materials and built a room. All camp dwellers started coming to have a look at us. We were the first to build a room in the camp.)
0:10:41 – 0:11:04
However, the room was not tempting enough for their children who were forced by harsh conditions to join the one hundred emigrants out of the four hundred and thirty thousand refugees who now live in Lebanon.
The young leave while the elders remain on the waiting list.
0:11:08 – 0:11:13
Ahmad Al-Khatib:
(I have been listening to the news for fifty years. They are all lies. They are all lies.)
0:11:17 – 0:11:23
Abdul Aziz Hamdan:
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp / Jordan
(Since we left I have been reading the newspaper every day, every day, every day.)
0:11:29 – 0:11:59
More than fifty years of searching in between lines for a news item about his disaster-stricken village, Haj Abdul Aziz has learned that it has been turned into a restricted military zone talking about it is as taboo as coming close it.
The village of Al-Buraij is one of thirty nine villages around Jerusalem whose inhabitants were banished.
Its story is the story of all such depopulated villages.
0:12:01 – 0:12:16
Abdul Aziz Hamdan:
(When we left we did not leave willingly. Nor did we sell our land. We are never prepared to sell an inch of our lands. We were forced out of land because we were weak. We had no weapons, no ammunition and nothing with which to resist, not even a rifle to confront the cannon.)
0:12:19 – 0:12:33
‘Isa Al-‘Abd
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Baq’ah Camp /Jordan:
(The artillery started shelling us. We had no idea where they artilleries were coming from.)
(We had no option but to get out, It was after sunset that we left.)
0:12:37 – 0:12:46
Fadda Ahmad
‘Isa Al-‘Abd
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp /Jordan:
(We left home for Zakariyah and from their to Beit Nattif, then to Sourif, to Beitummar and then Bethlehem.)
0:12:47 – 0:13:55
That was a life-saving migration within the homeland itself. On numerous occasions they returned to their villages only to be fired at from behind.
From village to village, to the farthest region from the borders with Lebanon, Syria or Jordan.
Nearly one third of them managed to remain inside the Palestinian home, in towns and neighbouring villages, or in nineteen refugee camps in the West Bank and eight others in the Gaza Strip.
Studies point out that ninety per cent of villages were depopulated as a result of Israeli military action. Thirty three of these villages witnessed disgraceful massacres the largest of which was Al-Dawaymah and the most famous of which was Deir Yassin. In the aftermath of latter, Israeli vehicles went through neighbouring villages and through the streets of Jerusalem carrying women and prisoners announcing from loudspeakers “either you leave or what happened in Deir Yassin will happen to you.”
0:14:16 – 0:14:26
Abdul Qadir ‘Ali, his wife Fadda
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp /Jordan:
(Then, one had value and people respected him. Today, no one is respected). (Every one is in a country, every one is in a country. That one is at Al-Baq’ah, the other at Zarqa. And there and here.)
0:14:29 – 0:14:53
‘Issa Al-‘Abd:
(Once we had friend, Abu ‘Izzat, whose name is Abdelqadir, here I am now in Baq’ah while he lives at Shnillar.)
(I wish that God will make it possible for me to return to my land where my grave will be.)
0:15:05 – 0:15:31
Obituary / ‘Issa Al-‘Abd is dead:
The people of Al-Buraij village announce with deep sorrow the distress the death of Palestine’s loyal son, Al-Haj ‘Issa Al-‘Abd, who passed away on 28 May 2000 aged 90 years. It is to God that we belong and it to Him that we shall return.
People are forced to leave. They are eventually overpowered by death leaving behind their happy childhood and the memories of their youthful years. In the midst of exile and separation, they return to start from zero the work for a day that is less gloomy.
0:15:36 – 0:15:59
Khalil Abu Hussein
Salma, Jaffa – Zarqa Camp / Jordan:
(Our house was very small. It had no lighting. We had a kerosene lamp for reading. Pocket money was five cent.)
(You have seen how the camp has no clinic apart from the unit operated by UNRWA. People are in need of care.)
0:16:01 – 0:16:34
Dr. Khalil’s clinic is in Zarqa ..
This is the first camp to be set up in Jordan. That was on the first of May 1949. Within less than a week, more than seventy thousand Palestinians crossed the River Jordan. They established schools and mosques before they settled in four main camps: Zarqa. Al-Hussein, Al-Wihdat and Irbid. At the time, they were called temporary camps.
0:16:39 – 0:17:05
Ni’ma ‘Ali
Khraibat Al-Luz, Jerusalem – Al-Widat /Jordan
(Had I been in my country, would I need to sell and buy and stand like this. There would have been men to do this job not women. But son, this is our destiny, what can we do.) (When you leave your home, do you leave willingly? No by God, not willingly. Who would desert his source of sustenance and his wealth to come here and sell onions and raddish?)
0:17:09 – 0:17:15
Tahir Anshasi
Jaffa – Al-Wahdat / Jordan:
(The Arab states said to us we could return after fifteen days. Praise be to God, it is now fifty two years since we left.)
(52 years of migration, 52 years, from 1948 to 2000, that is 52 years.)
Sadness plus tears in the eye.
0:17:16- 0:18:11
Once more the scene is repeated
The war was in 1967
They alone were once more the losers
This time, more than one hundred and forth thousand refugees who since the1948 war had been living in the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip left for Jordan accompanied by two hundred and fifty thousand additional displaced Palestinians.
They all came out on foot.
They carried the sick, the elderly, the children and a few belongings. They cross the destroyed bridge into new destruction. Tents were once more erected in six camps that were called emergency camps: Al-Hisn, Al-Talibyiah, Shnillar, Baq’ah, Jarash and Soof. The temporary and the emergency became standard and the waiting was to become long.
0:18:16 – 0:18:30
‘Aisha Al-Zibn
‘Ajjur, Hebron – Shnillar (Hittin) / Jordan:
(We left become of the Jews. They expelled us to Hebron and then to Jericho. After West Bank was lost in 1967 we came here. We moved in three stages.) (We are sitting here. Is this a life? No, it is not. The men are hanging around. There are no jobs. By God we hardly earn enough to buy a loaf of bread. You ask me about the conditions. What can I tell you about the condition.)
0:18:45 – 0:19:00
Zaynab Hussein
‘Annaba, Lod – Baq’ah / Jordan:
(We remained in the West Bank, in ‘Aqbat Jabr, in tents for 20 years. We had no electricity and no water. There were scorpions all around us. Then we moved out and came here to Baq’ah Camp.)
0:19:05 – 0:19:39
Early in 1968, five thousand tents clustered in this spot, which is no more than 1.5 square kilometres in area, to accommodate twenty six thousand Palestinians. Soon, the number multiplied until it reached seventy five thousand refugees in addition to ten thousand displaced persons.
Baq’ah Camp is one of the largest camps outside Palestine.
Images and figures tell in brief the whole story.
0:20:11 – 0:20:45
While the catastrophe of 1948 had still been an open wound in the Palestinian conscience there came the debacle of 1967 only to exacerbate the bleeding and augment the pain.
In Syria, one hundred thousand out of a total of four hundred and seventy thousand refugees had been displaced from the Golan Heights to other regions.
The Camp of Sbayna, which was set up in 1958, is inhabited today by fifteen thousand Palestinians most of whom lived through the misery of migration twice.
0:20:51 – 0:21:02
Nayif Sa’d
Krad Al-Baqqara, Safad – Sbayna Camp / Syria:
(In 1967, when the war broke out, the people fled the Goland. We came out bare-footed. By God, all of us came out bare-footed. None carried anything).
0:21:07 – 0:21:25
On the outskirts of the city of Damascus too, there lies the Camp of Jirmana. It was set up in 1948 and is today inhabited by twenty four thousand refugees some are the victims of one catastrophe while some are the victims of two. In the captivity of this camp, successive generations are born.
0:21:28 – 0:21:40
‘Abdu Al-Simni (the father)
Al-Salhiyah, Safad – Jirmana Camp / Syria:
(The one who came and occupied my land, how on earth does it become his land? On what basis does one came from abroad to seize my own land? What is the reason for that?)
0:21:55 – 0:22:03
‘Isa ‘Abdu Al-Simni (the son):
(We are for the right to return and for just peace. Of course it is just peace which will return us to our land and restore our full rights).
0:22:05 – 0:22:19
Noor ‘Isa Al-Simni (the granddaughter):
(Palestine is my home and the pathway of my victory. My country remains the love of my heart and a proud tune sung by my tongue. I see strange faces in my usurped land, selling my stolen fruits and occupying my home.)
0:23:12 – 0:24:34
Abu ‘Arab – song:
(Father tell may out my homeland and explain to me
I know not who among my people remains and who is gone
Nothing relieves my chest and brings me happiness
Except the smell of my home, of its soil and its grass)
0:24:45 – 0:29:52
This Ibrahim Muhammad Salih, nicknamed Abu ‘Arab.
He came from Al-Shajara village to ‘Ayn Al-Hilwa Camp where he stayed with his cousin Naji Al-‘Ali for three months and then rejoined his family in Al-‘A’ideen Camp in the city of Hums.
The journey that has not exhausted his 67 year old body. Nor has it normalised him. Instead, it has deepened his association and longing for his home.
Although he has lost sight in one of his eyes, Palestine has never been clearer in his mind and closer to his heart.
On the day he lost his father in the battle of Al-Shajara in 1948, he made Palestine a pledge that he will remain loyal to it. He offered her his son, Ma’an, who fell a martyr at the age of 21 on the soil of the Lebanese Biqa’ in 1982.
In both cases, he could not bid farewell to the dearest of people to him, his father and his son.
0:26:08 – 0:27:12
Abu ‘Arab – song:
(We sheltered under metal sheets and in tents
-------------------
My father was martyred in Haifa and both my son and brother have died
We have been stabbed by those who betrayed the Arabs
Out of old metal we made our beds
Neither hunger nor deprivation has defeated us
The deaf world no longer hears our cries
Its conscience has been shaken by the severe catastrophe
Mighty, mighty, mighty are my people)
0:27:22 – 0:27:49
Rasmiyah Salih
Al-Shajara, Tabariyah – Hums Camp / Syria:
(Imagine that you’re living in this house and then someone comes and drives you out of it. How can you forget? We have never forgotten. How can we forget the place where we were born, where we lived and where so did our father and grandfather. We know that this country is ours and it belongs to us. How can we forget it just because we are handed out a little flour, or a sac of milk. Not to mention that most refugees are no longer handed out any thing any more.
