Was the Nakba something that happened only during the war? Did the Palestinians flee, or were they expelled? Does learning about the Nakba mean Jews have to give up their rights in the country? Who are the Palestinian refugees? How is the Nakba part of our reality today? How can learning about the Nakba open up new horizons for the future?
Zochrot offers courses across the country for people interested in learning more about the Nakba. The courses are based on the Nakba Study Guide developed at Zochrot, “How Do We Say Nakba in Hebrew?” During the course we will try to examine what we were taught about what happened here in 1948, and even more important, what is absent from that story; we will become familiar with voices, places and stories about the Nakba, with the Palestinian life that existed here, and with Palestinian refugees; we will examine how these were silenced in Israeli society; we will examine how the collective story shaped our identities and we will cope with criticism of those identities; and we will ask together how all this affects our views of the kind of future we would like to build here. The learning process includes workshops, lectures, a tour, and supplementary materials in different media.
Courses across the country begin in November, and special courses can be requested for an existing group. This year study groups are active in Beer Sheva, Sapir College, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Emek Achula.