Salman H. Abu Sitta (Arabic سلمان ابو ستة)(born 1938) is a Palestinian researcher and writes about Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian right of return.[1]
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Abu-Sitta was born in Beersheba (Bir al-Saba', Arabic بئر السبع), British Mandate of Palestine, in what is now the Southern District of Israel. After making a 40 kilometer journey to his home on foot from his boarding school in Jerusalem, Abu-Sitta escaped a few days later with his family to Gaza and joined the first wave of Palestinian refugees. Abu-Sitta moved to the prestigious al-Saidiya secondary school in Cairo where he graduated with "excellence", ranking first in Egypt. After graduating from Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering in 1958, Abu-Setta went to the United Kingdom to continue his post-graduate studies, receiving his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of London, in what is now known as UCL.[2]
Abu-Setta, has spent 40 years digging for any detail of information about, or related to, Palestine before, during and after the creation of Israel. Abu-Setta’s self-imposed mission has encompassed not only documenting al-Nakba, but also ensuring that "the memories and identity of the occupied homeland are never lost". The documentation process began when he was 30 years-old, when he stumbled on the memoirs of the Turkish chief of Beersheba, when Palestine was under Ottoman rule. The document dated back to the early years of the last century.
"It sort of started from there, and it has never stopped," Abu-Sitta says. "I kept collecting all and any material on every inch of my homeland."