0:27:50 – 0:28:04
Abu ‘Arab
Al-Shajara, Tabariyah – Hums Camp / Syria:
(In that camp you see in front of you, not a single house remains without having suffered a wounded or a martyr or a missing person. Very few houses do not have one of these. So, all the people in the camp are just like me.)
0:28:06 – 0:28:15
Samira ‘Awdeh
Deir Al-Qasi, Acre – Shatilla Camp – Lebanon:
(Sometimes, when I am alone, my entire life passes before my eyes like a film, how we were, how we are now, what has become of us, and why they have done this to us. Why have they done this to us?)
0:28:18 – 0:29:11
The name of this camp is Shatillah. It acquired fame from drowning in the blood of its inhabitants. In September 1982, and in less than three days, more than three thousand martyrs fell to the ground and bid farewell to this world.
These mass graves have always been the favourable target of brutality and destruction. In the ruins, there still exists a small house deprived of doors and many other things, inhabited by Umm Nidal and her five children. They are one of fifteen thousand Palestinian families in Lebanon that have offered martyrs or have been entirely martyred.
0:29:12 – 0:29:44
Samira ‘Awdeh:
(In the month of April, exactly on 20 April, the second day Mariam was born, that was the first day he went out. He said he would return at one thirty. He went out on condition that he would come back. He never came back.)
(He was their father, whom they loved so much, especially Samar, Nidal and Nihad, but mostly Samar.)
0:29:48 – 0:30:57
Hafiz ‘Uthman
Majd Al-Kurum, Acre – Shatilla Camp / Lebanon
(My son’s name is Walid)
(He was martyred here at the entrance to the camp. He was 19 years old. He was ready to enter university, just like others in his age. May Allah have mercy on him)
(Yes our country is beautiful. Our country is fertile. He had every right to fight for it and to sacrifice himself and to be martyred for its sake. We never wished to come here and live in a tent. You have seen how painful the situation in the camp is. The conspiracy still goes on. Even some from amongst our own people conspire against us.)
0:31:04 – 0:31:42
The Palestinians of Lebanon. Their experience is the most severe in the long journey of agony.
Since the catastrophe, they have known no stability or permanent residence. They have always been subjected to moving from one place to the other.
In the early sixties, internal banishment adopted a different shape. A new player, Israel’s destruction machinery, had joined in shelling them at one time, massacring them another and stirring sedition among them another.
All people fought each other, but it was them who died.
0:31:44 – 0:32:41
Shukriya Raslan
Blein, Haifa – Badawi Camp / Lebanon:
(Son, you have not seen what had happened to us. My son was brought like this, thrown next to the bus.)
Two of my sons were doctors working in the Red Crescent. They both died of hunger and thirst.)
(We had to drink filthy water, by Allah we drank sewage.)
(We have been destined to come here. My father, my brothers and my sons have all died. We’ve been living here in the shade of these metal sheets for the past 53 years.)
(This is no life. Those who die are lucky. We decided? No one decided, son. But we say praise be to Allah. But it is sinful for them who are in charge of the money. So much of its comes, but where do they take it?)
0:32:52 – 0:34:01
The scenario of slow death continues. The scenes of Uzu get repeated elsewhere.
The family of Um Mamduh, which has continuously been diminishing, and fifty two other families have finally settled at Badawi Camp to the north of Beirut nearby the city of Tripoli. There, a family’s average income does not exceed one hundred dollars a month.
Others have been driven by suffering to the match boxes of the near by Al-Barid River Camp.
Places and causes vary, but the reality and suffering are the same everywhere you go.
These are the banished Palestinians who keep looking for a new shelter whenever war breaks out or hardship intensifies.
Three thousand and five hundred banished families live in intolerable conditions that are beyond humanity and morality. A significant proportion of these families have been displaced more than three times.
0:34:07 – 0:34:24
Abu Ibhrahim
Nablus – Badawi Camp / Lebanon:
In 1970, my father left Tal Al-Za’tar. From Tal Al-Za’tar we went to Burj Al-Barajneh. When the Israelis stormed Lebanon in 1982, we moved from Burj Al-Barajneh to here. This entire camp is know as the camp of the displaced.)
(Come up here, shoot this. One blow of air and it will collapse.)
0:34:28 – 0:34:53
An Israeli soldier, one of the war heroes against these innocent people recorded in his diary that he was terrified by the looks in the children’s eyes. He wrote about his astonishment at the life these people led in the camp as if they were still living in their villages and towns.
Yes, the destruction is total and the houses are torn apart.
But their steadfastness has never been torn.
0:34:59 – 0:35:31
Hasana Umm Nimr:
(During the invasion they messed the camp. We returned to it. I was told to take off my headscarf and put it up like this in a sign of surrender. I said no, I will not take it off. I was asked, why not. I said I would not put up a white flag. Do you want me to hoist a white flag at the entrance to the camp? No me. Even the foetuses in their mothers’ wombs we want them to know as soon as they are born the way to Palestine.)
0:35:34 – 0:35:58
Al-Aqsa Kindergarten – Badawi Camp / Lebanon (Caption)
Child: (We are no in Palestine because the Jews stole it from us)
Another child: (They stole it from us)
Three children: (When we grow up, we shall return to Palestine, when we grow up we shall return to Palestine)
Child: My uncle Samir has a Klashnikov)
(I am strong, I do not fear the Jews. I shall kick them with my foot if they attack the people)
0:36:05 – 0:36:18
Children of the kindergarten singing:
(By Allah we have not forgotten, By Allah we have not forgotten
Palestine is our country and is in our eyes
My country will remain inside my heart
No matter what they do to us or kill of us)
0:36:41 – 0:36:52
Baq’ah Primary School / Jordan:
1. From Sarafand Al-‘Amar, Ramleh, Palestine
2. From Deir Ayyoub, Jerusalem, Palestine
3. From Al-Dawaymeh, Hebron, Palestine
4. From Simmin, Gaza, Palestine
5. From Al-Falujeh, Gaza, Palestine
0:36:58 – 0:37:05
Al-Shajarah Preparatory Schoold, Hims Camp / Syria: (Caption)
Wisam Kamal / Haifa: (Born in Hims Camp in 1986. We cannot go back to Haifa because the occupation authorities will not allow us.)
0:37:06 – 0:37:12
Mustafa ‘Uthman / Safad: (I hold fast to my right, to my history and to my land which is the land of my Palestinian Arab ancestors who lived on it)
0:37:18 – 0:37:31
From Badawi Kindergarten to Baq’ah Primary to Hims Preparatory
Memory is a fresh living legacy, just as new.
0:37:33 – 0:37:44
Ruba Al-Khatib
Haifa – Hims Camp / Syria:
(I go to Deir Al-Asad school. We have other shcools: Al-Jash and Al-Ra’s al-Ahmar. We have named them after Palestinian villages so as to always remember them.)
0:37:46 – 0:37:57
Aminas Abdullah
Deir Al-Balah, Gaza – Zarqa / Jordan:
(I love to go to my country because it is my original country and the country of my people. But the Jews are occupying it and we have no means of overcoming them. When the Arabs unite and overcome the Jews, we shall return to our country.)
0:37:59 – 0:38:04
Shots of children in the camps + music
0:38:04 – 0:38:20
Eid (feast) has come. Children all over the world have celebrated their eid.
Camp children have celebrated in their own way.
Such happiness is wrapped in limitless sadness.
It is filled with overflowing longing for reunion.
0:38:28 – 0:38:35
The Boy / Uzu:
(In our country Eid is more beautiful. When we are at home, not in another country, not in exile)
0:38:38 – 0:38:50
Rula / Uzu:
(One does enjoy Eid, but more so when one is in his own country. Part of the happiness is due to being at home. It is then that happiness will be complete)
Picture of Mariam, flashback to here mother and the voice of Umm Nidal:
0:39:08 – 0:39:27
Mariam, the youngest daughter of Umm Nidal has found no happiness at all this eid.
She has not found her mother. Nor has she found he mother who has been confined by sickness to a hospital bed. In the meantime, Mariam has been confined to sadness. She has been addicted to shaking the palm tree.
She had none but her kind friends to say happy eid to. (carrying cats)
0:39:34 – 0:39:59
Mariam:
(I’ve never seen my father. I don’t know him. He was martyred while I was young. At times mother talks to us about him and I try to picture him.)
(I imagine myself kissing him in the morning and wishing him a happy eid.)
(Today I woke up to find that mother was not in the house for me to wish her a happy eid. She has been in hospital.
0:40:03 – 0:41:48
Abu Arab sitting singing. Children play behind him with Mariam and with others:
(They said eid has come, I said it has its people, what good is eid for one separated from loved ones.
Eid, mother, will be when our country returns to us, when I return to the land of Jerusalem and kiss its soil.
Mother, when eid comes to me, no eid brings me happiness
while I am away from home
and have none to wish me happy eid
Mother, when eid comes to me
I shall ask him where are the dear ones
Mother, when eid comes to me
I shall ask him where are the dear ones
People exchange congratulations on eid
And I look in the rubble for my children)
0:41:51 – 0:41:53
0:42:00 – 0:42:26
More than eight hundred thousand citizens come from five hundred and thirty one villages and towns
Today, they number about five million Palestinians, stamped on the forehead of each one of them is the word refugee
Such was the beginning and such has the end not been written yet.
0:42:29 – 0:42:57
Manal Fayyad
Lubya, Tabariyah – Nahr Al-Barid Camp / Lebanon:
(As a result of the displacement from Palestine, our people have been scattered around the world. Consequently, we have moved from country to country. My eldest brother was born in Gaza, I at Al-Yarmouk in Syria, and the rest of my brothers at ‘Ayn Al-Hilwa. Currently, we have been living here at Nahr Al-Barid Camp since the invasion).
