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Palestinian key
Palestinian symbol of homes lost in 1948
The Palestinian key is the Palestinian symbol of homes lost in the Nakba, when more than half of the population of Mandatory Palestine were either expelled or fled violence in the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and subsequently denied the right to return.[1][2] The key is considered part of a hope for return and a claim to the lost properties.[3]
^Meital, Y.; Rayman, P. (2017). Recognition as Key for Reconciliation: Israel, Palestine, and Beyond. Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-35580-4. Michal concedes the fact that Israelis do the same thing to the memory of the Nakba when saying "it was in 1948, enough talking about the past, let's talk about the future." When the Palestinians come with their keys [the Palestinian symbol of their lost homes], she says, "it's the same thing, it's a memory still burning in the hearts of families
^Feldman, llana. 2008. Refusing Invisibility: Documentation and Memorialization in Palestinian Refugee Claims, Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (4): 4, page 503: "Anyone familiar with Palestinian visibility practices will certainly be aware of the importance of certain central objects within this field. Many refugees still have the keys to their houses in Palestine. Keeping these keys, and showing them to visitors and researchers, is part of a hope for return and a claim to these properties. Given this widespread practice, these keys, with their distinctive old-fashioned look, have also become symbols of refugee commitment to Palestine. At demonstrations in support of Palestinians one can often find people carrying enlarged replicas of these keys in the process transforming individual objects into collective symbols."