Rick Larious reviews the Stones of Lifta by Marc Kaminsky in The Manhattan Review.
“We would call it a ghost town. Lifta is a village of stone homes on a steep hill outside the gates of Jerusalem, empty of inhabitants since the Nakba. This word is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” or “disaster.” It refers to the destruction of the Palestinian homeland in 1948 as a result of the conflict following the passage of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine. Paradoxically, Lifta does have absent inhabitants, the survivors and descendants of the people who were forced to flee their homes over 70 years ago. They have never been allowed to return to their village. Instead, their homes were disabled, holes long ago blown in the domed ceilings to prevent even temporary re-occupancy.”
