Three generations of Palestinians in France, three stories of exile 

Audio 03:36

By: Eliott Brachet

Since the beginning of July, Palestinians in the West Bank have been living under the threat of an imminent annexation of part of their territory by Israel. For the White House, it is the "deal of the century" but for the Palestinians, forced out of the negotiations, this plan would bury the possibility of a Palestinian state alive. 

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Outside of these disputed territories, more than 5 million Palestinians have been scattered across the world since 1948. Over several generations, they have found refuge in neighboring countries but also in Chile, the United States, or France. Uprooted, without nationality, these refugees grew up in the hope of a hypothetical return. Eliott Brachet met representatives of three generations of Palestinians in France. Three stories of exile. 

Hamad Awad lives in Roubaix, a city in northern France. Originally from Nablus, he is the owner of the only Palestinian restaurant in the region. “  I present my country, I present Palestine through the kitchen. This is to say that we resist, that we have a culture, a gastronomy. There is war in Palestine, but there is also something else . " 

Hamad left his native land in 2012. From his childhood, he keeps a painful memory. “  I was born, I grew up, it was just war. It is the childhood that I had. Wounded, martyrs, demonstrations, checkpoints. There were times I couldn't go to school . », He says. 

In 2014, Hamad wants to return to Palestine, to the bedside of his father, seriously ill. But the Israeli authorities will not let it go. The father dies far from his son. The trauma of exile. " - What did you take with you when you left Palestine? That's a good question. What I took with me was patience. You have to be patient.  "

Patience is the key to deliverance, says an Arab proverb. 

Bringing the memory and culture of the Palestinian people to life in France is also the fight of Mohammed Salem, representative of the small Palestinian community of Lille. “  I was born in Palestine, in Jerusalem itself. In 1967, we left, expelled we can say, from Palestine, to Jordan.  "

He is now a doctor and feels invested with a mission: to pass on to his 5 children and to his 7 grandchildren, the memory of a land left too early. "  I am simply saying, do your studies, keep well in your memories that you have a country called Palestine. It was expensive for us and it will be expensive for you too. Don't forget that, you must always keep the right of return to your country of origin, Palestine  ”.

The right of return. An invisible claim in the peace plan proposed by Donald Trump. A claim to which the older ones still cling, while for many young Palestinians this right is no more than an illusion. 

Rima Hassan arrived in France at the age of 10. “  I was born in the Palestinian refugee camp of Deirab, Syria, on the outskirts of Aleppo. There is this weight of exile which is transmitted because the Palestinians are the only community in the world which transmits the refugee status to their descendants. What is even heavier is this double exile: we have the feeling of wandering in a world that does not want us. I live with this feeling of being an eternal uprooted.  "

For Rima, who never set foot on her grandparents' land, the Palestinian question is a heavy burden to bear. “  We put the political tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on our shoulders. But this is forgetting our condition and forgetting the demands of the Palestinian refugees, which are not always political. Which are purely and simply linked to their dignity, in fact, to their living conditions. For me, it is the other face of Palestine. All these populations have lived since 1948 without citizenship, waiting for a supposed right of return, and which we do not support, on the pretext that we are waiting for a political solution. For me these are sacrificed lives.  "

Last year, Rima founded the Refugee Camps Observatory . On a daily basis, she recalls that around the world, nearly one in three Palestinians lives in a camp. A whole life spent waiting for a political solution that seems to be getting further away every day.

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