PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 19

Why this book?
By Chris Conti
T
he official version of history, the one that we
are taught, the one that is handed down, is
the one written by the victors; those who take
territory for themselves by force and who gag
their victims into silence.
Most of us are fascinated by those who proclaim
themselves heroes, and we forget the other side of mem-
ory. We do not take the time to look into the shadowy
corners where the vanquished crowd together: those
who, partly though our indifference and our choices,
become “the forgotten people of history”.
However, memory has a surprising ability: even if it
is stifled, it always reappears where it is least expected.
It is like a green shoot poking up though the concrete,
a cactus growing on the ruins of a village that has been
wiped off the map, an insolent word or a naive ques-
tion from the mouth of a child. That is probably why it
haunts those who deny it. Forgetting even forgetfulness
itself, braving the forbidden, the memory of victims
always comes back to the surface.
And so it is that, in Israel, the history written by
the victors has been questioned by their own children:
known as the new Israeli historians, they are researchers
who have sifted through the archives, found documents,
re-examined the litany that had been imposed on them,
revealed massacres, brought evidence to light, collected
confessions… and eventually they have challenged the
widespread cliché of an empty country, when in fact the
country was emptied.
The testimonies collected by our team (journalists,
photographers, interpreters, science editors, transla-
tors – each of whom gave their time unstintingly) are
those of Palestinians who lived through Al Nakba, the
catastrophe. That word, despised in Israel, accurately
describes the reality that they have been forced to live
with for 70 years, because they have lost close fam-
ily and friends and have been dispossessed of all their
property, houses and lands, and above all, their identity,
their very existence as a people. Being between 75 and
95 years old, they are the generation born before 1948.
They were Palestinians – as stated in their passports
during the British mandate – and they have remained
Palestinians, even though they have adapted to what
life has thrown at them. For some, that means existence
under occupation, controlled by Israeli martial law, for
others it is Israeli nationality but as second-class citi-
zens, and for yet others it is life in a refugee camp, some-
times with a foreign passport that has allowed them to
reinvent themselves, to adapt, to get an education, to
learn and especially to become what they are.
We talked to them in the course of every day life in
the Middle East. Their energy and resilience, the dignity
with which they face their destiny moved us, and their
desire to pass on their memories impressed us. During
the long hours spent listening to them and then re-read-
ing the written versions of their stories with them, trust
was created between us, and often friendship. The result
is a series of testimonies that depict some of the diversity
of Palestinian society just before 1948, bubbling with
life. These stories, told in the first person, sensitively
evoke the damage and wounds inflicted by massacres,
“ethnic cleansing” and exodus. They recount revolt and
survival, and particularly how each person subsequently
found their own way of resisting.
In this book we have tried to be as unobtrusive as pos-
sible and give center stage to the victims, the Palestinians.
For all the people interviewed, Jerusalem has an
important symbolic, spiritual and political value. Their
memories of it are all the more important because it
remains inaccessible to most Palestinians and because
it represents the identity and continuity of Palestinian
presence on the ground. Jerusalem, capital of the Pales-
tinians, is illustrated at the end of the volume in a series
of colour photographs for an up-to-date view, between
shadow and light.
Chris Conti
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