This study uses the Palestinian Oral History Archive to investigate how Palestinian refugees in Lebanon sustain a cohesive collective memory of the Nakba through shared narratives. Grounded in Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory, we employ statistical analysis of narrative pairwise similarities, examining the influence of shared gender and geography. We use textual representations and semantic embeddings to represent the interviews. Our analysis yields robust findings. Shared origin emerges as the primary driver of narrative similarity across thematic, factual, and semantic measures. This foundational connection is significantly amplified by a shared residence in Lebanon, with refugees sharing both origin and residence, exhibiting the highest narrative cohesion. Additionally, women’s narratives show greater thematic cohesion, particularly in recounting experiences of the British occupation, underscoring the gendered dimensions of memory formation. This research deepens understanding of collective memory in diasporic settings, emphasizing the critical role of oral histories in safeguarding Palestinian identity and resisting erasure.