Filmed: June 2025

The whole city of Haifa could be seen from the veranda of the Orthodox Club. A scene of breathtaking beauty, Nasser Ouri reminisces about the stunning view.

Born in 1936, the year of the Arab Revolt, Nasser was the only one of his 5 siblings to be born in a hospital: Dr Dajani’s hospital, where a Jewish nurse named Aya Khanum bathed and cared for him.

His grandfather, having left his home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to complete his education in Cairo, returned with a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate degree in his bag. He set the precedent for the journey Nasser’s father embarked on to become a judge.

As an influential judge appointed by the British Mandate, he posed a threat to British colonial rule, for fear he might stir a revolution against them. The British decided to relocate his father from city to city every 2 years, leaving him unable to settle in one place. A day arrived, as the Israeli Occupation began, when a direct order from Britain was sent to his father ordering him to leave Haifa.

A tragic journey, scarred in Nasser’s memory, was the one the family had to take from Haifa to Naqoura in Lebanon. Murder lined the streetside trees, and indescribable images of hangings and torture committed by Israeli occupation forces accompanied them.

Among the memories and things Nasser brought with him from Palestine was his cat Mooshi, a beloved pet who journeyed with him from Palestine to Beirut to Syria, and he remembers him like it was yesterday.