Halima tells of seeing Jaffa 78 years after displacement

Halima, a Palestinian refugee who was able to visit her homeland in what is now Israel after being forcibly displaced in the Nakba of 1948, opened the Live Talks series on February 28, 2017 organized by the Deanship of Student Affairs. “Aunt Halima” was accompanied by Palestinian researcher and historian Tarik Bakri, and writer Abdel Ghani Salameh.

Halima told the audience the story of her return after 78 years of being displaced, and what she felt after seeing the Jaffa seashore for the first time since her loss. She was able to visit Beit Nabala, her village. 

Halima told the student audience that once she entered her ethnically cleansed village at the district of Ramla, she was able to recognize the ruins of her house. She touched the Mediterranean Sea again after seeing it last when she was 10 years old.

Halima, who now lives in Al Jalazoun refugee camp, was accompanied by Tarik Bakri, a young researcher and engineer. Bakri created the initiative “We were - and we are” to visually archive Palestinian history. He described her playing with the sea and the beach waves as if she were a child.