"What happened to you, Said?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just asking. I'm looking for the true Palestine, the Palestine that's more than memories, more than peacock feathers, more than a son, more than scars written by bullets on the stairs. I was just saying to myself: What's Palestine with respect to Khalid? He doesn't know the vase or the picture or the stairs or Halisa or Khaldun. And yet for him, Palestine is something worthy of a man bearing arms for, dying for.... Tens of thousands like Khalid won't be stopped by the tears of men searching in the depths of their defeat for scraps of armor and broken flowers. Men like Khalid are looking toward the future, so they can put right our mistakes and the mistakes of the whole world..."

"Returning to Haifa", 1969, Ghassan Kanafani


Lewis Room
Cambridge Public Library, Central Square
45 Pearl St, Cambridge
accessible by bus and red line, Central Sq stop, wheelchair accessible
This event is free.

This May marks the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe") in Palestine in 1948 when over 935,000 Palestinians (85% of the indigenous population of Palestine at that time) were forced off their land, in some cases at gunpoint, in other cases through massacres or threats of massacres like the massacre at Deir Yassin. As a result, 530 of an estimated 550 total villages were completely destroyed or depopulated. "Israel" was founded on the racist ideology of zionism. It has followed the expansionist and genocidal logic of white supremacy and colonialism for over sixty years. Today, the genocide in Palestine continues: from the planned expulsion of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, to the demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied Al Quds (Jerusalem), to the continued siege of the people of Gaza-- deprived of food, water, electricity, and medicine-- to the mass detention of over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

Ghassan Kanafani, beloved Palestinian writer, was murdered by Zionist forces in 1972. His work reminds us of the spirit of resistance that has sustained the Palestinian people for generations.

Please come to mourn, remember, learn, organize, and act!

There will be readings of Kanafani's work and a discussion following.
Refreshments will be served.

**The Cambridge Public Library is not a sponsor of this event.