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The
vicissitudes of life sometimes take a horrible turn
Witness the immensely dark cloud that is the Nakba
As though a violent, unfathomable storm bringing vast suffering
The dispersal and uprooting of a million souls
Scattered on the earth like the Israelite Diaspora
Painfully awaiting redemption of lost but unforgotten rights
Hamlets razed to the ground, orchards usurped, towns transfigured
A landscape of sustained living transformed, defiled, forcibly
seized
The immensely anguishing experience of a homeland lost
To the logic of superior arms, greater organization, more
sophistication
And yet, the story tells many an epic tale
Of brave Palestinian freedom fighters, valiant Arab Army soldiers
Standing defiant in the face of a vastly intricate international
scheme
To remake the reality of a nation’s existence
Balfour’s perfidious proclamation
Colonialism abetting a monumental project to change Palestine’s
noble face
Of cities, orchards, sepulchers, mosques and churches
Arab Palestine was to be remade, renamed, reconfigured- alas,
forgotten by history’s records
By dint of force, vigilance, superior planning and international
support
Superpowers expiating for transgressions against the Jews
Sins for which Arabs bear no responsibility
The product of a sinister fascist European venture
1948, perhaps Palestine’s most painful hour
A moment of alienation from land, abode and a historical belonging
To be memorialized as a tragedy continuing to unfold
And capture into its great net the culpable and guiltless alike
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