ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Palestinian IDPs—who had been uprooted in 1948 but managed to remain within the borders of present-day Israel while prevented from returning to their villages and cities—recall the past and deal with the open wounds of displacement. Its basic assumption is that the dynamics of recollection, silences, and the manner in which people speak about the past are part of their very historical experience. Suppression of memories, errors, fragmentation, and associative links are not “mistakes” that require correction but a central component of coming to terms with a painful and present past.