(Now, Allah knows best until when we shall remain at Al-Barid. Perhaps until another wave sweeps us away from here)
0:43:06 – 0:43:34
Nahr Al-Barid Camp
Area: One square kilometre
Population: Thirty thousand
Unemployment: ninety five per cent
Cases of severe hardship: One thousand and one hundred families
There are now inside the camp seven hundred serious cases awaiting medical attention in what has become known as the death list.
0:43:41 – 0:43:59
Abdulghani Za’rurah (amputated hand/wearing an artificial one)
Saffuri, Nazareth – Nahr Al-Barid / Lebanon:
The UNRWA were supposed to have transferred me for medical treatment at their expense. But the doctor found no transfer letter with me. He said to mother you must bring $150. Mother had no money and went back to the camp. When we returned the doctor had left and I was postponed for three days. I had gangrene. I was transferred to Al-Hayik Hospital where they amputated.)
0:44:03 – 0:44:15
Manal Fayyad:
(What we fear most is that the childhood we were denied will also be denied to our children. This is what suffer from now in the camp)
0:44:38 – 0:44:46
Hanin and Bilal tour the camp and along the beach:
Hanin: (My name is Hanin Abdulmajid. My mother is from Sa’sa’ and my father from Saffuri. Both of my parents are death.)
(I love them so much)
0:44:23 – 0:44:28
(I live in Nahr Al-Barid camp. I don’t like it because it is dirty)
0:44:50 – 0:44:55
(They called me Hanin (longing) because Hanin refers to my homeland)
0:44:55 – 0:45:04
She places her hand over her eyes, she lowers her head + a beautiful gesture with her eye + hides he tears
0:45:04 – 0:45:24
Contrary to what is normal and expected, most of those we met – young and old – preferred to withhold tears in the eyes.
That amounted to a declaration that the era of weeping is over. This is the time to store tears until they flow in a flood of bitter salt that will drown all those who wish no pleasant life.
0:45:34 – 0:46:08
Yusra Abdullah
Acre – Burj Al-Barajneh / Lebanon:
(There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger. May Allah on the occasion of this blessed month scatter America and Britain, the cause of our catastrophe.)
(Allah is Greater than them. May He humiliate them as they humiliated us, may He punish them as they have oppressed us)
(What’s with Allah is nearby. Nothing is forgotten. Abuse is not forgotten, abuse is not forgotten. Abuse me and I shall all my live remember that you’ve abuse me. Do good to me and I shall always remember that you’ve done good to me. Why is the abuse. Only a bastard forgets.)
0:46:13 – 0:47:24
More than half of Lebanon’s refugees live in twelve official camps recognised by the United Nations through the UNRWA – the relief and work agency for Palestinian refugees. The remaining refugees live around these camps or in clusters that emerged due to circumstances. Generally, these live in conditions that are worse and more deprived compared with whatever little services UNRWA offers, especially after its services were subjected to a continuous series of reductions since 1993, the year Oslo agreement was reached.
So, in addition to twelve official camps there are eleven unofficial ones inhabited by approximately thirty five thousand Palestinians and twelve other marginal camps, including Jull Al-Bahr Camp that was set up in 1952 in the city of Tyre and today accommodates seventy five families.
From the villages of Palestine to the sea shore of Lebanon, the story goes on.
0:47:30 – 0:49:13
Abu Ahmad
Jizzin, Acre – Jull Al-Bahr / Lebanon:
(We stand in the queue like troops. We wait between six and seven hours to obtain a couple of bread loafs so as to feed ten children)
(We spend a long time eating grass. I was thirteen years old and had nothing to eat but the grass I found. There was nothing else to extinguish my hunger. Where was the Arab leadership then? Why didn’t they liberate Palestine? Why didn’t they liberate it? They said to us ‘fifteen minutes and you should be back in your country’.)
(I appeal to the Arab conscience, those who made us leave in 1948 should return us to our country. I appeal to the conscience of the countries of the free world and Islamic ones to help this wronged people. Enough fifty years or more of injustice.)
(We’ve been counting the minutes and the seconds because of hunger and cold. No other people have been wronged like our people. We have been wronged although we have wronged no one to be wronged. We in Palestine never attacked anybody’s states nor have we ever taken anybody’s land. We never attacked America or London capital of Belfor’s Great Britain.)
(The United Nations is supposed to be composed of 150 world states headed by America which considers itself a super power. Let them return me to my country, let them return me. I don’t want a heater or a sac of flour from them. I want to eat grass under a trea in my country’s soil.)
1:05:08 – 1:05:17
(Israel wishfully thought that in time the old generation will die and that the new generation will just forget Palestine. Today, those who fight and get martyred belong to the new generation.)
0:49:15 – 0:49:22
(If my land does not return to me I shall remain in this injustice and shall want to continue the fight. I shall not allow my land to be taken from me just like that)
0:49:23 – 0:50:12
One may wonder what is the distance between the location of the famous battle of Yarmouk and the largest concentration of refugees in Syria. The UNRWA does not recognise this camp while the Syrian government and one hundred thousand Palestinian refugees see otherwise.
The Yarmouk Camp is a huge district eight kilometres away from the centre of Damascus.
The nature of accommodation has changed but not the symbolism.
Streets are called after the origins of their inhabitants, but this remains a camp.
As exactly is happening here.
Notwithstanding the vast difference in accommodation.
0:50:19 – 0:50:23
Bassam Sharif
Tarshiha, Acre – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
(This camp was barracks paralleled by public toilets.)
0:50:27 – 0:50:36
Muhammad Azzam
Jish, Safad – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
We sheltered in these sleeping quarters. They were open. Each family segregated itself from the other using blankets or sacs.)
0:50:39 – 0:50:45
Rasmiyah Yousef
Tarshiha, Acre - Nayrab Camp / Syria:
We were living in this barracks together with fifteen other families. We’ve been here since we arrived. We’ve never moved.)
0:50:50 – 0:51:07
The Nayrab Camp, located in the extreme north of Syria, is the farthest refugee camp from the borders of the homeland.
It is inhabited by more than eighteen thousand refugees. They do not master the language of meters. Nevertheless, they have learned the covenant by heart.
0:51:13 – 0:51:37
Rasheed Al-Sheikh
Tarshiha, Acre – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
(I shall never forget it. Even our children who have not seen Palestine, we bring them up so that they never forget it. We feed them the love of Palestine not the love of remaining refugees.)
We have accepted to live in these places, on top of each other, in the hope that one day we shall return to Palestine. We never lose hope in Allah.)
0:51:42 – 0:52:42
Although exile is painful and bitter, its bitterness varies from one place to another.
In Syria, a Palestinian refugee is treated as a Syrian citizen in terms of rights and duties, and so is the case in Jordan where in addition citizenship was granted to more than one quarter of the refugees who constitute two thirds of the Palestinian people. Jordan hosts more than one and a half million refugees distributed across towns and ten major camps.
However, refugees who come from Gaza are a special case, here, there or in any close location.
Jarash Camp, known as the Gaza camp, shelters one quarter of the one hundred thousand Gazans who live in Jordan.
One way or another, the camp offers a picture of the life Gazans wherever they happen to live, whether in towns, villages, on the border or in camps.
0:52:53 – 0:53:43
Nada Al-‘Absi
Al-Faluja, Gaza – Jarash / Jordan:
(Would you agree to live in a shelter like this where water leaks on you? Would you?)
(Would you accept a door like this, a roof like this that may fall on your children, where you’d use pots to collect dripping water? Would you accept such condition? By Allah you would not accept. But we do.)
(Young men and women have no work, no education, nothing)
(We have none employed, no monthly income. When a person is sick we take him to UNRWA where they sometimes give us tablets and sometimes tell us they have none left)
(These youngsters, don’t they look for a future, don’t they need education, expenses and clothing?)
0:53:46 – 0:54:28
Sabri Abu Rafi’
Yubna, Ramleh – Jarash / Jordan
(America is controlling all humanity, the Western countries are controlling all humanity. We are weak. Our oil and our resources go to America with which they fight us. If today we unite as Arabs, we shall return and the refugees will return.)
(I expect that we shall remain here in Jordan until we return to our land, which Yubna. It is impossible to return to Gaza because it was to Gaza that we were displaced. It is true that it is part of Palestine, but my land is Yubna)
0:54:33 – 0:54:53
Although they are of primary interest to the media,
And although what they say is the essence of politics,
They do not believe in their realism and refuse to accept their assumptions.
What they understand is that they have a homeland, and that they will inevitably return to it.
0:54:57 – 0:55:10
Sa’id Al-Qaddumi
Kufr Qaddum, Nablus – Al-Hussin Camp / Jordan:
(Palestine will never be a mere memory. Nor our presence in the camps and our talk about Palestine will be a mere memory. For the Palestinian people it is not simply a land, but an identity and a faith)
0:55:13 – 0:55:17
Abdulqadir Darwish
Saydna ‘Ali, Yafa – Baq’ah Camp / Jordan:
(We are happy here in Jordan. All services are rendered to us. But still, we want our country)
0:55:19 –0:55:30
Hasnah Umm Nimer (‘Ayn al-Hilwah / Lebanon)
(I would not want to be settled here permanently even if this will cost me my life. I shall make them pledge to take my bones, place them in a coffin and take them to Palestine)
0:55:33 – 0:55:48
Rula (‘Ayn al-Hilwah / Lebanon)
(Never will we accept. This is not a part of my land. One just cannot do without a part of one’s body. Therefore, it would not be possible to relinquish any part of one’s land. One’s homeland is written in one’s name, one’s blood. It is there that one’s ancestors were born and where they lived. We are part of that homeland.
0:55:51 – 0:56:02
(Jull Al-Bahr / Lebanon):
(Whoever accepts permanent settlement is a transgressor and a traitor to his cause. My problem will not be resolved at the expense of the Lebanese people. I am a guest in this land and a hospitality has a limit and a specific time.)
