Palestinian survivors...a living memory that must not be forgotten

Writer: Bassam Zakarneh

Many peoples in the world use the expression “survivors” when they talk about the great tragedies they have experienced, because the survivor is not just a human being who remained alive, but rather a witness who carries a story, an experience, and a memory that is transmitted from generation to generation. Israel repeatedly returns to the expression “Holocaust survivors” and makes their testimonies an essential pillar of its historical and human memory.

Here the question imposes itself: Why do we Palestinians not use the same expression when we talk about a long history of massacres, displacement, killing and occupation? Why don't we talk about "the survivors of the 1948 massacres" and the massacres of Deir Yassin, Tantura and Dawayma? Why don't we talk about the survivors of the Kafr Qasem massacre in 1956 and the Mijaza massacre in 1967 and the killing and displacement that accompanied it? These are events engraved in the Palestinian memory, and those who revived them are the most truthful people who narrate them.

Our discourse has become accustomed to making “martyrs” a title of memory, and this is an indisputable right. They are the ones who paid the greatest price, but there are those who remained alive: they lived the massacre, saw the killing and displacement with their own eyes, lost members of their family, left their home, village, and homeland, and carried the story with them throughout their lives. These are the “survivors.”

The survivor of the Deir Yassin massacre is not only a person who lived through a historical event, but a living witness to the massacre. The survivor of the Nakba in 1948 is not only a Palestinian who remained alive, but a witness to the uprooting and loss of the homeland. As for the survivor of the setback and massacres of 1967, he carries the memory of the occupation and displacement and the effects that these events left on entire Palestinian generations.

The same question is raised today with greater urgency: Why do we not talk about “the survivors of the Gaza genocide”? Gaza is not numbers on the news bulletins, but a people who lived through killing, bombing, siege, and displacement, and the loss of homes, family, and friends. And whoever remains alive after all that carries in his memory a story that no one can tell the way he tells it. The survivor of Gaza today is not only a person who survived a bombing, but a living witness to what his people were exposed to.

We must not forget the survivors of the military operations and attacks on West Bank camps, including the Jenin and Tulkarm camps.They also hold certificates that must be preserved, documented, and passed on to future generations.

There is another group that should have a clear presence in our memory: the survivors of Israeli prisons of murder, torture, violations, sexual assaults, and rape that Palestinians say they were subjected to during detention. These are not numbers on the lists of prisoners and detainees, but rather people who left carrying traces of the experience in their bodies and memories. Their testimonies about the killing and torture of their comrades are part of Palestinian history that must be heard, documented, and preserved.

This call is not a competition between the memory of the Palestinians and the memory of any other people, nor is it an attempt to erase a tragedy or replace it. Every people has its own memory and every person has the right to have their testimony heard and the pain of those who came before them preserved. However, we often do not give Palestinian survivors the place they deserve in our discourse and memory.

Perhaps it is time to say it clearly: We have our martyrs, and we also have our survivors, survivors of the Nakba, massacres, and occupation, survivors of prisons, survivors of Gaza, and survivors of camps that were subjected to attack and destruction, and each of them carries a part of the memory of Palestine.

Just as the testimonies of Holocaust survivors have become an essential part of global memory, the testimonies of Palestinian survivors of the Nakba, massacres, occupation, genocide, and prisons must remain present, documented, and heard.

We must use the word “survivors” as we use the word “martyrs.” The martyrs departed, but the survivors remained to carry the memory and testimony.

We must not only talk about those who were martyred, but also about those who survived, as the survivors are the living memory of Palestine.