ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the journeys undertaken by Palestinians in exile to their family houses in Palestine/Israel. The intention is not only to visit Palestine/Israel, but specifically to visit the family house and in so doing to establish a connection with a life that might have been their own had the circumstances been different. Burch for instance, discusses site sacralisation in relation to Parliament Square in London, and Loytynoja considers how MacCannell's stages may be applied to sites in Northern Europe. With reference to the current study of Palestinian appropriated houses, site sacralisation, together with the phenomenon of diaspora tourism, is particularly relevant. Considered within the context of the Palestinian experiences in 1948 and 1967, and to ongoing displacements that have taken place in recent years, it helps to explain the strong bonds with home. They are symbols of the Nakba and more specifically, of the refusal of the Palestinian people to abandon their right of return.