0:56:04 – 0:56:14
Ahmad ‘Amarah (Yarmouk Camp / Syria):
We thank the Arab states for their hospitality. We thank them for their good treatment. We thank them for every think. But this will not make me forget my land and I shall never accept permanent settlement no matter what.
0:21:44– 0:21 :53
Dunya Hussein (Jirmana /Syria):
No matter what, a stranger is a stranger. By Allah, Syria is carrying us and we are happy. I mean, praise be to Allah, we work. But one has only his homeland son. One’s homeland is all that matters. He who is without a homeland is one without faith.)
0:56:25 – 0:57:15
Abu ‘Arab .. song:
Palestine is mine and is my home
I am not accustomed to appeasing cowards
Wherever from the wind blows my home
I shall remain steadfast defeating pain and agony
Even if you were to give us the entire planet
It remains no more than a tomato grown in my land
I have drawn the picture of my country on my forehead
The soil of my land is the kohl of my eyes
0:57:16 – 0:58:39
(It has been decided that the refugees who wish to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so as soon as possible. It has also been decided to compensate those who decide not to return to their homes and to pay compensations for all those who have been missing or those wounded)
This was the famous resolution that bore the number 194. This is the resolution that the majority of United Nations members have voted in support of for more than 110 times since it was first issued on 11 December 1948. However, to no avail.
The UN recognition of the State of Israel was conditional upon the latter’s recognition of resolution 194. Israel never implemented the resolution. In contrast, in 1950, it innovated a return law of its own that considers every Jew in the world an Israeli citizen upon leaving his country of residence and arriving in Israel.
In the meantime, Israel is more than just recognised.
It has thus far succeeded continuously in implementing its own resolution while ignoring the United Nations resolutions right from the first Camp David to the last.
Salah Hammad (A butcher / cutting meat)
Haifa – Burj Al-Barajneh Camp / Lebanon:
0:59:08 – 0:59:16
Mahmud Al-‘Atrah
Beit Dajan, Yafa – Al-Hussein Camp / Jordan:
(Forget the United Nations, it is nonsense. What has the United Nations done for us. It was all mere talking to no avail.)
0:59:18 – 0:59:30
Muhammad Darwish
Al-Shajarah, Tabariyah – Hims Camp / Sryia
(The resolution on the right return to Palestine is the minimum we should insist on. Anyway, we have the right to return whether the United Nations said so or not)
0:59:32 – 1:00:22
Wherever they live, Palestinians view the resolution with extreme cynicism. And this is not simply in view of its seriousness or the expiry of its mandate but because of the manner in which the author of the resolution thought he succeeded in averting a crisis. There is a great apprehension regarding its second paragraph which calls for compensating those who wish not to return.
Is there anyone who does not wish to return?
Or is there anyone who accepts compensation for the loss of the homeland?
Although some have sought to interpret the offer of compensation as implying compensating the Palestinians for Israel’s investment of their possession without negating their right to return, all of those we have met, to be on the safe side, have rejected outright the issue of compensation.
1:00:27 – 1:00:36 Mahmud Muhammad / Lebanon:
(I’d rather lose my hand than sign away my land in exchange for compensation. Even if the Jews were to take it free of charge I shall never consent to compensation. What will they compensate me for? All their money will not pay for a stone in Palestine.)
‘Uthman Anshasi /Jordan:
1:00:37 – 1:00:42
The compensation they want to give to the people of Palestine they should give to the Jews who come from there so that we may get rid of them.)
1:00:44 – 1:00:50
Muhammad Darwish / Syria:
(Are we looking for money. Would one give away his homeland in exchange for money? Only a traitor would do so. I would never do that. If we ever wanted money for our land would might as well have sold it while we were still there. We continue to carry ownership deeds with us)
Land ownership deeds
1:00:52 – 1:01:04
Rasmiyah Salih / Syria:
(Here are the deeds, I have kept them all a long for the sake of my children and grand children. If I do not live to see next year, they will carry the deeds after me to prove that we have a land in Palestine and a long heritage.)
1:01:08 – 1:01:20
Fahd Al-Bayari / Jordan:
(My father who is 77 years old is still carrying with him a Palestinian passport, a Palestinian birth certificate and the deeds of the land he owned in Palestine)
1:01:26 – 1:01:39
Manal Fayyad / Lebanon:
Land deeds are with us. They brought them with them from Palestine and we continue to have them to date. These are the deeds, all of them are here. These are my grandfather’s land deeds. We’ve been treasuring them for 52 years and shall continue to do so.)
1:01:54 – 1:02:12
Shatila the massacre is the same Shatila that wakes up every morning in a mythical state of consciousness. It rejects defeat, takes on more patience, lives the memory and hopes for a better future.
1:02:24 – 1:02:32
Umm Nidal and her daughter Samar:
Samar: (Does it make sense that one may forget one’s homeland? Who would? Only an ignorant person would?)
1:02:37 – 1:02:49
With Umm Nidhal: (When a person sells his land, he forgets is. He’ll say: I’ve sold it. But the situation is rather different and rather difficult when you are stripped of your land by force)
1:02:54 – 1:03:0
Our main motto is: What is taken by force can only be regained by force. Palestine can never be returned through negotiations and capitulation)
1:03:06 – 1:03:12
A Palestinian refugee
Al-Qibab, Lod – Baq’ah Camp / Jordan:
( I want to return to my country with a sword and not in humiliation. Don’t argue with me in this way. I don’t want to go. Israel is just another European state)
1:05:22 – 1:05:37
Hasana Umm Nimr / ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah:
(The homeland is dear. The homeland should be defended with our souls. The homeland to me is like my own child and even dearer. Perhaps when you child dies you’ll have another, but not the homeland.)
1:03:15 -
Abu ‘Arab / Hims:
(The land will not return without blood. The clearest proof is Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.
01:03:22–1:05:08
Shots of South Lebanon .. Return and victory
Caption (22 years of occupation
22 years of resistance
Victory
Return)
1:05:55 – 1:06:28
So long as the conflict is on, paradise is not lost but is occupied and is returnable.
Perhaps the pain will rise once more, perhaps wounds will reopen
But it is certain that their dream is unlike any other dream
It is the homeland, a most pure, most sublime picture that will last so long as the homeless bird’s singing lasts.
01:06:14–1:06:16
Abu ‘Arab / Concluding song:
Start music: 27 seconds
Haddi music: 18 seconds
1:06:39 – 1:06:51
Calm down sea, our absence has been too long
Calm down sea, our absence has been too long
Convey my greetings to the land that raised us
1:07:14 – 1:07:35
Convey my greetings to the olive tree, to my family that raised me
Convey my greetings to the olive tree, to my family that raised me
My compassionate mother is still smelling my pillow
1:07:56 – 1:08:18
O stars, convey my greetings to the threshing floor and the orchard
O stars, convey my greetings to the threshing floor and the orchard
The butterfly is still flying waiting for our return
- Images of war and shelling of villages
- He joins the cadre quickly (1948)
- Images of migration + interacting voices + spot mark moves inside the cadre
0:01:22- 0:01:26
- Khalid Yusuf / Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp: (The scene is horrible, horrible. God bears witness that I emerged out of the fire).
0:01:26 – 0:01:30
- Ahmad Muhammad / Al-Baq’ah Camp: (Planes were on top of our heads and the shelling was on top of our heads).
0:01:30-0:01:39
- Mahmud Al-’Atrah / Al-Hussein Camp: We had no weapons and so could not resist. They started blowing houses on top of their inhabitants. Then there was the massacre of Deir Yassin).
0:01:39 - 0:01:43
- Rasmiyah Salih / Hims Camp: (His wife had some gold jewellery, he sold them and bought a rifle).
0:01:43 - 0:01:52
- Ni’ma ‘Ali / Al-Wihdat Camp: (By Allah I had to strip my son of his shirt to cover my head as we fled. In the meantime planes shooting at us).
0:01:52 – 0:01:58
- Abu Bassam / ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp: We did not leave Palestine out of free choice. That was a conspiracy against the Palestinian people hatched by all states).
0:01:58 – 0:02:00
- Faddi Ahmad / Shnillar Camp: (I locked the house. We left and took the keys with us).
0:02:06 – 0:02:13
- Jull Al-Bahr: (Where is Palestine? Why haven’t they liberated it? We were told just a quarter of an hour and you’ll be back in your country. Where is our country)?
0:02:42 – 0:03:50
- Abu ‘Arab, sitting, remembering and singing:
A month then a year, days pass by
Over our tent night continues to cry
Children sleep in the cold tent
And oppression blows its wind
Grand dad is unwell, illnesses are eroding him
Sister and I chew our agony
Such are the landscapes which no artist can depict
Exile, blood and tears is what our life is about
0:04:15 – 0:05:00
Far from home
In the backyard of what is known as human rights
They have made a home of whatever they found .. they inhabited tents and caves
Then they moved into rooms walled with brick and roofed with metal sheets
They grew as pain grew, but their rooms never grew
The dwellings they sought refuge in five decades ago are still standing there, in Jordan, in Syria and in Lebanon
They are reminded of their plight each morning
They are Palestinians, known to the UN as refugees
No description preserves their identity
And no law restores their rights.
0:05:00 – 0:05:16
Poster Film
0:05:17 – 0:05:35
Footage of Uzu Camp
(Metal roofing sheets, drainage, children and elderly)
0:05:36 – 0:05:49
Rula Ahmad Salih
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(I very much regret this life of ours. Others lead better lives than us. We have a right to live like the rest of the world is living. We lack the security enjoyed by the people who live outside.)
0:05:54 – 0:06:03
Mustafa Hussein
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(Living here is not that good. To start with, when it rains the roof leaks. We use utensils like these to collect dripping water.)
0:06:09 – 0:06:21
Intisar Hussein:
(Indeed life here is tough. No one feels for us. Look at the piles of rubbish. It is especially tough in summer, the mosquitoes, the sick vomiting and diarrhoea-stricken children, the heat. Rubbish is to blame.)
0:06:22 – 0:06:31
Rula:
(No one says why we are here. They come only to take pictures. The UNRWA people claim they offer services. This is not true.
