The Nakba: An Interview with Lila Abu-Lughod

Der Spiegel recently interviewed Lila Abu-Lughod, coeditor of Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory about the 60th anniversary of the the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Lila Abu-Lughod: Only my father was Palestinian, but for both my parents the political injustice of the situation was clear. Every child of a Palestinian refugee feels the burden of the events of 1948, not just through what a parent or grandparent might tell her or through sensing their hollow feeling of exile, but because the results are with us today in the continuing violence. Those who live in the US are faced daily with a kind of symbolic violence — misconceptions and untruths conveyed by the media about Israel. I don’t see the anniversary as a time of mourning but as an occasion for trying to get the world to listen to what really happened and to think about how this should shape our vision of a solution.