Disclaimer

Jaffans fled their city suddenly in one day, expecting to be back soon. Nearly all their belongings including photographs and memoirs, are gone. The homes, libraries, films in cinemas, photos in studios, and different archives of the city were taken over by the State of Israel. What is left of the biggest city of Palestine is haphazard images and documents popping up here and there. What reaches us is mostly photographs of the richest families who left the city earlier with some of their belongings. In addition, at the turn of the century and until Jaffa fell in 1948, not many had the means to photograph their lives, weddings, or homes. This leaves us with a clear gap in the visual heritage and a dichotomy in the Palestinian identity of the extremely affluent or the very poor in refugee camps. Jaffa was an extremely diverse city, on many levels, and that is important to keep in mind. Because Jaffa has been the entry gate to Palestine, it was also one of the first photographed places on the planet. Also because of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world, Palestine was probably the most photographed place. The copyright of photographs, documents, and films, has restricted the only accessibility of the Jaffans to their own city, history, imagery, memories, and heritage. With the greatest respect to the hard work of professionals and amateurs, in the case memoricide, we think that the ethical right of humans to access their heritage and history could surpass some cases of copyright. We would thank every effort to make this site perfectly copyright-full, until then, indigenous Jaffans have a right to access their visual and archival worlds.