After more than seven long decades, our first memory remains — our Palestinian memory, deeply engraved in our hearts. A memory that the occupier believed would fade with the passing of time, yet it remains deeply rooted in the Palestinian soul. We carry it with us and pass it on to our children.

Despite more than seventy years of occupation and displacement, the winding journey continues through thousands of roads paved with tears, pain, blood, and forced exile — from our homeland to a tent outside the homeland, far from the land and the home; and from the homeland to a tent and a refugee camp within the homeland itself, turning Palestinians — the original people of Palestine — into refugees without a homeland in their own homeland, Palestine.

Yet despite it all, the Palestinian memory has remained alive, vibrant with details, and deeply rooted within every Palestinian.

Not only that, we continue to strive to rebuild the homeland, rebuilding what remains of villages and cities full of life across the Galilee, the Triangle, and the Negev. We are like the thyme shoots — no, we are the thyme and the sage themselves, deeply rooted here.

And every time they cut us down, we grow back and multiply more and more.

In order to preserve our memory and national heritage, we launched our television program “Iyaban” (Return). We returned to the villages from which our people — our own families — were displaced. We returned to our cities and villages, alive and filled with their people.

And here we are, preparing to return once again… Iyaban.