On Saturday, April 12, 2025, Dr. Amal Khaleefa, lecturer and researcher at the University of Jordan's French Department, held an event to launch her comic book "Memory of A Refugee", supported by the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo), the EU-funded ITHACA Horizon 2020 project, and in collaboration with the Zarqa Camp Services Committee.
The event gathered researchers, students, artists, and those interested in Palestinian culture. It featured cartoonist Emad Hajjaj, illustrator Khaled Nahar, and Abou Iyad Al-Breiji, the Palestinian refugee whose testimony inspired the story. Student Shahed Alghzawi also shared her experience translating the comic into French.
The event included a panel discussion on combining academic research and artistic creation to preserve collective memory and raise awareness about refugee life. An exhibition of selected illustrations curated by comic artist Mike V. Derderian was also presented.
Published by Dar Al-Ahlia (Amman), the comic was translated from Arabic to French by Shahed Alghzawi, Dr. Simon Dubois, and Dr. Amal Khaleefa.
The comic documents the testimony of Mr. Abou Iyad Al-Breiji, a resident of Zarqa Camp, who launched an initiative to name a street near Zarqa camp after his depopulated village “Al-Breij," located southwest of Jerusalem. The story seeks to preserve Palestinian memory, transmit it to future generations and Jordanian society, affirm the refugees' right of return, and uphold the eternal and existential right of Palestinians to Palestine in the face of Zionist attempts to erase facts and falsify history. It highlights the resilience of Palestinian refugees and the vital role of oral history and storytelling in preserving identity and resisting oblivion.