Ms Servalan of Sydney

"OUR LIFE, OUR SOCIETY WAS SHATTERED IN ORDER THAT ISRAEL BE ESTABLISHED" Edward Said, in an archival interview. He died in 2003. "1948, we lost everything. Every single member of my family was made a refugee in 1948. Not a single member of my family remained in Palestine. My birthplace is now inaccessible to me." "For many hundreds of thousands of my fellow Palestinians, their native towns, villages, farms are inaccessible to them." Then the line that explains why he spent his life writing: "The one thing that is still missing, in my opinion, is that there's a Palestinian story. We're not just the people who happen now to be in exile. Our life, our society was shattered in order that Israel be established." And his own accounting: "As a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, my national history and the society of my forebears were shattered in 1948 when Israel was established. Since that time, the better part of my own life, I have participated in the struggle not just to bring justice and restitution to my people, but also to keep the hope for self-determination alive." He kept that hope alive until 2003. The Nakba he described in 1948 is still being carried out. Twenty-three years after his death, the camps are still there. The villages are still gone. And the story he said was missing is finally being told. 🧭