0:06:34 – 0:06:39
Ahmad Salih (The father)
Al-Khalsah, ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(World children have each a future, don’t they? Well, what am I leaving this child of mine, what will he get?)
0:06:40 – 0:06:48
The child and his brother:
We would lave to return to Palestine, Weare from Al Khalsa , We don`t like to stay in these small houses.
0:06:50 – 0:06:59
The sister (wife of Ahmad Salih) :
(We have no camp. We live here like the refugees of this camp but we do not belong to it. We just sit here taking shelter in this camp.)
0:07:03 – 0:07:49
There is no name on the map to point to a place like this where humans are found.
No road sign point to it.
In 1974, as a result of the persistent Israeli shelling of An-Nabatiyah Camp in the far end of South Lebanon, the camp became uninhabitable.
More than fifteen thousand Palestinians became homeless.
Some of them fled to this place, Uzu, a small residential area at the entrance of ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp.
Around thirty families live here as guests of the fifty thousand or more Palestinians who live in the biggest refugee camp in Lebanon.
0:07:52 – 0:08:00
Khalil Ibrahim
Taytaba, Safad - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(The one who knows Palestine will mourn it day and night. He’ll weep day and night.)
(Is the one who lives in his own country like the one who lives as refugee?)
0:08:01 – 0:08:28
Hasana Umm Nimr
Al-Manshiyah, Acre - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(The word refugee is a stab wound. I am a stranger and you are a citizen. Even if I stay here for a million years I shall remain a stranger)
(Here we have nothing. We have no jobs. A Palestinian has neither wealth nor a job. Once they see his I.D. that is it. It will do him no good even if he has a thousand degrees.)
0:08:30 – 0:08:36
Abu Hatim Khraibi
A-Manishiyah, Acre - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(We want identity, liberty and dignity. Your home gives you dignity, your home gives you dignity)
0:08:40 – 0:09:36
As soon as the Palestinians arrived in Lebanon, former President of the Lebanon Republic Bishara Al-Khouri addressed the first one hundred thousand refugees by saying: “Enter your country”.
However, due the special circumstances of the host country, and because of Western factors as well as mistakes made by every one, the slogan “sovereignty for Lebanon and dignity for the Palestinians” started losing support.
The perception changed with time. Palestinians started living in complete isolation in a country that is not without problems. Consequently, Palestinian refugee communities were transformed from centres of preparation for revolution and return to a bitter reality of jobless families drowned in illness and misery.
0:09:40 – 0:09:48
Mahmud Muhammad
Taytaba, Safad - ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah Camp / Lebanon:
(This pressure is aimed at forcing young men to flee Lebanon. Since the Arab countries do not accept them, they have going to Europe.)
0:10:02 – 0:10:07
The Sun was about to set, time had caught us as it had caught these three.
0:10:10 – 0:10:15
Ahmad Al-Khatib
Ar-Ra’s Al-Ahmar, Safad – El-Miyah wa-Miyah / Lebanon
(We erected a tent. They provided a tent which we erected. We lived in a tent)
0:10:20 – 0:10:38
Fat-hiyah Ahmad Al-Khatib:
The tent was torn. Rain fell on us. Wind almost blew it away. We all pull it back and hold its pole.)
(They brought the materials and built a room. All camp dwellers started coming to have a look at us. We were the first to build a room in the camp.)
0:10:41 – 0:11:04
However, the room was not tempting enough for their children who were forced by harsh conditions to join the one hundred emigrants out of the four hundred and thirty thousand refugees who now live in Lebanon.
The young leave while the elders remain on the waiting list.
0:11:08 – 0:11:13
Ahmad Al-Khatib:
(I have been listening to the news for fifty years. They are all lies. They are all lies.)
0:11:17 – 0:11:23
Abdul Aziz Hamdan:
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp / Jordan
(Since we left I have been reading the newspaper every day, every day, every day.)
0:11:29 – 0:11:59
More than fifty years of searching in between lines for a news item about his disaster-stricken village, Haj Abdul Aziz has learned that it has been turned into a restricted military zone talking about it is as taboo as coming close it.
The village of Al-Buraij is one of thirty nine villages around Jerusalem whose inhabitants were banished.
Its story is the story of all such depopulated villages.
0:12:01 – 0:12:16
Abdul Aziz Hamdan:
(When we left we did not leave willingly. Nor did we sell our land. We are never prepared to sell an inch of our lands. We were forced out of land because we were weak. We had no weapons, no ammunition and nothing with which to resist, not even a rifle to confront the cannon.)
0:12:19 – 0:12:33
‘Isa Al-‘Abd
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Baq’ah Camp /Jordan:
(The artillery started shelling us. We had no idea where they artilleries were coming from.)
(We had no option but to get out, It was after sunset that we left.)
0:12:37 – 0:12:46
Fadda Ahmad
‘Isa Al-‘Abd
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp /Jordan:
(We left home for Zakariyah and from their to Beit Nattif, then to Sourif, to Beitummar and then Bethlehem.)
0:12:47 – 0:13:55
That was a life-saving migration within the homeland itself. On numerous occasions they returned to their villages only to be fired at from behind.
From village to village, to the farthest region from the borders with Lebanon, Syria or Jordan.
Nearly one third of them managed to remain inside the Palestinian home, in towns and neighbouring villages, or in nineteen refugee camps in the West Bank and eight others in the Gaza Strip.
Studies point out that ninety per cent of villages were depopulated as a result of Israeli military action. Thirty three of these villages witnessed disgraceful massacres the largest of which was Al-Dawaymah and the most famous of which was Deir Yassin. In the aftermath of latter, Israeli vehicles went through neighbouring villages and through the streets of Jerusalem carrying women and prisoners announcing from loudspeakers “either you leave or what happened in Deir Yassin will happen to you.”
0:14:16 – 0:14:26
Abdul Qadir ‘Ali, his wife Fadda
Al-Buraij, Jerusalem – Zarqa Camp /Jordan:
(Then, one had value and people respected him. Today, no one is respected). (Every one is in a country, every one is in a country. That one is at Al-Baq’ah, the other at Zarqa. And there and here.)
0:14:29 – 0:14:53
‘Issa Al-‘Abd:
(Once we had friend, Abu ‘Izzat, whose name is Abdelqadir, here I am now in Baq’ah while he lives at Shnillar.)
(I wish that God will make it possible for me to return to my land where my grave will be.)
0:15:05 – 0:15:31
Obituary / ‘Issa Al-‘Abd is dead:
The people of Al-Buraij village announce with deep sorrow the distress the death of Palestine’s loyal son, Al-Haj ‘Issa Al-‘Abd, who passed away on 28 May 2000 aged 90 years. It is to God that we belong and it to Him that we shall return.
People are forced to leave. They are eventually overpowered by death leaving behind their happy childhood and the memories of their youthful years. In the midst of exile and separation, they return to start from zero the work for a day that is less gloomy.
0:15:36 – 0:15:59
Khalil Abu Hussein
Salma, Jaffa – Zarqa Camp / Jordan:
(Our house was very small. It had no lighting. We had a kerosene lamp for reading. Pocket money was five cent.)
(You have seen how the camp has no clinic apart from the unit operated by UNRWA. People are in need of care.)
0:16:01 – 0:16:34
Dr. Khalil’s clinic is in Zarqa ..
This is the first camp to be set up in Jordan. That was on the first of May 1949. Within less than a week, more than seventy thousand Palestinians crossed the River Jordan. They established schools and mosques before they settled in four main camps: Zarqa. Al-Hussein, Al-Wihdat and Irbid. At the time, they were called temporary camps.
0:16:39 – 0:17:05
Ni’ma ‘Ali
Khraibat Al-Luz, Jerusalem – Al-Widat /Jordan
(Had I been in my country, would I need to sell and buy and stand like this. There would have been men to do this job not women. But son, this is our destiny, what can we do.) (When you leave your home, do you leave willingly? No by God, not willingly. Who would desert his source of sustenance and his wealth to come here and sell onions and raddish?)
0:17:09 – 0:17:15
Tahir Anshasi
Jaffa – Al-Wahdat / Jordan:
(The Arab states said to us we could return after fifteen days. Praise be to God, it is now fifty two years since we left.)
(52 years of migration, 52 years, from 1948 to 2000, that is 52 years.)
Sadness plus tears in the eye.
0:17:16- 0:18:11
Once more the scene is repeated
The war was in 1967
They alone were once more the losers
This time, more than one hundred and forth thousand refugees who since the1948 war had been living in the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip left for Jordan accompanied by two hundred and fifty thousand additional displaced Palestinians.
They all came out on foot.
They carried the sick, the elderly, the children and a few belongings. They cross the destroyed bridge into new destruction. Tents were once more erected in six camps that were called emergency camps: Al-Hisn, Al-Talibyiah, Shnillar, Baq’ah, Jarash and Soof. The temporary and the emergency became standard and the waiting was to become long.
0:18:16 – 0:18:30
‘Aisha Al-Zibn
‘Ajjur, Hebron – Shnillar (Hittin) / Jordan:
(We left become of the Jews. They expelled us to Hebron and then to Jericho. After West Bank was lost in 1967 we came here. We moved in three stages.) (We are sitting here. Is this a life? No, it is not. The men are hanging around. There are no jobs. By God we hardly earn enough to buy a loaf of bread. You ask me about the conditions. What can I tell you about the condition.)
0:18:45 – 0:19:00
Zaynab Hussein
‘Annaba, Lod – Baq’ah / Jordan:
(We remained in the West Bank, in ‘Aqbat Jabr, in tents for 20 years. We had no electricity and no water. There were scorpions all around us. Then we moved out and came here to Baq’ah Camp.)
0:19:05 – 0:19:39
Early in 1968, five thousand tents clustered in this spot, which is no more than 1.5 square kilometres in area, to accommodate twenty six thousand Palestinians. Soon, the number multiplied until it reached seventy five thousand refugees in addition to ten thousand displaced persons.
Baq’ah Camp is one of the largest camps outside Palestine.
Images and figures tell in brief the whole story.
