Exploring the Palestinian side of my family
This post is an adjunct to an earlier one — The Greek Community of Jerusalem: A Presentation — published on 28 November 2025. The original post was about a live presentation I gave in Cyprus earlier in the year on the topic of The Greek Community of Jerusalem until 1948 (Nakba and Diaspora). The post included a link to the recording of the presentation (a YouTube video).
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I asked a fellow family-history researcher the other day: Do you know what you find when you go down a rabbit hole? No, what? he replied on cue. My answer: a web of rabbit holes.
My research is never linear. It takes me down so many rabbit holes, I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever find my way back. But it’s all so much fun!
In response to a query that came in to the Jerusalem, We Are Here project a few weeks ago, I was looking through press clips and, as is my wont, I did not limit myself to reading only about the subject on hand but allowed my eyes to stray all over the page. And so I bumped into a serialised article called Home Life on Mount Zion, published by the Boston Hebrew Observer in the fall of 1884.
Continue readingThey’re leaving us one by one. With every passing week, I feel they’re slipping through my fingers too quickly and I can’t hang on to them—to them and their memories. They’re the last generation that has happy memories of Jerusalem (and Palestine more generally).
They’re the last generation that remembers a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan Jerusalem. A kinder, warmer, more welcoming Jerusalem. They’re the last ones who experienced coexistence and intermingling. They’re the ones who went to school, played, shared meals, and started businesses with others, without religion, culture, or ethnic background becoming insurmountable obstacles.
Continue readingOn 18 September 2025, I gave a presentation entitled “The Greek Community of Jerusalem until 1948 (Nakba and Diaspora)” in Nicosia, Cyprus.
The presentation was organised by the Cyprus Peace Council (Παγκύπριο Συμβούλιο Ειρήνης) and the Thursday Coffeeshop (Καφενείο της Πέμτης) (a discussion group for members of the Socialist Expression) along with the Centre of Visual Arts & Research (CVAR) which hosted the event.
Continue readingWhen Sani Meo asked me for a contribution to the October 2024 issue of This Week in Palestine (TWiP), I couldn’t refuse. I had explained to him in the past that I have a very hard time saying no to Palestinians. It’s particularly difficult saying no to TWiP, a remarkable monthly (and as such misnamed) publication which has been documenting all things Palestine for nearly twenty-six years, thus creating an invaluable archive of knowledge in words and imagery. And it’s all done on a shoestring.
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