Ways in
Start here
من هنا نبدأ
The archive is deep, and depth is not much use if it stops you starting. Say which of these you are — the path will go in at the right level.
Nothing needs to be read in order except within a path. Pick one, read the first item, and let it hand you the next.
I want to understand the history
التاريخAbout an hour
Start with the event everything refers back to, then the words the record uses, then the century around it. In this order each step makes the next one legible.
- The Nakba, 1948The event everything else is dated from
- The words, definedNakba, sumud, transfer, right of return — 46 terms, each sourced
- A century, in orderThe Ottoman land code to the ICJ, in eight bands
- The movements, in their own wordsRead from their founding documents, not from commentary
- Who is documenting it nowOrganisations that publish their method
- Then: the whole record, one page
I am looking for a village
القريةTwenty minutes, or the rest of your life
Over four hundred villages are on the map here. The archive has written up a fraction of them — where a record exists it is linked to the people, testimony and poems that touch it; where one does not, the name and the coordinates are still true.
- The gazetteer, by districtAll 189 written records, filed under their Mandate subdistricts
- The atlasThe mapped villages, with what stood where
- One village, fully drawnDeir Yassin — the record, the names, the connections
- What the people who left saidFirst-hand accounts, each linked to the archive holding it
- The family namesHouseholds and their historic seats, city by city
- Then: where the primary material lives
I want to read the poetry
الشعرAn evening, then a semester
The literature is the fastest way into the heart of the question, and the part that survives being taught. Begin with one poem, not with a syllabus.
- One poemRefaat Alareer, 2023 — start here, it takes a minute
- Mahmoud DarwishThe poet the rest of the archive keeps returning to
- Every poem, English and ArabicExile, homeland, resistance, grief, memory
- Hear them read aloudRecordings, where the recording exists and is free to link
- Men in the SunGhassan Kanafani, 1963 — the novella to read next
- Then: the whole reading list
I want to check a claim
التحقّقAs long as the argument takes
Someone said something and you want to know whether it holds. Each claim below is stated in its strongest form first, then answered with citations you can open and read yourself.
- The contested claims23 of them, each answered with sources
- “There is no evidence for the Nakba”Answered from Israeli state archives
- “Calling it apartheid is a slander”Answered from the legal definition and the findings
- The terms, defined and sourcedSo an argument does not turn on a word nobody defined
- The evidence baseHuman rights, legal and data organisations, with their methods
- Then: put your own question to the archive
Or take no path at all
Wandering is a legitimate way to read an archive. Every page links to the pages around it, so following whatever catches your eye will get you somewhere real.