A New Generation of Returnees: The Challenges in Memory Projects with Refugee Youth in Lebanon

“What use is it to remember now?”

These were the words of some Palestinian elders, as a response to our field team questions regarding the recalling of the expulsions of 1948, a project that AL-JANA undertook in the year 1998, the 50^th since the “Uprooting”.

“Nobody teaches us history”

This is the comment made by a group of refugee boys when approached by a researcher who asked them how they would respond to the question “who are you?” Some boys said they were Moslems, or from Shatilla camp, or both, others said from Palestine, but did not know where from exactly.

Analyzing the views of the elders and children who made these comments, although they are not representative of all, still indicate that the “Al-Nakba generation” are no longer passing on their stories as eagerly as they used to; the schools have stopped enlightening the young about their history and culture; and the major influences on the identity of the children come from the electronic media, some dogmatic interpretations of religion, and a vague and uninspiring nationalist discourse.

After 60 years in an exile that still has no end in sight, and living in a country that subjects them daily to violence and discrimination, Palestinians in Lebanon suffer on more than one level.  On one level, they suffer the denial of basic civil rights, the lack of appropriate and relevant schooling, and the low prospects for decent employment and a secure future.  On another level, their insecurities, anxiety and lack of faith about their present are all magnified by being denied the hope of returning home.

The Palestinians in Lebanon have become ghettoized communities under considerable pressures to disperse to new exiles and to forget.

During a presentation on “historical memory, identity and creative expression in work with Palestinian children” that I gave at a conference for community workers in Guatemala city, May 2000, one Guatemalan women who attended, pointed out that some children who returned from exile in Mexico to Guatemala, considered themselves Mexican; other children said they were Guatemalan but didn’t know why.  It is important to note that Guatemalans spent twenty years in exile compared to sixty one years to date, with no end in sight, for the Palestinian exile, the longest for the largest refugee population.

In facing these challenges we in AL-JANA feel that it is important to focus our energies on the following tasks:

I – Engaging the target group (elders or youth) in as many stages of oral history or oral culture projects as possible.

From the conceptualizing stage, to the recording, discussing the results, to the production of cultural and learning resources.

In 1998 AL-JANA, undertook two projects to mark the 50^th year since the “uprooting of 1948”.

- One project which is relevant to discuss here is Ya baladna Leish Hajartina/ Our country why have you for taken us which focused in part on answering the questions that we collected from the 4^th generation of refugee children and youth, about the uprooting of 1948.  Many of these enlightened questions don’t have answers in the official Palestinian national history.  Testimonies were recorded with 116 Palestinian women and men, a total of 140 hours of recoded interviews, constituted the material that a team of  AL-JANA worked on to produce an active learning pack consisting of a story book, twenty testimonies/ activity sheets, a video and a CD of recorded testimonies and Aataba/ lamentation songs about the Uprooting.  The resource pack was tested with many children and educators, before it was published in the year 2000.

The elders who volunteered to give their testimonies were taking part in “a mission” to pass on “our history” to the grandchildren, “our hope”, to quote their terms. As if in answer to the question by some elders of “what use is it to remember”.

II – To facilitate the process by which people of all ages can reflect and share

enriching and empowering experiences. People in the camps of Lebanon have survived all forms of adversity, by resourcefulness, community solidarity, creative problem-solving, sheer will power, courage and stamina.  Qualities that young people, if not all of us, need to deal with the challenges they face daily and that lie ahead.

Some of these profound human experiences should be shared with people around the world.

A women team from AL-JANA is working with a group of women in Ein Il Hilweh to document the empowering experiences of women and girls who lived under Israeli occupation of south of Lebanon from 1982-84, while men and youth were incarcerated in concentration camps. The women and girls reconstructed the destroyed camp and undertook ingenious initiatives in community building and civil resistance. These interviews are developing into forums for the exchange of experiences.  The whole process is being documented by a film that is directed by Dana Abu Rahmeh and produced by AL-JANA.

III – Transforming historical and cultural memory into exciting experiential learning activities for the young

These activities should involve young people in doing critical research with resource people in their community, and expressing their views in creative ways that would engage adults and children.

In a sense, this process embodies a double dialectic that involves a community to youth and a youth to community learning cycle.

The second project undertaken by AL-JANA in 1998 was “We exist”: Palestinian refugee children record their lives and express their hopes. In this project a group of 30 children (10-12 years old) embarked on a four year active learning and creative expression journey, that started with working individually on family diaries. Then as photo-journalists, followed by several creative expression projects.

The children moved on to the ”young book writers” project, and at the end of the second year (2000) group signed their  bi-lingual “I wish I were a bird” book (Arabic-English), that included their different individual and group projects, art work, photos and statements, ending with moments of hope in their lives experiences, that they can build on.  Since 2000, the book has been printed in Spanish, Italian and German.

The young book writers later worked on the “young filmmakers” project, where they worked on three of their scenarios with three filmmakers to produce internationally awarded films.

The young photo-journalists, who worked in this project as groups, chose the issues that concern them and then did research. It is noteworthy that all the groups of young journalists chose to collect testimonies from elders on the Uprooting, and they published some of them in the book.  This goes to prove that the 4^th generation of refugee children who were born in the camps, 50 years after the uprooting, care to know their history and make the effort, when given the chance.

Pedagogical Framework of AL-JANA work with youth and children:

Our projects engage youth in participatory research, critical thinking, creative expression and the production of pro-active materials that will inform and engage community members, decision-makers and young audiences around the world.

IV – Transforming oral history and oral culture archives into an accessible hands-on, youth- friendly resource, were keen librarians can engage children and youth and facilitate the discovery process; and young people find out that critical research is fun.

Conclusion

For any serious effort to succeed in engaging young Palestinians in exile in learning from and building on the rich historical experience, and cultural contributions of their communities, it has to become an integral component of a wider concerted grassroots struggle by all concerned bodies, including Lebanese civil society, and the Palestinian communities at large, for attaining civil rights, and the right of return and restitution.

A struggle that rises from real popular participation in decision making on all issues that concern the community, and which capitalizes on the creative and positive energies of young people and their volunteering spirit. A struggle that gives all the hope that after 60 years in exile people can make a difference.

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