Hands of Time. Digital Print. Sepia.
80 x 60 and 110 x 80 inches
John Halaka © 2015

The African American writer James Baldwin eloquently observed  “When circumstances are made real by another’s testimony, it becomes possible to envision change. “ 

In the case of the Palestinians, the “circumstances” of their Nakba, (or Great Catastrophe) can be effectively made real through the personal testimonies of individuals selected from the nearly 10 million Palestinian refugees that have been scattered across this planet.

Preserving the stories of indigenous Palestinians puts a human face, a living name and unique sets of experiences on this ongoing refugee crisis.  It humanizes and personalizes the abstract notion of the displaced masses, making the experiences of the refugees infinitely more real, comprehensible and unforgettable. It individualizes Palestinian narratives of displacement, survival and resistance making them unquestionably tangible and irrefutable.