Nakba Day (with Ahmed Mansour)

“For the last three weeks, my Nakba was losing my best friends, covering the march with their press-marked vest. Every week, every day I have like personal Nakba, and this is the case with every Palestinian. With every Palestinian around the world, they have their own Nakba.”

— Ahmed Mansour

Every year, when Israelis and many American Jews celebrate the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinians remember their people’s expulsion, or what they refer to as the "Nakba," the Arabic word for catastrophe. This year, on the 70th anniversary of both Israeli independence and the Nakba, the United States is moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Our guest for this episode, Palestinian filmmaker Ahmed Mansour, calls this a "double Nakba and double catastrophe." Producer Ilana Levinson spoke with Ahmed about his childhood in a Gaza refugee camp, why the timing of the U.S. embassy move is so inflammatory, and how the Nakba continues to permeate Palestinian life.

Ahmed Mansour’s film, "Brooklyn, Inshallah," follows the 2017 campaign of Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian-American Lutheran pastor who became the first Arab-American to run for New York City Council. To learn more and to contribute to his fundraising campaign, click here.

This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson and Max Freedman, and edited by Max Freedman. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. 

Ahmed Mansour , a New York-based filmmaker, is a NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute - News and Documentary Program - graduate. Ahmed was born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza Strip, Palestine. He worked as an organizer, translator and guide for international journalists covering the 2014 war. He made a series of short films highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip after three successive wars. He has also worked as a reporter for the Washington Report on the Middle East Affairs in Washington DC. Ahmed has received residencies and fellowships from Duke University and Story Wise Program.

RESOURCES

Trailer and fundraising campaign for "Brooklyn, Inshallah"(LaunchGood)
Eric Adams,"Why Only Israel Can Customize America's F-35 (At Least for Now)" (Wired, May 10, 2016).
Jonathan Cook, "Critics blast US shipment of fighter jets to Israel" (Al Jazeera, April 26, 2017). 
Daniel Kurtzer, "How terrorism helped found Israel"(Washington Post, March 13, 2015). 
Asaf Calderon, "What It's Like to Have a Jewish Terrorist in the Family"(Haaretz, May 3, 2017).