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Introduction | Overview | Testimonies | Exhibition Information
I Come from There and Remember By Gina Benevento, with Issam Nasser
Supervising public information for UNRWA, the UN agency which has provided humanitarian assistance to Palestine refugees since 1950, means that my office is the port of call for anyone tracking down photographs of Palestinian refugees. And even though 15 May 2008, the sixtieth anniversary of al-Nakba, is still weeks away there seems no end to the appetite for images of the 1948 refugee exodus. Requests from two European newspapers came in this morning. Yesterday it was Al-Jazeera and a major American TV network. Looking over the photographs selected by Amani Shaltout, our dedicated archivist, my eyes linger on the faces. What happened to the old man being helped aboard a departing boat? Where is the young woman staring out at us from the back of a Haganah truck? There is almost a uniformity to these images. The faces inevitably express fear, confusion, sadness. The bodies are in flight – walking, running, being carried – helped by trucks and boats. And there are always tents – single tents, then rows, opening up to reveal fields of tents as far as the camera and eye can see. But one photograph makes me stop. It is a photograph of two young girls pushing carts stuffed with bedding. I’ve seen the frightened, sad faces before. But it is what is behind the young girls that stops me: two large stone buildings, built in a popular European style. Palestinian refugee iconography focuses on that which is temporal – tents, trucks, mattresses slung over shoulders – all symbols of dispersion. But these buildings are permanent: homes and shops – part of what was once a stable and thriving Palestinian community. Only minutes earlier these young girls were not refugees. Their home, their school, their playground – everything familiar and dear – are still a few short blocks away.
I go back and look again at the first photos. Who were these people before they were turned overnight into refugees? I remember words from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish:
The old man and woman staring at us so stoically from the entrance to their tent: did their home have many windows? Had their life been a happy one? The 120,000 Palestinians who fled Haifa: whom had they loved and married? The 123,000 who fled Jaffa: what had they taught their children? What was their life a year, a week, a moment before? How many worlds had been lost? And so began the work on "I Come from There and Remember" – a photo exhibition that evokes the life of pre-1948 Palestine – UNRWA’s commemoration to mark the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba. The exhibit premieres simultaneously in six locations – Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza City, Amman, Beirut, and Damascus – on 14 May 2008. Musical performances and lectures will focus on the exhibition’s theme of Palestinian life before 1948, and it is planned that all six exhibits will later tour universities, municipalities, and refugee camps. The exhibition is also available for hosting and touring, regionally or internationally.
"I Come from There and Remember" is sponsored by the Swiss Development for Cooperation (SDC); the British Consulate General; the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture; and the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Gina Benevento (conception and curating) is Chief of Public Information for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). She can be reached at g.benevento@unrwa.org. Issam Nasser (conception and curating) is a photo historian and university lecturer. He can be reached at irnassa@ilstu.edu.
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