PS Visuals

In Defiance of Erasure: The Houranis’ Enduring Memories

The Hourani family is one of many clinging to their right of return to their village of Tarbikha.
Photographs by
Rita Kabalan
Published on

This photo essay is a companion piece to "Stolen By a Map: The Haunting History of Lebanon’s Lost Villages."

During the Nakba (1947-1949), Zionist militias depopulated more than 400 Palestinian cities, towns, and villages. Among them, 35 were located in the Galilee, including seven villages that were historically part of Greater Lebanon but had been placed under Palestinian administration in 1923. The former inhabitants of these villages and their descendants have clung tightly to their families’ stories — from pleasant childhood memories to accounts of horrific massacres — as they have to the hope of return. The Houranis, from the stolen Arab village of Tarbikha, are one such family.

The other villages are Abil al-Qamh, Hunin, Nabi Yusha, Qadas, Salha, and al-Malikiyya.

A map of the seven Arab villages ethnically cleansed by Zionist terrorist militias during the Nakba. The map reads: "1948 Nakba. Zionist Invasion of 1948."

A map of the seven Arab villages that were ethnically cleansed by Zionist terrorist militias during the Nakba. March 16, 2024. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)

A book titled “The Case of the Seven Villages” to the left of a keffiyeh with a print of Al Aqsa Mosque that reads: "PALESTINE" and "We are coming."

Mahmoud Hourani's book, “The Case of the Seven Villages,” to the left of a keffiyeh with a print of Al Aqsa Mosque, that reads: “PALESTINE — We are coming.”

An older man in a cap looks down at documents written in Arabic.
An older man in a cap looks down at documents written in Arabic.

Mahmoud Hourani, author of “The Case of the Seven Villages,” examines some of the many documents he has preserved over the years. They hold information and evidence about the seven occupied villages. Mahmoud looks at civil status records (left) and his legal claim to Lebanese citizenship addressed to the Mount Lebanon court of appeals (right). From his home in Adloun, Hourani still has hope, and dreams of returning to his ancestral village of Tarbikha. March 16, 2024. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)

An old, worn document with handwritten text and postage stamps, laid on a patterned cloth.

A deed for a property in Tarbikha from 1947. March 16, 2024. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)

A veiled older woman looks into the camera.

Mahmoud’s mother, Fatima Hourani, 94, witnessed the day the Haganah terrorist militia invaded and destroyed the village of Tarbikha in 1948. Sur, Lebanon. April 16, 2024. (Rania Saadallah/The Public Source)

Two open booklets with handwritten text and black-and-white photos on a patterned surface.

Mahmoud Hourani and his wife Salwa endured years of imposed curfews, requiring permission to leave their home for basic activities like attending school. Despite hiring lawyers to assist them in obtaining Lebanese identification cards, their efforts were unsuccessful until 1994, when then-president Elias Hraoui signed a naturalization decree that enabled them to finally receive IDs. March 16, 2024. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)

A document and an aged photograph of a man, held together by a paperclip, on a patterned tablecloth.

Despite the physical erasure of their villages, the Hourani family's memories have survived and they continue to hold on to their claim to their land. March 16, 2024. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)

Rita Kabalan

Rita Kabalan is a Lebanese-American photojournalist based in Beirut. Her photographic practice focuses on migration and refugees, social movements and uprisings, and environmental issues. You can follow her work @themetermaid.

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