When the denial bubble bursts: an Israeli kibbutz faces the Nakba
A sign describing the house where the Ma’in exhibit took place. The house was build by Abu Breisha, yet, some Israelis insist the British built it.
Salman Abu Sitta writes in Mondoweiss:
What happens when a people are confined to a bubble where the “truth” has one book to read, to follow and obey, then suddenly the bubble bursts and the sun shines on a whole new truth, verifiable, clear, and sound?
This what happens to the kibbutzim in Nirim, Nir Oz, Magen and Ein Hashloshla. These four kibbutzim were established after the Nakba of 1948 on my land, Al Ma’in, (65,000 dunums — 16,000 acres). Al Ma’in was and is the home of my Abu Sitta family for centuries, now refugees in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.
The one who burst the bubble was Eitan Bronstein Aparicio, founder of De-Colonizer (previously founder of Zochrot, an Israel-Palestinian group that educates Israelis about the Nakba). Eitan set up a simple and modest exhibit. He collected maps, books, videos, and an RAF aerial photo of Al Ma’in in 1945, showing fields and features of the village and curated them in two rooms and a courtyard. The exhibit was held on July 25, 2019 in ‘The White House’, a lone Palestinian house which survived the Israeli demolition of the village in 1948 and was converted to a gallery by Haim Peri, a Nir Oz artist.
Eitan invited the settlers in Al Ma’in and neighboring areas to come and see the exhibit. His message was simple. These were the people who lived here and are now refugees two kilometers away behind the barbed wire in the Gaza Strip. The presentation implied that Israel took their property and now you live in it.
Although the number of visitors was modest, probably four or five dozen, the responses were indicative of those who have been denied access to the truth, the victims of silencing Al Nakba.