‘I Wanted to Have Something to Give My Daughter From Gaza’

In 1948, when the first Palestinian refugees were expelled from their homeland by Zionist militias, many who fled carried their house keys. The welded iron rattled in their pockets and dangled from chains on their waists as people traveled, often on foot, to safer territory. Some went to Gaza, others to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Many believed the relocation would be temporary and anticipated spending only a few weeks away. But the weeks stretched into years and then decades. Families passed the keys down from one exiled generation to another in the hope that someone in their lineage might one day return and unlock the door to the place once called home. In the Palestinian diaspora, the iron key is a symbol of remembrance and resistance, of a promise to return