0:20:11 – 0:20:45
While the catastrophe of 1948 had still been an open wound in the Palestinian conscience there came the debacle of 1967 only to exacerbate the bleeding and augment the pain.
In Syria, one hundred thousand out of a total of four hundred and seventy thousand refugees had been displaced from the Golan Heights to other regions.
The Camp of Sbayna, which was set up in 1958, is inhabited today by fifteen thousand Palestinians most of whom lived through the misery of migration twice.
0:20:51 – 0:21:02
Nayif Sa’d
Krad Al-Baqqara, Safad – Sbayna Camp / Syria:
(In 1967, when the war broke out, the people fled the Goland. We came out bare-footed. By God, all of us came out bare-footed. None carried anything).
0:21:07 – 0:21:25
On the outskirts of the city of Damascus too, there lies the Camp of Jirmana. It was set up in 1948 and is today inhabited by twenty four thousand refugees some are the victims of one catastrophe while some are the victims of two. In the captivity of this camp, successive generations are born.
0:21:28 – 0:21:40
‘Abdu Al-Simni (the father)
Al-Salhiyah, Safad – Jirmana Camp / Syria:
(The one who came and occupied my land, how on earth does it become his land? On what basis does one came from abroad to seize my own land? What is the reason for that?)
0:21:55 – 0:22:03
‘Isa ‘Abdu Al-Simni (the son):
(We are for the right to return and for just peace. Of course it is just peace which will return us to our land and restore our full rights).
0:22:05 – 0:22:19
Noor ‘Isa Al-Simni (the granddaughter):
(Palestine is my home and the pathway of my victory. My country remains the love of my heart and a proud tune sung by my tongue. I see strange faces in my usurped land, selling my stolen fruits and occupying my home.)
0:23:12 – 0:24:34
Abu ‘Arab – song:
(Father tell may out my homeland and explain to me
I know not who among my people remains and who is gone
Nothing relieves my chest and brings me happiness
Except the smell of my home, of its soil and its grass)
0:24:45 – 0:29:52
This Ibrahim Muhammad Salih, nicknamed Abu ‘Arab.
He came from Al-Shajara village to ‘Ayn Al-Hilwa Camp where he stayed with his cousin Naji Al-‘Ali for three months and then rejoined his family in Al-‘A’ideen Camp in the city of Hums.
The journey that has not exhausted his 67 year old body. Nor has it normalised him. Instead, it has deepened his association and longing for his home.
Although he has lost sight in one of his eyes, Palestine has never been clearer in his mind and closer to his heart.
On the day he lost his father in the battle of Al-Shajara in 1948, he made Palestine a pledge that he will remain loyal to it. He offered her his son, Ma’an, who fell a martyr at the age of 21 on the soil of the Lebanese Biqa’ in 1982.
In both cases, he could not bid farewell to the dearest of people to him, his father and his son.
0:26:08 – 0:27:12
Abu ‘Arab – song:
(We sheltered under metal sheets and in tents
-------------------
My father was martyred in Haifa and both my son and brother have died
We have been stabbed by those who betrayed the Arabs
Out of old metal we made our beds
Neither hunger nor deprivation has defeated us
The deaf world no longer hears our cries
Its conscience has been shaken by the severe catastrophe
Mighty, mighty, mighty are my people)
0:27:22 – 0:27:49
Rasmiyah Salih
Al-Shajara, Tabariyah – Hums Camp / Syria:
(Imagine that you’re living in this house and then someone comes and drives you out of it. How can you forget? We have never forgotten. How can we forget the place where we were born, where we lived and where so did our father and grandfather. We know that this country is ours and it belongs to us. How can we forget it just because we are handed out a little flour, or a sac of milk. Not to mention that most refugees are no longer handed out any thing any more.
0:27:50 – 0:28:04
Abu ‘Arab
Al-Shajara, Tabariyah – Hums Camp / Syria:
(In that camp you see in front of you, not a single house remains without having suffered a wounded or a martyr or a missing person. Very few houses do not have one of these. So, all the people in the camp are just like me.)
0:28:06 – 0:28:15
Samira ‘Awdeh
Deir Al-Qasi, Acre – Shatilla Camp – Lebanon:
(Sometimes, when I am alone, my entire life passes before my eyes like a film, how we were, how we are now, what has become of us, and why they have done this to us. Why have they done this to us?)
0:28:18 – 0:29:11
The name of this camp is Shatillah. It acquired fame from drowning in the blood of its inhabitants. In September 1982, and in less than three days, more than three thousand martyrs fell to the ground and bid farewell to this world.
These mass graves have always been the favourable target of brutality and destruction. In the ruins, there still exists a small house deprived of doors and many other things, inhabited by Umm Nidal and her five children. They are one of fifteen thousand Palestinian families in Lebanon that have offered martyrs or have been entirely martyred.
0:29:12 – 0:29:44
Samira ‘Awdeh:
(In the month of April, exactly on 20 April, the second day Mariam was born, that was the first day he went out. He said he would return at one thirty. He went out on condition that he would come back. He never came back.)
(He was their father, whom they loved so much, especially Samar, Nidal and Nihad, but mostly Samar.)
0:29:48 – 0:30:57
Hafiz ‘Uthman
Majd Al-Kurum, Acre – Shatilla Camp / Lebanon
(My son’s name is Walid)
(He was martyred here at the entrance to the camp. He was 19 years old. He was ready to enter university, just like others in his age. May Allah have mercy on him)
(Yes our country is beautiful. Our country is fertile. He had every right to fight for it and to sacrifice himself and to be martyred for its sake. We never wished to come here and live in a tent. You have seen how painful the situation in the camp is. The conspiracy still goes on. Even some from amongst our own people conspire against us.)
0:31:04 – 0:31:42
The Palestinians of Lebanon. Their experience is the most severe in the long journey of agony.
Since the catastrophe, they have known no stability or permanent residence. They have always been subjected to moving from one place to the other.
In the early sixties, internal banishment adopted a different shape. A new player, Israel’s destruction machinery, had joined in shelling them at one time, massacring them another and stirring sedition among them another.
All people fought each other, but it was them who died.
0:31:44 – 0:32:41
Shukriya Raslan
Blein, Haifa – Badawi Camp / Lebanon:
(Son, you have not seen what had happened to us. My son was brought like this, thrown next to the bus.)
Two of my sons were doctors working in the Red Crescent. They both died of hunger and thirst.)
(We had to drink filthy water, by Allah we drank sewage.)
(We have been destined to come here. My father, my brothers and my sons have all died. We’ve been living here in the shade of these metal sheets for the past 53 years.)
(This is no life. Those who die are lucky. We decided? No one decided, son. But we say praise be to Allah. But it is sinful for them who are in charge of the money. So much of its comes, but where do they take it?)
0:32:52 – 0:34:01
The scenario of slow death continues. The scenes of Uzu get repeated elsewhere.
The family of Um Mamduh, which has continuously been diminishing, and fifty two other families have finally settled at Badawi Camp to the north of Beirut nearby the city of Tripoli. There, a family’s average income does not exceed one hundred dollars a month.
Others have been driven by suffering to the match boxes of the near by Al-Barid River Camp.
Places and causes vary, but the reality and suffering are the same everywhere you go.
These are the banished Palestinians who keep looking for a new shelter whenever war breaks out or hardship intensifies.
Three thousand and five hundred banished families live in intolerable conditions that are beyond humanity and morality. A significant proportion of these families have been displaced more than three times.
0:34:07 – 0:34:24
Abu Ibhrahim
Nablus – Badawi Camp / Lebanon:
In 1970, my father left Tal Al-Za’tar. From Tal Al-Za’tar we went to Burj Al-Barajneh. When the Israelis stormed Lebanon in 1982, we moved from Burj Al-Barajneh to here. This entire camp is know as the camp of the displaced.)
(Come up here, shoot this. One blow of air and it will collapse.)
0:34:28 – 0:34:53
An Israeli soldier, one of the war heroes against these innocent people recorded in his diary that he was terrified by the looks in the children’s eyes. He wrote about his astonishment at the life these people led in the camp as if they were still living in their villages and towns.
Yes, the destruction is total and the houses are torn apart.
But their steadfastness has never been torn.
0:34:59 – 0:35:31
Hasana Umm Nimr:
(During the invasion they messed the camp. We returned to it. I was told to take off my headscarf and put it up like this in a sign of surrender. I said no, I will not take it off. I was asked, why not. I said I would not put up a white flag. Do you want me to hoist a white flag at the entrance to the camp? No me. Even the foetuses in their mothers’ wombs we want them to know as soon as they are born the way to Palestine.)
0:35:34 – 0:35:58
Al-Aqsa Kindergarten – Badawi Camp / Lebanon (Caption)
Child: (We are no in Palestine because the Jews stole it from us)
Another child: (They stole it from us)
Three children: (When we grow up, we shall return to Palestine, when we grow up we shall return to Palestine)
Child: My uncle Samir has a Klashnikov)
(I am strong, I do not fear the Jews. I shall kick them with my foot if they attack the people)
0:36:05 – 0:36:18
Children of the kindergarten singing:
(By Allah we have not forgotten, By Allah we have not forgotten
Palestine is our country and is in our eyes
My country will remain inside my heart
No matter what they do to us or kill of us)
0:36:41 – 0:36:52
Baq’ah Primary School / Jordan:
1. From Sarafand Al-‘Amar, Ramleh, Palestine
2. From Deir Ayyoub, Jerusalem, Palestine
3. From Al-Dawaymeh, Hebron, Palestine
4. From Simmin, Gaza, Palestine
5. From Al-Falujeh, Gaza, Palestine
0:36:58 – 0:37:05
Al-Shajarah Preparatory Schoold, Hims Camp / Syria: (Caption)
Wisam Kamal / Haifa: (Born in Hims Camp in 1986. We cannot go back to Haifa because the occupation authorities will not allow us.)
0:37:06 – 0:37:12
Mustafa ‘Uthman / Safad: (I hold fast to my right, to my history and to my land which is the land of my Palestinian Arab ancestors who lived on it)
0:37:18 – 0:37:31
From Badawi Kindergarten to Baq’ah Primary to Hims Preparatory
Memory is a fresh living legacy, just as new.
