Salman Abu Sitta (1938) is a Palestinian researcher and writer. He was born in Beersheba (Bir al-Saba’), British Mandate of Palestine. Abu Sitta and his family were between the first wave of Palestinian refugees to leave their home land and settled down in Egypt. He went to al- Saidiya secondary school in Cairo where he graduated with “excellence”, ranking first in Egypt.
After graduating from Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering in 1958, he went to the United Kingdom to continue his post-graduate studies, receiving his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of London.
Former member of Palestine National Council (20 years). Researcher on refugee affairs and author of over 200 papers on the subject. Director of international development and construction projects.
Founder and President of the Palestine Land Society (PLS). General coordinator of al-Awda the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition.
Abu-Sitta has spent many years searching on any information related to Palestine before, during and after the illegal creation of Israel. He tries his best to ensure the memory and identity of the occupied homeland are never lost.
He started to collect information when he was 30 years old by the period when Palestine was under Ottoman rule. The document dated back to the early years of the last century. “It sort of started from there, and it has never stopped,” Abu-Sitta says. “I kept collecting all and any material on every inch of my homeland.”
Published works: – The Return Journey (2007) Palestine Land Society, – Atlas of Palestine, 1948 Palestine Land Society (January 2004), – The Palestinian Nakba 1948: The register of depopulated localities in Palestine (Occasional Return Centre studies) (1998 reprinted 2000) Palestinian Return Center.
He is the founder and President of the Palestine Land Society (PLS). General coordinator of al-Awda the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition
This is the introduction on Abu Sitta´s book “The Palestinian Nakba 1948: the register of depopulated localities in Palestine:
The Palestinian Nakba is unsurpassed in history. For a country to be occupied by a foreign minority, emptied almost entirely of its people, its physical and cultural landmarks obliterated, its destruction hailed as a miraculous act of God and a victory for freedom and civilized values, all done according to a premeditated plan, meticulously executed, financially and politically supported from abroad, and still maintained today, is no doubt unique.
Today, there are more than five million refugees whose families were expelled from their homes and not allowed to return. For half a century, they endured a life of suffering and destitution, some forced to be refugees again and again, most have been active in trying to remove this colossal injustice, all have a relentless desire to return home.
If there is a single lesson to be learnt from the last 50 years of war and strife, it is that the Palestinians will not just disappear and that they are the only people who have no where to live, nor wish to live, except in Palestine.
At the fiftieth anniversary of their Palestinian Holocaust, this Register, first published in 1998, is an attempt to put in print what is already engraved in the minds and hearts of millions of refugees. This second revised edition of the Register is part of an ongoing project to document the collective memory of the ‘unchosen’ but determined people. This and similar projects attempt to draft the blue print for the Return Plan.
Video
Right of Return Conference Day 1: Salman Abu Sitta Keynote
Further reading:
– Atlas of Palestine 1948: Reconstructing Palestine
–Salman Abu Sitta: Mapping the Historical Geography of Palestine
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