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One man’s mission to preserve Palestinian heritage

Palestinian Saeed al-Ashkar interviews the elderly to reconstruct history and preserve Palestinian heritage.
Palestinian refugee Khamis Redwan, 75, poses for a photograph between the narrow alleys of Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2013. Redwan said he was 10 years old when he was forced out of his native town with his family to the Gaza Strip. Palestinians will mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 to commemorate the expulsion or fleeing of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948.   REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLI

JABALIYA, Gaza — Saeed al-Ashkar has spent 20 years interviewing elderly members of various Palestinian families who emigrated to the Gaza Strip from the villages that Israel occupied in 1948, villages that are now inside the Green Line.

Through these interviews, Ashkar collects information about each family’s origins and what its members remember about their original villages. In early 2000, Ashkar used the elderly’s memories to make maps of 20 Palestinian villages located beyond the Green Line. He is still roaming neighborhoods and towns and meeting elderly in the Gaza Strip.

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