Virtual reality tours have replaced flag-waving rallies as Palestinians facing coronavirus restrictions create digital spaces to lament the loss of their physical homeland in 1948.
Lauren Anthony reports.
Palestinians look to a digital future to connect with their past
Using virtual reality technology to connect with the past: Every year, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or "Catastrophe," when they were forced from their land during modern Israel's formation in 1948.
This year's rallies have been canceled.
But Palestine VR founder Salem Barahmeh has created virtual tours online to show Palestinians what their homeland used to look like.
"A lot of Palestinians have never actually been to Palestine or seen Palestine because of Israeli restrictions so we wanted to offer Palestinians, especially living abroad in the Diaspora and exile, a chance to see Palestine for the first time in immersive reality and its a sad reality but we hope to connect Palestinians with Palestine." Majd al-Shihabi, a Palestinian refugee born in Syria, has developed Palestine Open Maps, an interactive database of Palestinian villages and Jewish towns as they stood back then.
He says the project helps connect Palestinians to places that no longer exist.
Rallies to mark the Nakba normally take place on May 15, the day after Israel's Independence Day in the western calendar.
Palestinians will be hoping that next year they'll be able to resume.
Until then, a virtual one is available instead.