#MyNakbaStory thread: 1/ In June 1947, my grandpa Abu Adel secured a building permit from the Government of #Palestine for a home in Balad al-Shaykh, a village on the outskirts of #Haifa. For yrs, he'd been selling ful medammes (favabean stew) & hummus from the back of a donkey— 
2/ —his first ever business partner. He'd take the donkey from one Palestinian village to another, traveling along unmarked roads in and around Haifa from sunrise to sunset. The people of those villages came to know my grandfather as بياع الفول, the ful seller.
3/ Abu Adel sold ful and hummus this way until he saved up enough money to open his own ful shop, pictured above in 1945, and to buy land upon which to make a home for his growing family. His shop became so popular that he would later be referred to as ملك الفول, the King of Ful
4/ Less than a yr after securing that building permit, in April 1948, Abu Adel was expelled from his home during the Battle of Haifa, & forced to join the Palestinian Exodus, which saw him flee to Sidon, Lebanon along with my grandmother and my aunts and uncles.
5/ They were the lucky ones. This document is just one of 100s of thousands that remind us of lost homes & lost livelihoods. This is just one of millions of stories of forced exile. Those that remained & their children & grandchildren continue to suffer.
6/ More than 50 in Gaza were murdered yesterday. Today is the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. Never forget. #Nakba70 #Nakba #Gaza #Palestine #mynakbastory
