Maher Shamma, who was born in Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus and grew up in the United States, has held onto a map of his family house in Acre, a historical port city in northern Israel, that his uncle drew in 1948. To Shamma, the map is a symbol of his roots and his homeland.
It was this map that enabled Shamma, 57, to visit his family’s home this summer, with the help of a project called We Were and We Are Still. Tarek Bakri, a 31-year-old researcher from Jerusalem, has reconnected dozens of Palestinians abroad with their towns and villages of origin and with their family homes.