On my first visit to Jaffa in 1998 someone had taken me to visit the Old People's Home in Ajami. A large reconstructed Arab house, it perfectly illustrated ethnic hierarchy in Israel: the front and main body of the building is a residential home for Jewish old people, while round at the side, unsignposted, is a single room where Arab over-60s meet daily. A lively young woman, Ayyoush, is the 'responsible'. I enjoyed the visit immensely, chatting with Ayyoush and meeting several old people who clearly remembered the events of 1948. On this second visit I was looking forward to taking Leena to meet Ayyoush, and to take photos while I recorded with some of the old people. This hope collapses however when I discover that the whole over-60s Club has gone to Sharm al-Sheikh by bus on a holiday outing. The Club is shut, and won't re-open for a week.

The Old People's Club was to have been the center-piece of our trip to Jaffa. Our plan to go on to the Nagab

is also in question because in Haifa I fell and sprained a back muscle, and fear the effect on it of rough Nagab conditions. We could have a lift to Bir al-Saba' with a friend, but after that we'd have to manage our own transport and accommodation. And Leena has to be back in Beit Jala' by Thursday to take part in a walk around the village of Artas, where the Finnish anthropologist Hilma Granquist used to live, and where there is now a folk-culture museum.

Nuri Okbeh, founder of the League to Defend Bedouin Rights, can help us to find speakers in Lydda and Ramleh, nearby towns whose populations were reconstructed after the Nakbah from refugees from the surrounding countryside. Many Palestinians of bedouin origin, displaced from the Nagab, have settled here in shanty towns, with the Israeli authorities continuing to harass them over building permits. Nuri himself is threatened with imminent eviction. He asks his son Salah to take us to meet refugee families.