Jaffa - 13 May 2016

1. Various of the old port-city of Jaffa

2. Tilt down from projector inside former Palestinian home showing short film commemorating Nakba

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Niva Grunzwieg, public outreach coordinator with Zochrot:

"I knew nothing about the Nakba nothing at all and i know nothing about the Palestinians who lived here before, not in Jaffa, not in any village"

4. Various of old city of Jaffa

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Niva Grunzwieg, public outreach coordinator with Zochrot:

"You might think I should know because you always talk about Arabic houses but you never think about who were the Arabs who built those houses."

6. Various of old city of Jaffa

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Avital Barak, Researcher with Zochrot:

"So we are in Nuzha it is one of the 'new' old neighbourhoods of Jaffa."

8. Various of Nuzha neighbourhood, Jaffa

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Avital Barak, Researcher with Zochrot:

"The biggest stars of the time came to perform in Jaffa and in the all theatres they were full of people and when you look on pictures from the thirties - twenties, thirties - you can see how the public sphere of the boulevard used the city and how it is modern and international and so alive. And it's gone of course"

10. Various of former Palestinian home while Israelis visit to watch commemorative film

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Hilla Cohen Schneiderman, resident of a former Palestinian home and host of the Zochrot event:

"After two days of hosting this event I understand that maybe the positive answer was so immediate because in the deep manner this is not my home, you know, and it's not even for me to host. I am some kind of an occupier living in this home that does not deeply belong to me not because I am not owner and just renting it, but because it belonged to someone else and it was taken from someone. It's not just a random movement between houses."

12. Zochrot tour in the old city of Jaffa given by Ami Asher, Israeli activist and volunteer with Zochrot:

UPSOUND (English) "To raise the awareness of the Jewish public in Israel mainly to the event of the Nakba in 1948 and the ongoing Nakba ever since. It also acts to encourage the understanding that the return of the Palestinian refugees to the places they were displaced from, including Jaffa, is essential to the solution of the conflict."

13. Various of Old city of Jaffa

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Niva Grunzwieg, public outreach coordinator with Zochrot:

"My dream is to live here without a conflict and the only way I see it happens is if we allow people to return, if we understand it is not only our home and land it's other people land and it's other people's places. So I am not scared of living with Palestinian refugees. I'm more scared of living with the people that believe we should kill all the Arabs, we should have a racist state, we should be privileged for ever."

15. Various of old city of Jaffa

16. Various of Tel Aviv seen form hilltop in the old city of Jaffa

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Niva Grunzwieg, public outreach coordinator with Zochrot:

"How will we end the conflict? We will recognise the Nakba we will understand our responsibility to the Nakba - I am talking about the Jewish society, the Jewish Israeli society, and we work towards living here together. It means it's not a Jewish state. It means it's one state, one state for all people, but it will be completely democratic - the way I see it it will be democratic and equal. So I'm not afraid of being equal to other people, I think I prefer it, actually."

18. Pan of Tel Aviv seen from a Jaffa hilltop

19. Tel Aviv beach

20. Various of the old city of Jaffa

LEAD IN

Palestinians mark "Nakba day" on the 15 of May each year.

"Nakba," Arabic for catastrophe, refers to the forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their cities and villages, following the establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948.

STORY-LINE

Looking out at Tel Aviv from the old port-city of Jaffa.

This ancient place was once the bustling home of a large Arab community before a huge displacement occurred that Palestinians refer to as the Nakba.

Very few Israelis acknowledge, let alone assume responsibility for, the events that took place in the last few months of the British Mandate on Palestine and the early months that followed the declaration of the State of Israel.

Zochrot ("remembering" in Hebrew), an Israeli Non-governmental organisation, based in Tel Aviv, is trying to change that.

This house used to belong to the Abu Ghazaleh family, and now the current owners have agreed to take part in Zochrot's initiative to present short films about Palestinian life in the city of Jaffa as well as an exhibition of paintings by various Palestinian artists and a tour of the old city of Jaffa.

Zochrot says its aim is "to promote acknowledgement and accountability for the ongoing injustices of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 and the reconceptualisation of the Return as the imperative redress of the Nakba and a chance for a better life for all the country's inhabitants."

This year, Zochrot is commemorating the "Nakba" by taking interested visitors, mainly Israelis, to a number of Jaffa homes, that belonged to Palestinians, prior to 1948.

The Jewish residents of these open houses have agreed to collaborate with Zochrot to host visitors who want to learn about the history of the conflict. This week combined Israel's independence celebrations and the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba.

Niva Grunzwieg, an Israeli woman that works as an outreach officer for Zochrot, says she knew nothing about Nakba.

Zochrot's work also involves researching formerly Palestinian homes, neighbourhoods and cultural life in the time of British mandate Palestine.

"You might think I should know because you always talk about Arabic houses but you never think about who were the Arabs who built those houses," says Grunzwieg.

Jaffa, once a lively Arab seaport city, has since declined in size and status. It is now incorporated with the city of Tel Aviv.

"The biggest stars of the time came to perform in Jaffa and all the theatres they were full of people," says Avital Barak, a researcher with Zochrot.

Neither Grunzwieg nor Barak celebrate Israel's day of independence.

Hilla Cohen Schneiderman is Israeli. She is currently a resident of this formerly Palestinian home in Jaffa. She has agreed to the request of the Zochrot organisation to take part in the "Nakba" event and open her home to visitors to learn about the history.

"I am some kind of an occupier living in this home that does not deeply belong to me not because I am not owner and just renting it, but because it belonged to someone else and it was taken from someone," says Shneiderman.

The political views of these three Israeli women may not be representative of the majority of Israeli society, but over a hundred visitors coming to Shneiderman's residence to learn about the turbulent events of 1948 shows a significant level of interest.