24-Mustafa Mahmoud Abu Awwad (Abu Mazen) from the village of Sabbarin/Sabbareen, living now in the Noor Shams ("Light of the Sun") refugee camp, near the city of Tulkarm

Born in February 1937, from Sabbarin (whose name derives from the plant cactus) village 28 km/18 miles south of Haifa, now the site of the Ramot Menashe kibbutz, Mustafa proved—despite his appearance in most of my photos and his story—to be a joking, humorous fellow. From our interview (more coming in my blog), "On May 12, 1948 in the morning, the Zionist gangs attacked the village from the southern side. It was the harvest season and some people worked on the threshing floor, many farmers died, and people fled in panic towards the eastern side, towards Umm al-Shouf. I fled with my family to the villages near Jenin after hastily loading a small part of our belongings. After 10 days, I tried to return with my older brother and arrived at the nearby village of Umm al-Shouf. We found our village surrounded by Zionist gangs, 13 of my fellow villagers dead. We could not enter the village so we turned back around. We thought that it was a matter of days before Arab armies would reclaim our village and we could return home."

Sabbarin (Zochrot)

Sabbarin (Palestine Remembered)

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Photos by Skip Schiel & Teeksa Photography