After the Nakba: An Experience of Exile in England

In recognition of World Refugee Day, we present Ghada Karmi's personal account of how the Nakba affected people's lives in the immediate wake of the exodus from Palestine: 

Our home soon acquired a reputation for being a home-away-from-home amongst newly arrived and homesick Palestinians. These were often young unmarried men who had found their way, like my father, to a job at the BBC Arabic Service. Some of them also brought their friends to our house. My mother would cook them Palestinian dishes and find out where they came from and who they were related to. This sort of inquiry was always important amongst Palestinians, but it became obligatory after the exodus of 1948.