Until 1948, Lajjun was a small village about ten miles south of Nazareth in one of the most fertile valleys in Palestine. Since 1949, the area has been occupied by Jewish settlers who established Kibbutz Meggido there. In the early 1980s, I interviewed Ali Jabareen, a refugee from Lajjun. He agreed to show me what remained of his village. He brought his daughters with him – the first time they had seen their ancestral village.
Jabareen explained to them what had happened in 1948: “Our house was here and your uncle’s house were there. We were forced out of our land in 1948. Our family owned 70 acres of land in Lajjun and today we have only one. It is not only our tragedy, but that of all the Palestinians.”
