Fretwell Building, room 100, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
October 2017
Charlotte: The Exiled Palestinians: Stateless Palestinians from the Camps in Lebanon
Khawla Hammad has been a stateless refugee in Lebanon for 69 years. At the age of sixteen, she was expelled from her village of Kabri, in Palestine. Now she is 84 years old, and and still a refugee in Lebanon, with no citizenship in any country at all. Israel expelled most of the population in 1948, and has prevented them from returning to their homes. Kabri and hundreds of other towns and villages were levelled to the ground, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe). But Israel did not stop there. It repeatedly attacked Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, killing three of Khawla’s children among many others. Before the Nakba, Khawla’s father also lost his life as a Palestinian freedom fighter. Khawla has a message that she wants to bring to North America. So does 23-year-old Palestinian refugee, journalist and translator Amena Elashkar, whom many of you know from the 2016 Nakba Tour. She and her parents were born as stateless refugees in Lebanon and have never lived in their own country. Khawla and Amena have a different message from other Palestinians. They are not living under Israeli occupation. Israel does not allow them to visit their homes, much less live there. As exiles, they have a different perspective from Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the part of Palestine that became Israel. Come hear Khawla and Amena speak!
Find out more »March 2019
UNCC: The Exiled Palestinians – North America Nakba Tour
Saturday, March 9 6:00 pm UNCC Fretwell 100 Charlotte, NC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2405998139444840/ On May 14, 1948, as Zionist leader David Ben Gurion was proclaiming a Jewish state in Palestine, his troops drove out the inhabitants of the ancient Palestinian town of al-Zeeb. 18-year-old Mariam Fathalla was one of them. She and her young husband fled to Lebanon. By year’s end the 4,000-year-old community had been leveled. More than half of all Palestinians were killed or expelled and more than half the cities, towns and villages disappeared, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe). Now 89 years old, Mariam has spent the last 71 years in crowded, makeshift refugee camps in Lebanon. She has raised three generations, all waiting to return to Palestine. She has seen five Israeli invasions of Lebanon, as well as the 1976 Tel al-Zaatar camp massacre that killed more than 2000 refugees there. Mariam wants meet you. So does Amena el Ashkar, the great granddaughter of other Nakba survivors. They have a different message. They do not live in Palestine. They have no citizenship anywhere. They do not live under Israeli occupation. Israel does not allow them to visit their homes, much less live there. Amena never met an Israeli before the Nakba Tour, and Mariam not since 1948. They have a different perspective. Sponsored by the Palestinian American Community Center. Endorsed by PCO, Masjid Ashaheed
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