0:37:33 – 0:37:44
Ruba Al-Khatib
Haifa – Hims Camp / Syria:
(I go to Deir Al-Asad school. We have other shcools: Al-Jash and Al-Ra’s al-Ahmar. We have named them after Palestinian villages so as to always remember them.)
0:37:46 – 0:37:57
Aminas Abdullah
Deir Al-Balah, Gaza – Zarqa / Jordan:
(I love to go to my country because it is my original country and the country of my people. But the Jews are occupying it and we have no means of overcoming them. When the Arabs unite and overcome the Jews, we shall return to our country.)
0:37:59 – 0:38:04
Shots of children in the camps + music
0:38:04 – 0:38:20
Eid (feast) has come. Children all over the world have celebrated their eid.
Camp children have celebrated in their own way.
Such happiness is wrapped in limitless sadness.
It is filled with overflowing longing for reunion.
0:38:28 – 0:38:35
The Boy / Uzu:
(In our country Eid is more beautiful. When we are at home, not in another country, not in exile)
0:38:38 – 0:38:50
Rula / Uzu:
(One does enjoy Eid, but more so when one is in his own country. Part of the happiness is due to being at home. It is then that happiness will be complete)
Picture of Mariam, flashback to here mother and the voice of Umm Nidal:
0:39:08 – 0:39:27
Mariam, the youngest daughter of Umm Nidal has found no happiness at all this eid.
She has not found her mother. Nor has she found he mother who has been confined by sickness to a hospital bed. In the meantime, Mariam has been confined to sadness. She has been addicted to shaking the palm tree.
She had none but her kind friends to say happy eid to. (carrying cats)
0:39:34 – 0:39:59
Mariam:
(I’ve never seen my father. I don’t know him. He was martyred while I was young. At times mother talks to us about him and I try to picture him.)
(I imagine myself kissing him in the morning and wishing him a happy eid.)
(Today I woke up to find that mother was not in the house for me to wish her a happy eid. She has been in hospital.
0:40:03 – 0:41:48
Abu Arab sitting singing. Children play behind him with Mariam and with others:
(They said eid has come, I said it has its people, what good is eid for one separated from loved ones.
Eid, mother, will be when our country returns to us, when I return to the land of Jerusalem and kiss its soil.
Mother, when eid comes to me, no eid brings me happiness
while I am away from home
and have none to wish me happy eid
Mother, when eid comes to me
I shall ask him where are the dear ones
Mother, when eid comes to me
I shall ask him where are the dear ones
People exchange congratulations on eid
And I look in the rubble for my children)
0:41:51 – 0:41:53
0:42:00 – 0:42:26
More than eight hundred thousand citizens come from five hundred and thirty one villages and towns
Today, they number about five million Palestinians, stamped on the forehead of each one of them is the word refugee
Such was the beginning and such has the end not been written yet.
0:42:29 – 0:42:57
Manal Fayyad
Lubya, Tabariyah – Nahr Al-Barid Camp / Lebanon:
(As a result of the displacement from Palestine, our people have been scattered around the world. Consequently, we have moved from country to country. My eldest brother was born in Gaza, I at Al-Yarmouk in Syria, and the rest of my brothers at ‘Ayn Al-Hilwa. Currently, we have been living here at Nahr Al-Barid Camp since the invasion).
(Now, Allah knows best until when we shall remain at Al-Barid. Perhaps until another wave sweeps us away from here)
0:43:06 – 0:43:34
Nahr Al-Barid Camp
Area: One square kilometre
Population: Thirty thousand
Unemployment: ninety five per cent
Cases of severe hardship: One thousand and one hundred families
There are now inside the camp seven hundred serious cases awaiting medical attention in what has become known as the death list.
0:43:41 – 0:43:59
Abdulghani Za’rurah (amputated hand/wearing an artificial one)
Saffuri, Nazareth – Nahr Al-Barid / Lebanon:
The UNRWA were supposed to have transferred me for medical treatment at their expense. But the doctor found no transfer letter with me. He said to mother you must bring $150. Mother had no money and went back to the camp. When we returned the doctor had left and I was postponed for three days. I had gangrene. I was transferred to Al-Hayik Hospital where they amputated.)
0:44:03 – 0:44:15
Manal Fayyad:
(What we fear most is that the childhood we were denied will also be denied to our children. This is what suffer from now in the camp)
0:44:38 – 0:44:46
Hanin and Bilal tour the camp and along the beach:
Hanin: (My name is Hanin Abdulmajid. My mother is from Sa’sa’ and my father from Saffuri. Both of my parents are death.)
(I love them so much)
0:44:23 – 0:44:28
(I live in Nahr Al-Barid camp. I don’t like it because it is dirty)
0:44:50 – 0:44:55
(They called me Hanin (longing) because Hanin refers to my homeland)
0:44:55 – 0:45:04
She places her hand over her eyes, she lowers her head + a beautiful gesture with her eye + hides he tears
0:45:04 – 0:45:24
Contrary to what is normal and expected, most of those we met – young and old – preferred to withhold tears in the eyes.
That amounted to a declaration that the era of weeping is over. This is the time to store tears until they flow in a flood of bitter salt that will drown all those who wish no pleasant life.
0:45:34 – 0:46:08
Yusra Abdullah
Acre – Burj Al-Barajneh / Lebanon:
(There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger. May Allah on the occasion of this blessed month scatter America and Britain, the cause of our catastrophe.)
(Allah is Greater than them. May He humiliate them as they humiliated us, may He punish them as they have oppressed us)
(What’s with Allah is nearby. Nothing is forgotten. Abuse is not forgotten, abuse is not forgotten. Abuse me and I shall all my live remember that you’ve abuse me. Do good to me and I shall always remember that you’ve done good to me. Why is the abuse. Only a bastard forgets.)
0:46:13 – 0:47:24
More than half of Lebanon’s refugees live in twelve official camps recognised by the United Nations through the UNRWA – the relief and work agency for Palestinian refugees. The remaining refugees live around these camps or in clusters that emerged due to circumstances. Generally, these live in conditions that are worse and more deprived compared with whatever little services UNRWA offers, especially after its services were subjected to a continuous series of reductions since 1993, the year Oslo agreement was reached.
So, in addition to twelve official camps there are eleven unofficial ones inhabited by approximately thirty five thousand Palestinians and twelve other marginal camps, including Jull Al-Bahr Camp that was set up in 1952 in the city of Tyre and today accommodates seventy five families.
From the villages of Palestine to the sea shore of Lebanon, the story goes on.
0:47:30 – 0:49:13
Abu Ahmad
Jizzin, Acre – Jull Al-Bahr / Lebanon:
(We stand in the queue like troops. We wait between six and seven hours to obtain a couple of bread loafs so as to feed ten children)
(We spend a long time eating grass. I was thirteen years old and had nothing to eat but the grass I found. There was nothing else to extinguish my hunger. Where was the Arab leadership then? Why didn’t they liberate Palestine? Why didn’t they liberate it? They said to us ‘fifteen minutes and you should be back in your country’.)
(I appeal to the Arab conscience, those who made us leave in 1948 should return us to our country. I appeal to the conscience of the countries of the free world and Islamic ones to help this wronged people. Enough fifty years or more of injustice.)
(We’ve been counting the minutes and the seconds because of hunger and cold. No other people have been wronged like our people. We have been wronged although we have wronged no one to be wronged. We in Palestine never attacked anybody’s states nor have we ever taken anybody’s land. We never attacked America or London capital of Belfor’s Great Britain.)
(The United Nations is supposed to be composed of 150 world states headed by America which considers itself a super power. Let them return me to my country, let them return me. I don’t want a heater or a sac of flour from them. I want to eat grass under a trea in my country’s soil.)
1:05:08 – 1:05:17
(Israel wishfully thought that in time the old generation will die and that the new generation will just forget Palestine. Today, those who fight and get martyred belong to the new generation.)
0:49:15 – 0:49:22
(If my land does not return to me I shall remain in this injustice and shall want to continue the fight. I shall not allow my land to be taken from me just like that)
0:49:23 – 0:50:12
One may wonder what is the distance between the location of the famous battle of Yarmouk and the largest concentration of refugees in Syria. The UNRWA does not recognise this camp while the Syrian government and one hundred thousand Palestinian refugees see otherwise.
The Yarmouk Camp is a huge district eight kilometres away from the centre of Damascus.
The nature of accommodation has changed but not the symbolism.
Streets are called after the origins of their inhabitants, but this remains a camp.
As exactly is happening here.
Notwithstanding the vast difference in accommodation.
0:50:19 – 0:50:23
Bassam Sharif
Tarshiha, Acre – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
(This camp was barracks paralleled by public toilets.)
0:50:27 – 0:50:36
Muhammad Azzam
Jish, Safad – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
We sheltered in these sleeping quarters. They were open. Each family segregated itself from the other using blankets or sacs.)
0:50:39 – 0:50:45
Rasmiyah Yousef
Tarshiha, Acre - Nayrab Camp / Syria:
We were living in this barracks together with fifteen other families. We’ve been here since we arrived. We’ve never moved.)
0:50:50 – 0:51:07
The Nayrab Camp, located in the extreme north of Syria, is the farthest refugee camp from the borders of the homeland.
It is inhabited by more than eighteen thousand refugees. They do not master the language of meters. Nevertheless, they have learned the covenant by heart.
0:51:13 – 0:51:37
Rasheed Al-Sheikh
Tarshiha, Acre – Nayrab Camp / Syria:
(I shall never forget it. Even our children who have not seen Palestine, we bring them up so that they never forget it. We feed them the love of Palestine not the love of remaining refugees.)
We have accepted to live in these places, on top of each other, in the hope that one day we shall return to Palestine. We never lose hope in Allah.)
0:51:42 – 0:52:42
Although exile is painful and bitter, its bitterness varies from one place to another.
In Syria, a Palestinian refugee is treated as a Syrian citizen in terms of rights and duties, and so is the case in Jordan where in addition citizenship was granted to more than one quarter of the refugees who constitute two thirds of the Palestinian people. Jordan hosts more than one and a half million refugees distributed across towns and ten major camps.
