Keys of Return

When more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in 1948, many locked their doors and took the key, expecting to return in days or weeks. The keys — heavy iron keys of village houses and city apartments alike — were never used again, but they were never thrown away.

Passed from grandparents to grandchildren, the keys became a portable inheritance: a material claim to a house, a village, and a history that maps and records sought to erase. In refugee camps across Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, the old key hangs on walls beside photographs of the lost home.

In recent decades, the key has grown into a monumental public symbol. Giant keys stand at the entrances of refugee camps, including the Aida camp in Bethlehem, where a several-meter key rises over the gate inscribed “Not for Sale.” Each 15 May, on Nakba Day, the key is carried in demonstrations as the emblem of the right of return affirmed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194.