I Saw Ramallah - Mourid Barghouti
I SAW RAMALLAH (2008). After the tragic events of the 1967 Six-Day War, renowned poet Mourid Barghhouti found himself suddenly living in exile from Palestine. Back then, he was a young student living in Egypt. He was in examination hall when he was informed the war had started. This shocking piece of information changed his status instantly: he was a Palestinian a while ago, now he was a refugee with no home to go back to.
He then started a thirty (!!) year struggle to get a permit to visit Ramallah, the city in the West Bank where he belonged. This book is his memoir about exile and returning to Palestine thirty years after he was expelled from his homeland. This lyrical account of his return depicts the sad aftermath brought forth by the Occupation. Stifled growth of society and culture, so many, many deaths, poverty, destruction. And always, always the loss of freedom.
Barghhouti, who passed away recently, writes from a place of exile and displacement, about his complicated relationship to home and belonging. He encapsulates the experience of so many people who are unwelcome and forcibly removed from the places they belong to. This is a moving and intense memoir which describes so many tragic aspects of the Palestinian predicament.
I SAW RAMALLAH (2008). After the tragic events of the 1967 Six-Day War, renowned poet Mourid Barghhouti found himself suddenly living in exile from Palestine. Back then, he was a young student living in Egypt. He was in examination hall when he was informed the war had started. This shocking piece of information changed his status instantly: he was a Palestinian a while ago, now he was a refugee with no home to go back to.
He then started a thirty (!!) year struggle to get a permit to visit Ramallah, the city in the West Bank where he belonged. This book is his memoir about exile and returning to Palestine thirty years after he was expelled from his homeland. This lyrical account of his return depicts the sad aftermath brought forth by the Occupation. Stifled growth of society and culture, so many, many deaths, poverty, destruction. And always, always the loss of freedom.
Barghhouti, who passed away recently, writes from a place of exile and displacement, about his complicated relationship to home and belonging. He encapsulates the experience of so many people who are unwelcome and forcibly removed from the places they belong to. This is a moving and intense memoir which describes so many tragic aspects of the Palestinian predicament.
I SAW RAMALLAH (2008). After the tragic events of the 1967 Six-Day War, renowned poet Mourid Barghhouti found himself suddenly living in exile from Palestine. Back then, he was a young student living in Egypt. He was in examination hall when he was informed the war had started. This shocking piece of information changed his status instantly: he was a Palestinian a while ago, now he was a refugee with no home to go back to.
He then started a thirty (!!) year struggle to get a permit to visit Ramallah, the city in the West Bank where he belonged. This book is his memoir about exile and returning to Palestine thirty years after he was expelled from his homeland. This lyrical account of his return depicts the sad aftermath brought forth by the Occupation. Stifled growth of society and culture, so many, many deaths, poverty, destruction. And always, always the loss of freedom.
Barghhouti, who passed away recently, writes from a place of exile and displacement, about his complicated relationship to home and belonging. He encapsulates the experience of so many people who are unwelcome and forcibly removed from the places they belong to. This is a moving and intense memoir which describes so many tragic aspects of the Palestinian predicament.