A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

Huda Dahbour oversees a mobile health clinic run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), making the grounds near an encampment of Bedouins whose ancestors had been forcibly expelled from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948. En route to one of the villages, they suddenly encounter a school bus flipped on its side. Stopping their van and rushing to the scene, they try to rescue the driver, who insists that they attend to the children first. They save him and a teacher and then see children crammed at the back of the bus. One of Huda’s coworkers, Salem, bravely crawled in, and with one of the teachers, they are able to save many of the children. As they approach the front of the bus, the situation is far more grim, and Huda is reminded of the worst day of her life.

In 1985, Huda was fresh out of medical school in Damascus and was considering her next steps. Her family hailed from the port city of Haifa, but the founding of Israel prompted the forced expulsion of its Arab population, leaving her family homeless and destitute. Yet they managed to reconstitute a dignified, happy life in the massive Homs Camp, and the men of the family became involved in various facets of the