May 15 is a date that resonates with all Palestinians. It is the day generally used to commemorate al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), because it falls one day after Israel was officially established in 1948. It signifies the beginning of the displacement of 750,000 people from their homes, the destruction of 450 towns and villages—razed and then covered over with forests, or repopulated with Jewish immigrants—and the massacre of villagers in Deir Yassin and other places. The Nakba is not a singular event, but an ongoing and unending tragedy that continues each day for Palestinians. May 15 has thus become an annual day of commemoration and resistance to the ongoing Nakba facing Palestinians who try to cling to their land today, and the 7.2 million refugees who await return to their homeland. To mark the 67th observance of The Day of al-Nakba, the Boston Palestine Film Festival has curated this small collection of films—an online film festival—to present the meaning of al-Nakba, then and now, through film. THE NAKBA The Land Speaks Arabic Maryse Gargour 2007 | Documentary Feature | 61 min Available online This excellent film brings rarely seen footage of Palestine before 1948 juxtaposed with historical research, eyewitness accounts, stunning choreography, moving testimonials, and historical documents. The Village Under the Forest Mark Kaplan, Heidi Grunebaum 2013 | Documentary Feature | 55 min Available for rent for a small fee What happened in 1948? It’s the question that haunts the Israel/Palestine dynamic and defines so much of the conflict. This documentary strips back the layers of myth, from denial to stories of mass genocide, telling the real story through the hidden remains of the destroyed Palestinian village of Lubya. Lying under a purposefully cultivated forest plantation, it holds many of the answers not only to the country’s past, but also its future. TO RETURN My Father From Haifa Omar Shargawi 2009 | Documentary Feature | 53 min Available online A story of a son seeking to understand and reconcile himself with his father who as a child fled with his family from Palestine in 1948. A story about how one man’s life affects his whole family, about a father and son journeying back, mentally and physically, to the place where it all started. This is a tale that evokes emotion and compassion as we follow the director’s efforts, trying to take his father back to Damascus and Haifa, into his father’s past. When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak) Annemarie Jacir 2013 | Narrative Feature | 96 min Available on-demand, small fee Jordan, 1967. The world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music, and an infectious sense of hope. In Jordan, a different kind of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine. Having been separated from his father in the chaos of war, Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa, are amongst this latest wave of refugees. Placed in “temporary” refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses until they would be able to return, they wait, like the generation before them who arrived in 1948. With difficulties adjusting to life in Harir camp and a longing to be reunited with his father, Tarek searches a way out, and discovers a new hope emerging with the times. Eventually his free spirit and curious nature lead him to a group of people on a journey that will change their lives. When I Saw You is the story of people affected by the times around them, in search of something more in their lives. A journey full of adventure, love, humor, and the desire to be free, but most of all this is a story about that moment in a person’s life when he wakes up and finds the whole world is open and everything is possible—that moment you feel most alive. It is a journey of the human spirit that knows no borders. THE NAKBA CONTINUES From Al Araqib to Susiya Jenny Nayman 2013 | Documentary Short | 15 min Available online Adalah (The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel) captures the stories of two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib and Susiya — one in Israel, one in the West Bank—that share a single story of struggle against forced displacement. High Hopes Guy Davidi 2014 | Documentary Short | 14 min Available online here (cannot be embedded) In 1997-1998, many Bedouin Palestinian refugees living under Israeli occupation were forcibly displaced by Israel to a garbage dump. During that entire period, the Oslo ‘peace process’ was ongoing, with ‘high hopes’ for peace; similarly, recent peace talks took place while a plan exists to forcibly displace many Bedouin from Jerusalem and Ramallah governorates to a site accommodating up to 12,500 Bedouin. Thirty thousand Bedouin and other Palestinian herders in Area C are vulnerable to settlement expansion (moreover, up to 70,000 other Bedouin inside Israel in the Naqab Desert are to be displaced by the Prawer Plan). Update: On 4 May 2015, Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) rejected a petition for an interim order that would freeze the implementation of demolition orders issued against homes in the village of Khirbet Susiya, which lies in the southern Hebron hills in the West Bank. The meaning of this decision is that at any moment, the Civil Administration can demolish all homes in the village. The 300 residents will be left homeless in harsh desert conditions. Learn more from B’Tselem. Nakba A poem by Remi Kanazi OTHER RESOURCES The Nakba in the Words of Palestinians – Institute for Palestine Studies web site Palestine Remembered web site