UN photo archive tells story of Palestinian exodus

By KARIN LAUB and IBRAHIM BARZAK 

http://news.yahoo.com/un-photo-archive-tells-story-palestinian-exodus-165103327.html

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — A 1975 photo shows Palestinian refugee Fathiyeh Sattari, her eyes wide with worry, as she presents her malnourished baby boy to a doctor at a clinic run by a U.N. aid agency.

The photo is one of 525,000 in the agency's archive being digitized to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or "catastrophe" — their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation.

As Palestinians mark the Nakba's 66th anniversary Thursday, the photos tell the story of the refugee crisis' transition from temporary to seemingly permanent. Tent camps of the 1950s have turned into urban slums with some alleys so narrow residents can only walk single file past drab multi-story buildings.

The mother and son of the 1975 photo are part of a family that is now in its fourth generation as refugees. Sattari's parents fled their home in what is now Israel in 1948. Fathiyeh was born in the Gaza Strip and raised her own family in the Rafah refugee camp. Her son Hassan — the baby with the gaunt face in the photo — is now a 40-year-old father of five, living in another camp ...READ MORE

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In this Tuesday, May 13, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugees Fathiyeh Sattari, 62, and her son Hassan, 40, look at their photograph that was taken at the Rafah U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, clinic in 1975, at their family home in Rafah Refugee Camp, the southern Gaza Strip. The UNWRA photo shows Sattari, her eyes wide with worry, as she presents her malnourished baby boy, Hassan, to a doctor. The picture is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

In this Monday, May 12, 2014 photo, Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), organizes negatives to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip. UNWRA's vast photo archive is being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

In this Monday, May 12, 2014 photo, Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), organizes color slides to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), checks frames of negative film to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. Some 525,000 images in the agency's archive are being digitized to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe” -- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

In this 1968 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees have just arrived in east Jordan in a continuing exodus of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. The distances on the partially obscured signboard read "Jericho 8 km, Jerslm (Jerusalem) 43 km." (AP Photo/G.Nehmeh, UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this 1948 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, a convey of trucks and cars led by white U.N. jeeps travels through the Gaza desert carrying Arab refugees and their belongings from Gaza to Hebron, Transjordan. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this 1967 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestine refugees flee across over the Jordan river on the damaged Allenby Bridge during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this 1948 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees stand outside their tent in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this undated photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, a steam roller over the "streets" of Janzur refugee camp near Jenin in the West Bank, which was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this 1971 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees pose for picture in the New Amman refugee camp in Eastern Jordan. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/G.Nehmeh, UNRWA Photo Archives)

In this 1952 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, refugees walk through Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon refugee camp, one of the first camps established as part of emergency measures to shelter Palestine refugees of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/S.Madver, UNRWA Photo Archives)

A Palestinian vendor fries falafel in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip May 5, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

 

A Palestinian woman harvests barley on a farm near the border of southern Gaza Strip with Israel April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa