Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials

by Raja Shehadeh, Penny Johnson

Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine - now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and what they might tell us about the land and the people who have lived (and are living) on our small slip of earth between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

From ancient city ruins to the Nabi 'Ukkasha mosque and tomb, acclaimed writers and researchers Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson what has been memorialised, and what lies unseen, abandoned or erased - and why? Whether standing on a high cliff overlooking Lebanon or the lowest land-based elevation on earth at the Dead Sea, they explore lost connections in a fragmented land.

In elegiac, elegant prose, Shehadeh and Johnson grapple not only with questions of Israeli resistance to acknowledging the Nakba - the 1948 catastrophe for Palestinians - but also with the complicated history of Palestinian commemoration in our own time.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 6, 2025

About the author

Raja Shehadeh (Arabic: رجا شحادة) is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer. He is the author of Strangers in the House (2002), described by The Economist as “distinctive and truly impressive”, When the Bulbul Stopped Singing (2003), Palestinian Walks (2007), for which he won the 2008 Orwell Prize, and A Rift in Time (2010). Shehadeh trained as a barrister in London and is a founder of the human rights organization Al-Haq. He blogs regularly for the International Herald Tribune/The New York Times and lives in Ramallah, on the West Bank.

Reviews

[Girish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson's search for Palestinian memorials in what is now Israel and occupied Palestinian territories is both informative and heartbreaking. It is a desperate attempt to catalogue the systemic erasure of a culture - one that is happening right in front of the world's eyes.

In one of the chapters, Israeli kids are being told the "history" of how Israel had to fight for survival against the barbarian Palestinians who resort to unspeakable violence. Right in front of their eyes and they have to walk away without contesting. Even if you discount multiple versions of truth, you can't help wondering if this isn't the story of every recorded history across nations and continents?

The book carries the pain of the unacknowledged Naqba of 1948 with most sites having people who vowed to return or stayed back in the hope that things will change. Memorials to struggles, graves of prophets and cultural significant landmarks are falling apart without attention. Jerusalem, the hotbed of three monotheistic religions, is torn apart with one set of people evicted by force. Handicapped by language all these years, finally the Palestinian writing in English is used as a medium to tell their history.

The last few generations who grew up around 9/11, fed on funded media narratives and a climate of "terror" - have developed deep biases against people of certain nations without knowing their history. We needed mass genocide (and megalomaniacal leaders) to even take notice and maybe, explore below the surface. These voices deserve to be heard and we owe them an apology. Powerful purpose driven writing - which may have an other side narrative too.

We are not judges - just the gallery. I hope the mindless and atrocious acts against fellow human beings stop.

Thank you Profile audio books for the ARC copy. This book needs to be read.

[Oliver Shrouder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful charting of the things lost and the things left behind

[Jo Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was perhaps the wrong fit for me, which was entirely my own fault. I had hoped to gain a better understanding of Palestine from a Palestinian pov which appears to be a difficult thing to do when you’re limited to audiobooks.

That said, I did gain some understanding, and the research that has gone into the title is quite phenomenal, for me it was very much an exploration of history lost to war, which due to my own lack of knowledge I’m sad to say a lot was a bit over my head.

The writing and the narration were fantastic, I can’t help but wonder if this would work better in physical form? Perhaps there are photographs included to support the stories told.

My review is definitely more a reflection of my own lack of knowledge than the book itself.

Huge thanks to Profile Books Audio via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧

[Jane Fudger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a series of trips taken by the author across the West Bank in Palestine in search of lost memorials and historical sites between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river.
The journeys are undertaken in the knowlrdge of the Israeli's refusal to acknowledge the Nablus. Sites unearthed are the city ruins of Nablus, the Ukkasha mosque and tomb, the memorials of reknown poets and the Egyptian an Jordanian soldiers killed during the Six Day War.
A historically significant account.Shehadeh's elegant and elagiac prose is quiet and deeply felt which is typical of the author's work.. An interesting and absorbing read.

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, melancholic book with stories about the authors’ travels in historic Palestine (and thus also in what is present day Israel) in search for vestiges of the Palestinian past, from the distant past to the Nakba. Each chapter is accompanied by photo(s) and a map at the beginning of the book helps the reader to geographically situate the place, be it a mosque in West Jerusalem, village ruins in Galilee, the memory of Qibya massacre, and many, many other stories in the fifteen wonderful but often sad chapters of this remarkable book. A different and moving way to look at the tragedy of Palestinians and the meaning of Israel’s occupation.

[Jennifer Mcarthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vast in scope of Palestine’s landscapes and cultural history this book is a perfect mix of historical writings and personal insights. The landscape and descriptions of heritage sites as they traverse the occupied zones was beautiful though equally saddening. To hear of the disregard placed on past community hubs, ancient ruins, and important grave sites is an important testimony to what has been lost through decades of occupation.

I learned a lot from Shehadeh and Johnson’s detailing of past massacres, forced migrations, and diminishing remembrance of important figures. All told through a travel style diary of their quest to find hidden places and lost memorials. I remain hopeful that one day it will be easier for all Palestinians to access their historical lands and heritage sites without restriction and fear.

“Such a tour could not be repeated today. Checkpoints, closures and a regime of exclusions (sometimes called
'permits') have deprived new generations from gaining an impression of the country as a geographic unit, or, in Kamal's words, 'a detailed and integrated knowledge of the physical and cultural Palestinian landscape' Without even a memory of how the country used to be, young Palestinians are trapped in small enclaves in the West Bank, separated by checkpoints and walls, or imprisoned in Gaza.”

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Profile Books Audio for the Audio ARC!

Forgotten is a solemn and contemplative journey through some of the lost areas of Palestine, both from the collective memory and from the author's individual memories. The stories told are sad and sentimental, and the author's sense of loss is palpable in the text. This is a recollection of a dying nation, starved at its roots. Very poignant, very necessary. These voices from the past need to be preserved into the future.

[Heffalump123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exciteing premise and underwhelming execution. Dropped after 60 pages when I realized there was not a single piece of information I retained. The authors just kind of hang around in the area of a given building, hinting at a variety of issues but never writing on them extensively enough to make a lasting impression.

[Julie Friar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book details the search for hidden or neglected memorials in historic Palestine. This land is now Israel and occupied territories and the sites are difficult to access.

Interesting book, well written and well narrated (I listened to the audiobook).

[ZzZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this is such a deeply rich and beautifully poignant book — a very well researched and important document, especially considering the Genocidal-Jews’ Holocaust against the Palestinians currently taking place while the world watches in silence. ‪#FreePalestine 🇵🇸🕊️

[SummerRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does exactly what it says, educates the reader on the hidden places and memorials of Palestine. It was fascinating, and the archeological sites alone there are absolutely breathtaking. I have been itching to learn more about this place, and really appreciated this book.

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite writing style, but really appreciated what this book does in honouring lost places in Palestinian history.

[maxwop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every page was heartbreaking

[Tammin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geological time, hard to fathom, is important to contemplate, since we humans, in our Anthropocene epoch, speed onward to catastrophe after catastrophe.