Kenya and Khulan as Faraj

I am Faraj, and I live in Deheishe Refugee Camp in the West Bank. I don't want to live here. The Israelis prance around like this is their land, but it is ours, and I shouldn't be here. I am here because in 1948 my grandma was forced out of her village, Ras Abu Ammar, by the Israelis. She still, to the day, carries around the key to her old house, hoping that one day she will return. She recently gave it to me so that I can bring my children and grandchildren back to live on the land that is ours. The Israelis are the problem, not us. They come in with their big guns, and take our land, our food, our resources, our lives, and then feel the need to put us into camps. My family curses the day these camps were made. This is why we thank B.Z. for sneaking us to the village, so I can see what those monsters did to us.

—Faraj lives in the Deheishe refugee camp. At the age of 5 Faraj saw his best friend killed by an Israeli soldier's bullet and the word "Israeli" means nothing to him short of "murderer." After participating in a massive anti-Israeli rally, Faraj and his grandmother sneak out of the camp and over the border to visit the village in Israel where she grew up and from which she fled during the 1948 war. Sitting on the stones that once were his family home, Faraj vows that he will return some day to rebuild.