Our Initiative
We Were And Still Are Here
كـنّا وما زلنـا
The visual documentation initiative “We Were and Still Are… Here” was launched on 2012. Throughout those years, hundreds of stories were documented in destroyed Palestinian towns and villages, aiming to keep the Palestinian memory alive, to document the Palestinian narrative and to highlight the stories of Palestinians living in exile. The human face behind refugee stories is usually neglected and the plight of refugees is mainly dealt with as a political issue while ignoring the active relationship that people in exile continuously have with their old towns and homes. The initiative has produced series of short videos with refugees, especially elderly people, documenting their return to visit their towns and homes for the first time after Al-Nakba in 1948. The initiative also unified a multitude of families who are living in exile with their Palestinian relatives who still live in those towns.
“We Were and Still Are… Here” became a bridge that connects Palestinians in exile to their homeland—Palestine.