Memoirs of a Stolen Land: The Growing Diaspora

Ruba Assaf, a Palestinian-American student and current co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine at Northwestern University, speaks about her experience as a second generation Palestinian-American in the third episode of “Memoirs of a Stolen Land: The Growing Diaspora.”

Assaf has visited Palestine a few times but still fears that if the illegal occupation continues in the direction that it is headed Palestinians living in the diaspora will only be left with the culture that is maintained outside of their homeland.

“Its kind of scary because as a second generation [Palestinian] who hasn’t lived in Palestine I don’t like to think of that connection dying out. Soon enough we won’t have first hand memories of any family that lived in Palestine or grew up in Palestine and once we lose that all we’ll have left is the culture that we’ve managed to maintain in America…We need to try our hardest to keep that and teach it to our children,” Assaf said.

In the third video of the film series, Assaf also talks about powerful memories of the Nakba, “The Day of Catastrophe,” that her grandfather shared with her.

Check back soon for the next episode of “Memoirs of a Stolen Land” produced by Zahra Haider.

Zahra Haider, the producer of the video series, is originally from the Dallas metropolitan area.  She is now a sophomore at Northwestern University studying journalism and film. She is involved in Northwestern News Network and the Daily Northwestern.