The Chris Hedges Report

Episode: How Palestinian History Is Systemically Forgotten

Guest: Micaela Sahhar
Date: December 6, 2025

Overview of the Episode's Main Theme

In this episode, Chris Hedges engages with writer and scholar Micaela Sahhar to discuss her book Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, and to explore the complexities of Palestinian memory, exile, and the ongoing erasure of Palestinian history and culture. The conversation delves into personal and collective attempts to reconstruct and preserve a Palestinian past that is repeatedly targeted by physical, cultural, and narrative erasure—particularly in the context of Sahhar's own family history following the 1948 Nakba, and the contemporary destruction witnessed in Gaza.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Format of Memory and Narrative

• Nonlinear approach to storytelling (02:21–04:20)
  • Sahhar explains that the nonlinear structure of her memoir models the fragmented way memory works, especially amid the displacement caused by diaspora.
  • The book’s polyphonic, intergenerational narrative is inspired by the idea "I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past," emphasizing the persistent relevance of historical events to the present.
  • She notes, "How do we understand now if we don't understand 1948 or 1917 or all the things that happened during the British Mandate? And I think the answer is we can't." (03:49)
• Authority and Archive (04:36–05:41)
  • The dominant societal narratives often ignore or actively suppress Palestinian memory.
  • Sahhar critically examines the role of family stories, ephemeral documentation, and state archives, questioning "who is the authority in these sort of situations where you don't have obviously a national repository of narrative in the situation of diasporic experience?" (04:36)

Ephemera, Objects, and Locating Family in Lost Spaces

• Guidebooks, cafes, and accidental discoveries (05:41–07:44)
  • Sahhar shares how artifacts—such as a Zionist guidebook—helped her locate her great-grandfather’s restaurant, anchoring her family in pre-1948 Jerusalem.
  • She describes the surreal experience of finding her family's restaurant referenced in an archive that otherwise erases Palestinian presence.

The Symbolic Power of Keys and Deeds

• The persistence of physical belongings and documentation (07:56–09:13)
  • Palestinians in exile often maintain the hope of return through saving keys, deeds, and titles—objectifying hope and providing proof in the face of constant denial of their existence.
  • Sahhar references UN registries and crucial work on documenting the right of return, highlighting the ongoing fight to prove "we never existed" wrong.

Assault on Memory and Culture

• Destruction of history and knowledge (09:13–10:09)
  • Sahhar recounts the systematic targeting of Palestinian archives and cultural institutions, from the PLO offices post-Sabra and Shatila, to attacks on universities and ministries in Gaza.
  • "The assault is also and always on education, on history, on archives." (09:19)

The Story of One Family: Exile and Aftermath

• Personal account of displacement (10:09–18:34)
  • Sahhar recounts her family’s history as middle-class Greek Orthodox Jerusalemites who were driven into exile by a sequence of violent events, not a single moment in 1948.
  • Key events:
    • King David Hotel bombing (12:10–13:41): Family stories reveal both trauma and the fallibility of memory, with a memorable anecdote about marbles and grapes used to process horror in childhood.
    • Semiramis Hotel bombing (14:59–15:50): Family forced to leave Jerusalem for medical care, leading to their permanent exile.
  • Settlement in Amman, then Australia, marks a "substantial fracturing of the fabric of Palestinian relationality. Life, family, culture..." (18:34)

The Nature of Diaspora Memory

• Dealing with fragments and holes (19:02–21:11)
  • The book confronts missing details, the unreliability of childhood memory, and the challenge of a "reification of nuclear families" in Western publishing.
  • Sahhar notes, "The point was to think about the closeness of some of these family members... how central this is to the Palestinian social fabric." (21:00)

Visible and Invisible Exile

• Experiencing erasure in everyday life (21:14–23:29)
  • Sahhar recalls as a child being told Palestine "doesn't exist" by teachers, illustrating the normalization of erasure in Western societies.
  • She describes her family as "a portable Palestine," where language, food, and culture persisted in exile against mainstream denial.

