Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America
Much has been written about the Palestine–Israel conflict and the creation of the Palestinian refugee tragedy. Yet few works explore its most intimate dimension: what it means to live as a refugee. What is it like to grow up without a homeland? What compels a decent human being to take up arms—to be called a freedom fighter by some, and a “terrorist” by others?
This book is the story of that question—told through my own life. It begins in the narrow alleys of Nahr El-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, where I spent my childhood surrounded by poverty, resilience, and the unyielding dream of return. It follows my path into the Palestinian Liberation Organization, my years of exile and eventual emigration, my new life as an engineer in the United States, and, finally, a journey back to historic Palestine—a return both physical and spiritual.
Parallel to this personal story runs the chronicle of Nahr El-Bared itself. Born from a cluster of muddy UN tents after 1948, the camp grew into a vibrant trading center, full of life and ambition, before its tragic destruction by the Lebanese army in the summer of 2007 during its battle with the Fatah al-Islam group. Through its rise and fall, the spirit of its people endured—a testament to courage in the face of despair.
This book is, at its heart, about that endurance. It is about a people who have lived for more than six decades as refugees—socially, economically, and politically marginalized—yet who have remained steadfastly Palestinian. They have carried their nation within them, even while the world treated their presence as temporary.
The Israeli writer Danny Rubinstein once captured this truth beautifully: “Every people in the world lives in a place. For Palestinians, the place lives in them.”
I wrote this book as both witness and participant—to preserve memory, to humanize history, and to invite readers on a journey into the daily life of a refugee. It is a story that may move you emotionally and challenge you intellectually. It is heartrending, yet joyful. Within its pages, I hope you will discover not only the suffering of displacement but also the hope, dignity, and unbreakable spirit that define what it means to be Palestinian.