Upon his return to Ramallah at last, Barghouti carries with him thirty years of expectations. The result is a constant physical and emotional displacement. His body is constantly at odds with his mind also because it is not accustomed to the various climates, foods, and allergens which he encounters. He struggles to connect with people because he cannot speak their languages fluently.

In his travels Barghouti is constantly challenged by his foreign environments. Mirroring his physical distance from Palestine, his emotions also suffer from the distance. He travels the globe but observing people in their natural habitats only serves to remind Barghout that he has no home. During his travels, he remains painfully conscious of his status as an outsider everywhere. He passes thirty years as a wanderer, constantly moving but never finding a place which makes him feel at home. He has been separated from not only his home and family but from his culture.

In his exile, Barghouti struggles with feelings of displacement. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere “idea of Palestine,” he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of “the habitual place and status of a person.” A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I Saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today’s Middle East.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth.

Synopsis: WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATUREĪ fierce and moving work and an unparalleled rendering of the human aspects of the Palestinian predicament.īarred from his homeland after 1967’s Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile-shuttling among the world’s cities, yet secure in none of them separated from his family for years at a time never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest.

I saw ramallah