Suppression of the Nakba in Mainstream Media

• Missed history (23:29–25:03)
  • Both host and guest reflect on media failures to cover or even conceptualize the Nakba at the time, with Sahhar citing lack of vocabulary and understanding in institutions: "It never understood that what was going on was as significant as what was going on, and so it was missed entirely." (23:29)

The Weight of Shame and the Importance of Telling

• Inheriting exile and guilt (26:15–27:56)
  • Through writing, Sahhar discovers the lasting shame felt by her father over their exile—"It’s extraordinary to me that a baby for 77 years had carried the weight of his family’s exile in his body and on his shoulders." (27:16)
  • She stresses the importance of claiming Palestinian identity in diaspora, resisting both Israeli erasure and pressure to assimilate elsewhere: "To eradicate the indigeneity or the Palestinian-ness of people." (28:38)

Revisiting Lost Places, Stitching Together History

• Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (30:14–34:48)
  • Returning to her family's Jerusalem neighborhood, Sahhar describes intuition guiding her through lost streets and the complexities of physically encountering both the remnants and absences.
  • Profound connections are made through minute details—family memories, stories recounted by strangers, the sight of her grandparents’ home—helping "reassemble" identity and history.
  • "The inheritance for Palestinian people is often in story and in memory." (33:34)

Gaza: The Apex of Erasure

• The present moment’s horror (35:03–39:55)
  • Both Hedges and Sahhar discuss the genocide in Gaza as the culmination of over a century of erasure. Physical, cultural, and intellectual extermination are targeted, including attacks on poets, doctors, and journalists.
  • Sahhar states plainly: "There are no words strong enough to evoke what Gaza has been. I think to describe it as the nadir of human experience is apt, but also hardly touches the sides..." (35:45)
  • Drawing lines between past (Nakba) and present, she highlights ongoing denialism in the West and the comparably missing coverage of events, then and now.
  • Solidarity from other indigenous and colonized communities is cited as essential: "Solidarities have been so vital in this time... they didn't wait around for two years, unlike, you know, some states that have managed to call it a genocide." (38:31)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On narrative and exile:

  "I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past."
  — Micaela Sahhar (03:24)

• On memory attacks:

  "The assault is also and always on education, on history, on archives."
  — Micaela Sahhar (09:19)

• On diaspora identity:

  "I hope this creates a space for people who read it to be Palestinian people, not people of Palestinian descent... because that's what colonialism wants to do, to eradicate the indigeneity..."
  — Micaela Sahhar (27:56)

• On Gaza and erasure:

  "There are no words strong enough to evoke what Gaza has been. I think to describe it as the nadir of human experience is apt, but also hardly touches the sides..."
  — Micaela Sahhar (35:45)

• On returning to Jerusalem:

  "The inheritance for Palestinian people is often in story and in memory."
  — Micaela Sahhar (33:34)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Nonlinear narrative explanation: 02:21–04:20
• Authority and archives, the power of ephemera: 04:36–07:44
• Keys, deeds, and right of return: 07:56–09:13
• Assault on memory and archives: 09:19–10:09
• Family history and exile story: 10:09–18:34
• Challenges of reconstructing lost histories: 19:02–21:11
• Experiencing denial of existence in diaspora: 21:14–23:29
• Nakba and historical suppression: 23:29–25:03
• Guilt, shame, and telling the story: 26:15–27:56
• On being Palestinian in diaspora: 28:38–29:46
• Returning to Jerusalem, reconnecting with the past: 30:14–34:48
• Gaza, erasure, and present-day solidarity: 35:03–39:55

Conclusion

This episode provides a deeply personal and scholarly exploration of the mechanisms used—past and present—to erase Palestinian presence from the land, culture, and record. Through the lens of her own family's journey, Micaela Sahhar articulates the trauma, resilience, and power found in reclaiming memory, even as memory itself is relentlessly attacked. The discussion connects the devastation of Gaza with the living aftermath of 1948, weaving individual and collective stories into a testament of ongoing resistance against forgetting.