The Imaginary Village is a story about the longing for home. It is told almost entirely in the voices of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon. Some fled their villages in 1948; others only know those villages through the stories, photos, songs and maps preserved by their parents and grandparents. The voices are accompanied by an original musical score played on the oud, or Middle Eastern lute. Producer Sandy Tolan has been visiting the Holy Land for more than 15 years as a reporter and author. Over the years, he has been increasingly impressed by the depth and strength of the Palestinians' attachment to their homeland, despite the fact that they have not lived there in decades. That attachment, Tolan believes, is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is rarely covered by the press. Tolan is the author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (2006). Co-producer Melissa Allison is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. The piece debuted on Transom.org on June 5, 2004. It is part of Worlds of Difference (http://homelands.org/worlds), a series by Homelands Productions that examines questions of identity, tradition and connectedness in a rapidly changing world.

The Imaginary Village is a story about the longing for home. It is told almost entirely in the voices of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon. Some fled their villages in 1948; others only know those villages through the stories, photos, songs and maps preserved by their parents and grandparents. The voices are accompanied by an original musical score played on the oud, or Middle Eastern lute. Producer Sandy Tolan has been visiting the Holy Land for more than 15 years as a reporter and author. Over the years, he has been increasingly impressed by the depth and strength of the Palestinians' attachment to their homeland, despite the fact that they have not lived there in decades. That attachment, Tolan believes, is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is rarely covered by the press. Tolan is the author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (2006). Co-producer Melissa Allison is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. The piece debuted on Transom.org on June 5, 2004. It is part of Worlds of Difference (http://homelands.org/worlds), a series by Homelands Productions that examines questions of identity, tradition and connectedness in a rapidly changing world.