Palestinian key

Palestinian key at a Nakba Day demonstration in Berlin

Young girl with a key symbol, Nakba Day, 2010, Hebron. The sign says: Arabic : حتماً سنعود فلسطين, lit.  'We will return to Palestine'

The Palestinian key is the Palestinian symbol of homes lost in the 1948 Nakba, when more than half of the population of Mandatory Palestine were ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias as part of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, and were subsequently denied the right to return. ^{[1] [2]} The key is considered part of a hope for return and a claim to the lost properties. ^[3]

Description

The keys are large and old-fashioned in style.

Enlarged replicas are often found around Palestinian refugee camps, and used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world as collective symbols. ^[3]

Gallery

• 
  Entrance to the Aida refugee camp, near Bethlehem
• 
  Palestinian art to symbolize United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194
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  A key as part of the Arabic word for "Peace" as West Bank Wall graffiti art
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  Outside Jericho, with the words "We will return..."
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  A large Palestinian key representing the Nakba, in Katara, Doha, Qatar

See also

• List of national symbols of Palestine

References

1. Meital, Y.; Rayman, P. (2017). Recognition as Key for Reconciliation: Israel, Palestine, and Beyond. Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia. Brill. ISBN   978-90-04-35580-4. Michal concedes the fact that Israelis do the same thing to the memory of the Nakba when saying "it was in 1948, enough talking about the past, let's talk about the future." When the Palestinians come with their keys [the Palestinian symbol of their lost homes], she says, "it's the same thing, it's a memory still burning in the hearts of families
2. Fisk, Robert (2018-06-28). "'I spoke to Palestinians who still hold the keys to homes they fled decades ago – many are still determined to return'". The Independent. Keys must always be the symbol of the Palestinian "Nakba" – the "disaster" – the final, fateful, terrible last turning in the lock of those front doors as 750,000 Arab men, women and children fled or were thrown out of their homes in what was to become the state of Israel in 1947 and 1948.
3. Feldman, llana. 2008. Refusing Invisibility: Documentation and Memorialization in Palestinian Refugee Claims, Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (4): 4, page 503: "Anyone familiar with Palestinian visibility practices will certainly be aware of the importance of certain central objects within this field. Many refugees still have the keys to their houses in Palestine. Keeping these keys, and showing them to visitors and researchers, is part of a hope for return and a claim to these properties. Given this widespread practice, these keys, with their distinctive old-fashioned look, have also become symbols of refugee commitment to Palestine. At demonstrations in support of Palestinians one can often find people carrying enlarged replicas of these keys in the process transforming individual objects into collective symbols."