However, refugees who come from Gaza are a special case, here, there or in any close location.
Jarash Camp, known as the Gaza camp, shelters one quarter of the one hundred thousand Gazans who live in Jordan.
One way or another, the camp offers a picture of the life Gazans wherever they happen to live, whether in towns, villages, on the border or in camps.
0:52:53 – 0:53:43
Nada Al-‘Absi
Al-Faluja, Gaza – Jarash / Jordan:
(Would you agree to live in a shelter like this where water leaks on you? Would you?)
(Would you accept a door like this, a roof like this that may fall on your children, where you’d use pots to collect dripping water? Would you accept such condition? By Allah you would not accept. But we do.)
(Young men and women have no work, no education, nothing)
(We have none employed, no monthly income. When a person is sick we take him to UNRWA where they sometimes give us tablets and sometimes tell us they have none left)
(These youngsters, don’t they look for a future, don’t they need education, expenses and clothing?)
0:53:46 – 0:54:28
Sabri Abu Rafi’
Yubna, Ramleh – Jarash / Jordan
(America is controlling all humanity, the Western countries are controlling all humanity. We are weak. Our oil and our resources go to America with which they fight us. If today we unite as Arabs, we shall return and the refugees will return.)
(I expect that we shall remain here in Jordan until we return to our land, which Yubna. It is impossible to return to Gaza because it was to Gaza that we were displaced. It is true that it is part of Palestine, but my land is Yubna)
0:54:33 – 0:54:53
Although they are of primary interest to the media,
And although what they say is the essence of politics,
They do not believe in their realism and refuse to accept their assumptions.
What they understand is that they have a homeland, and that they will inevitably return to it.
0:54:57 – 0:55:10
Sa’id Al-Qaddumi
Kufr Qaddum, Nablus – Al-Hussin Camp / Jordan:
(Palestine will never be a mere memory. Nor our presence in the camps and our talk about Palestine will be a mere memory. For the Palestinian people it is not simply a land, but an identity and a faith)
0:55:13 – 0:55:17
Abdulqadir Darwish
Saydna ‘Ali, Yafa – Baq’ah Camp / Jordan:
(We are happy here in Jordan. All services are rendered to us. But still, we want our country)
0:55:19 –0:55:30
Hasnah Umm Nimer (‘Ayn al-Hilwah / Lebanon)
(I would not want to be settled here permanently even if this will cost me my life. I shall make them pledge to take my bones, place them in a coffin and take them to Palestine)
0:55:33 – 0:55:48
Rula (‘Ayn al-Hilwah / Lebanon)
(Never will we accept. This is not a part of my land. One just cannot do without a part of one’s body. Therefore, it would not be possible to relinquish any part of one’s land. One’s homeland is written in one’s name, one’s blood. It is there that one’s ancestors were born and where they lived. We are part of that homeland.
0:55:51 – 0:56:02
(Jull Al-Bahr / Lebanon):
(Whoever accepts permanent settlement is a transgressor and a traitor to his cause. My problem will not be resolved at the expense of the Lebanese people. I am a guest in this land and a hospitality has a limit and a specific time.)
0:56:04 – 0:56:14
Ahmad ‘Amarah (Yarmouk Camp / Syria):
We thank the Arab states for their hospitality. We thank them for their good treatment. We thank them for every think. But this will not make me forget my land and I shall never accept permanent settlement no matter what.
0:21:44– 0:21 :53
Dunya Hussein (Jirmana /Syria):
No matter what, a stranger is a stranger. By Allah, Syria is carrying us and we are happy. I mean, praise be to Allah, we work. But one has only his homeland son. One’s homeland is all that matters. He who is without a homeland is one without faith.)
0:56:25 – 0:57:15
Abu ‘Arab .. song:
Palestine is mine and is my home
I am not accustomed to appeasing cowards
Wherever from the wind blows my home
I shall remain steadfast defeating pain and agony
Even if you were to give us the entire planet
It remains no more than a tomato grown in my land
I have drawn the picture of my country on my forehead
The soil of my land is the kohl of my eyes
0:57:16 – 0:58:39
(It has been decided that the refugees who wish to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so as soon as possible. It has also been decided to compensate those who decide not to return to their homes and to pay compensations for all those who have been missing or those wounded)
This was the famous resolution that bore the number 194. This is the resolution that the majority of United Nations members have voted in support of for more than 110 times since it was first issued on 11 December 1948. However, to no avail.
The UN recognition of the State of Israel was conditional upon the latter’s recognition of resolution 194. Israel never implemented the resolution. In contrast, in 1950, it innovated a return law of its own that considers every Jew in the world an Israeli citizen upon leaving his country of residence and arriving in Israel.
In the meantime, Israel is more than just recognised.
It has thus far succeeded continuously in implementing its own resolution while ignoring the United Nations resolutions right from the first Camp David to the last.
Salah Hammad (A butcher / cutting meat)
Haifa – Burj Al-Barajneh Camp / Lebanon:
0:59:08 – 0:59:16
Mahmud Al-‘Atrah
Beit Dajan, Yafa – Al-Hussein Camp / Jordan:
(Forget the United Nations, it is nonsense. What has the United Nations done for us. It was all mere talking to no avail.)
0:59:18 – 0:59:30
Muhammad Darwish
Al-Shajarah, Tabariyah – Hims Camp / Sryia
(The resolution on the right return to Palestine is the minimum we should insist on. Anyway, we have the right to return whether the United Nations said so or not)
0:59:32 – 1:00:22
Wherever they live, Palestinians view the resolution with extreme cynicism. And this is not simply in view of its seriousness or the expiry of its mandate but because of the manner in which the author of the resolution thought he succeeded in averting a crisis. There is a great apprehension regarding its second paragraph which calls for compensating those who wish not to return.
Is there anyone who does not wish to return?
Or is there anyone who accepts compensation for the loss of the homeland?
Although some have sought to interpret the offer of compensation as implying compensating the Palestinians for Israel’s investment of their possession without negating their right to return, all of those we have met, to be on the safe side, have rejected outright the issue of compensation.
1:00:27 – 1:00:36 Mahmud Muhammad / Lebanon:
(I’d rather lose my hand than sign away my land in exchange for compensation. Even if the Jews were to take it free of charge I shall never consent to compensation. What will they compensate me for? All their money will not pay for a stone in Palestine.)
‘Uthman Anshasi /Jordan:
1:00:37 – 1:00:42
The compensation they want to give to the people of Palestine they should give to the Jews who come from there so that we may get rid of them.)
1:00:44 – 1:00:50
Muhammad Darwish / Syria:
(Are we looking for money. Would one give away his homeland in exchange for money? Only a traitor would do so. I would never do that. If we ever wanted money for our land would might as well have sold it while we were still there. We continue to carry ownership deeds with us)
Land ownership deeds
1:00:52 – 1:01:04
Rasmiyah Salih / Syria:
(Here are the deeds, I have kept them all a long for the sake of my children and grand children. If I do not live to see next year, they will carry the deeds after me to prove that we have a land in Palestine and a long heritage.)
1:01:08 – 1:01:20
Fahd Al-Bayari / Jordan:
(My father who is 77 years old is still carrying with him a Palestinian passport, a Palestinian birth certificate and the deeds of the land he owned in Palestine)
1:01:26 – 1:01:39
Manal Fayyad / Lebanon:
Land deeds are with us. They brought them with them from Palestine and we continue to have them to date. These are the deeds, all of them are here. These are my grandfather’s land deeds. We’ve been treasuring them for 52 years and shall continue to do so.)
1:01:54 – 1:02:12
Shatila the massacre is the same Shatila that wakes up every morning in a mythical state of consciousness. It rejects defeat, takes on more patience, lives the memory and hopes for a better future.
1:02:24 – 1:02:32
Umm Nidal and her daughter Samar:
Samar: (Does it make sense that one may forget one’s homeland? Who would? Only an ignorant person would?)
1:02:37 – 1:02:49
With Umm Nidhal: (When a person sells his land, he forgets is. He’ll say: I’ve sold it. But the situation is rather different and rather difficult when you are stripped of your land by force)
1:02:54 – 1:03:0
Our main motto is: What is taken by force can only be regained by force. Palestine can never be returned through negotiations and capitulation)
1:03:06 – 1:03:12
A Palestinian refugee
Al-Qibab, Lod – Baq’ah Camp / Jordan:
( I want to return to my country with a sword and not in humiliation. Don’t argue with me in this way. I don’t want to go. Israel is just another European state)
1:05:22 – 1:05:37
Hasana Umm Nimr / ‘Ayn Al-Hilwah:
(The homeland is dear. The homeland should be defended with our souls. The homeland to me is like my own child and even dearer. Perhaps when you child dies you’ll have another, but not the homeland.)
1:03:15 -
Abu ‘Arab / Hims:
(The land will not return without blood. The clearest proof is Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.
01:03:22–1:05:08
Shots of South Lebanon .. Return and victory
Caption (22 years of occupation
22 years of resistance
Victory
Return)
1:05:55 – 1:06:28
So long as the conflict is on, paradise is not lost but is occupied and is returnable.
Perhaps the pain will rise once more, perhaps wounds will reopen
But it is certain that their dream is unlike any other dream
It is the homeland, a most pure, most sublime picture that will last so long as the homeless bird’s singing lasts.
01:06:14–1:06:16
Abu ‘Arab / Concluding song:
Start music: 27 seconds
Haddi music: 18 seconds
1:06:39 – 1:06:51
Calm down sea, our absence has been too long
Calm down sea, our absence has been too long
Convey my greetings to the land that raised us
1:07:14 – 1:07:35
Convey my greetings to the olive tree, to my family that raised me
Convey my greetings to the olive tree, to my family that raised me
My compassionate mother is still smelling my pillow
1:07:56 – 1:08:18
O stars, convey my greetings to the threshing floor and the orchard
O stars, convey my greetings to the threshing floor and the orchard
The butterfly is still flying waiting for our return