Peer-reviewed article
'The child that I left behind': memory, trauma, and the reconstruction of childhood in Nakba narratives.
Nasser R ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed article analyzes Palestinian refugee childhood memories from the 1948 Nakba, using interviews with 34 Palestinians who experienced displacement as children. The research conceptualizes their experiences as sociogenic trauma rooted in colonial structures rather than individual pathology. The study identifies processes of 'unchilding' through invisibilization and dehumanization, alongside survival strategies like sensory silencing and memory suppression. It argues that Palestinian childhood memories function as sites of resistance and calls for approaches that center Palestinian epistemologies over Western trauma frameworks.
Key points
- Study based on 34 interviews with Palestinian refugees from Lydda who experienced the 1948 Nakba as children
- Identifies 'unchilding' as systematic processes of eviction from childhood through invisibilization and forced premature maturation
- Finds that children employ survival strategies including selective sensory silencing and strategic memory suppression
- Argues Palestinian childhood memories function as sites of resistance and cultural-political navigation
- Calls for rejection of Western trauma frameworks in favor of approaches honoring Palestinian epistemologies
Limitations
This is a qualitative historical analysis focused on memory and trauma narratives rather than evaluating interventions to improve child well-being. It does not measure outcomes of specific programs or policies designed to support children's health, development, protection, or participation.
Abstract
Introduction This article analyzes Palestinian refugee childhood memories, focusing on how displacement and survival intersect within the context of ongoing settler-colonial violence. Challenging conventional Western trauma frameworks that view trauma as discrete, time-bounded events amenable to therapeutic resolution, this research conceptualizes Palestinian children's experiences as sociogenic trauma emerging from colonial structures rather than individual pathology. Methods Drawing on 34 interviews with Palestinian refugees from Lydda who experienced the 1948 Nakba as children or were born shortly after, the study uses the child as method framework to analyze childhood memories as complex and dynamic sites where trauma and adaptive survival mechanisms coexist and shape individual and collective experiences. Results Findings reveal systematic processes of "unchilding"-the deliberate eviction of Palestinian children from childhood through invisibilization, dehumanization, and forced premature maturation-alongside survival strategies such as selective sensory silencing and strategic memory suppression. The study demonstrates how Palestinian refugees mobilize childhood memories to position themselves within ongoing displacement, deploying childhood as a cultural-political category to navigate present conditions of ongoing Nakba and resistance. Discussion This study contributes to scholarship that centers Palestinian perspectives by illuminating how childhood memories function as sites of resistance that protect Palestinian knowledge from appropriation. It calls for fundamental changes in academic and professional practice, advocating approaches that honor Palestinian epistemologies while challenging Western frameworks' claims to universality in understanding trauma and survival.