‘Forgotten’: New book explores Palestine’s hidden landmarks and erased histories
Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson uncover lost memorials and politicized spaces in powerful travel memoir
RAMALLAH, Palestine (MNTV) — Veteran Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh and researcher Penny Johnson return with Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, a reflective travelogue exploring erased histories across historic Palestine.
Through visits to neglected sites and memorials, the book uncovers stories of resilience and cultural survival amid ongoing displacement.
Published by Profile Books, Forgotten is more than a travel narrative; it is a quiet but insistent call to reclaim memory.
From the hills of Nablus to the seaside ruins of Manshiya, Shehadeh and Johnson traverse spaces where even “archaeology is politicized,” uncovering neglected sites and memorials that speak to a layered Palestinian identity often obscured or intentionally erased.
The idea for the book began during a lockdown walk, when the couple stumbled upon a forgotten stone commemorating three Egyptian soldiers who died in the 1967 war.
That encounter prompted a broader inquiry into Palestine’s overlooked heritage. The result is a journey told in five thematic sections—spanning Ottoman relics, Nakba traces, and modern ruins—each revealing how the past still reverberates through the landscape.
As Middle East Eye notes in its review, the authors present “a precious jewel of a book” that gently strips away layers of present-day obstacles—checkpoints, bypass roads, and Israeli settlements—to reveal the buried narratives beneath.
Through evocative prose, Shehadeh and Johnson guide readers through a land “bearing the weight of many pasts,” especially in cities like Nablus, where bulldozers scar pristine hills and intifada memorials stand quietly behind barbed fences.
The book also highlights the creative ways Palestinians assert their narrative. In one section, the authors visit a retrospective of artist Asim Abu Shakra, whose vibrant paintings of potted cacti reclaim the symbol of resilience co-opted by Israeli national imagery.
“Beauty in response to the Nakba and its consequences,” the authors write, describing how Abu Shakra’s art blooms defiantly through cultural erasure.
Elsewhere, the couple visit Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv, built atop the razed Palestinian neighborhood of Manshiya. “The bride of the sea,” as it was once called, is now a leisure site bearing little trace of the 12,000 residents it once housed.
The book draws a direct line between past and present displacements—comparing such development projects to recent proposals to remake Gaza as a “Riviera,” echoing Trump-era rhetoric.
Despite the pain etched into each site, Forgotten is ultimately hopeful. In Ramallah, amid ruins and litter, Johnson spots a single red anemone blooming—a quiet emblem of memory’s endurance.
“Erasure may be persistent,” the authors write, “but the land still speaks—for those willing to listen.”
Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials offers a haunting and necessary exploration of how Palestinians continue to preserve identity and history against the forces of dispossession.
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