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Zochrot seeks to engage the Jewish public in Israel in remembering and talking about the Nakba, the Palestinian tragedy of 1948. The memory of the Nakba is a counter memory that challenges the Zionist version of events that most Jewish Israelis are taught from a young age and come to take for granted as “true.” The Nakba is in one sense the story of the Palestinian tragedy -- the destruction of the villages, the expulsions and the killing -- but it is also a fundamental part of the story of Jews who live here, of the victors of the 1948 war. 

The history if the Nakba has been silenced and almost entirely erased from the physical landscape of the country; the names of the destroyed villages do not appear on any maps, and no signs are posted to designate their existence. The narrative of the Nakba, too, is missing from Hebrew textbooks, museums, newspapers, and other cultural channels. Zochrot aims to fill in these empty spaces by bringing Jews and Israelis to acknowledge the Nakba and to take responsibility for its consequences. For Zochrot, this means not only speaking and learning about the Nakba but working to end the Palestinian refugee problem that was created in 1948, by supporting the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Zochrot continued to grow in 2006 in terms of the size of its staff, the scope of its activities and its exposure to the public. As planned at the end of 2005, the organization moved to a central location in Tel Aviv (near Rabin Square) in March 2006, where it rents a space together with Mahapach-Taghir and the International Women’s Coalition. The space houses the offices of these organizations as well as Zochrot’s Learning Center on the Nakba. Zochrot’s current location, in the heart of Hebrew-speaking Tel Aviv, brings the challenge of its work to the center of the mainstream Jewish public.