Ruwa Romman’s grandfather was born in the Palestinian village of Suba, just outside of Jerusalem. It no longer exists.
Her grandmother hails from a nearby village, al-Walaja, home to a 5,000-year-old olive tree — the second oldest in the world. It too has suffered destruction and land loss.
“They were violently exiled from their homes,” Romman said, describing her grandparents’ experience during the founding of Israel in 1948, an event known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes. “It’s a story of displacement and this sort of continued search for belonging.”
But her experience there catapulted her into the national spotlight.
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