Portrait by Yara Yasin
Parallel Story #13
Nijmeh Al-Atshan & Ghada Al-Atshan Shkoukani
Displacement within Palestine
Palestine to the USA
This parallel story was put forward by the Jerusalem Center for Women for Movement
Nijmeh’s Story
Nijmeh was born in 1928. When she was just 20-years old, she was forced to emigrate from Al-Haditheh village by Israeli Haganah during the 1948 Palestinian exodus (Al-Nakba).
What does Nakba mean?
‘The Nakba is Arabic for “catastrophe” or “calamity”, and it refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the hand of Zionist militias between 1947-1948 and the subsequent establishment of the state of Israel. This campaign of ethnic cleansing took place before, during and after the war of 1948, and saw approximately 800,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes, and over 530 Palestinian communities demolished.’
At first, Nijmeh’s family lived for 4 years in Mukhmas (a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate), then they moved to Ramallah.
Nijmeh is a mother of 10: 6 sons, and 4 daughters. One of her daughters, Ghada Al-Atshan, emigrated to the USA.
You can hear more of Nijmeh’s story through her own testimony in the video below.
Ghada’s Story
Portrait by Yara Yasin
Ghada was born in 1964 in Ramallah. 31 years ago, Ghada emmigrated with her husband to the USA, where she got a degree in business administration.
Ghada opened an ice cream cake shop, which was closed after a while. Nowadays, she works in a pharmacy. She has a vey beautiful singing voice, and likes to sing. A mother of two, she lives now in Detroit, USA.
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