That image he had cherished of what 'home' should look like was incompatible, being a snapshot of a single moment. He longs at every moment to return to his home and his family, but when he finally does return everything is different. During his exile he travels the world, observing how people live in different places yet are everywhere basically the same. In reality, he is not allowed to re-enter Palestine for 30 years, meaning Barghouti is in his fifties by the time he sees his homeland again. After leaving Ramallah, Palestine to attend university in Cairo, Egypt, he is unable to return to his home because of the Six Day War.

Written by people who wish to remain anonymousīarghouti narrates his own memoir. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. 'The displaced person becomes a stranger to his memories and so he tries to cling to them.' His deft mind and words show how, for many Palestinians, politics have swallowed up the personal.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Using a poet's eye for detail and language (the book is beautifully translated), Barghouti, who now lives in Cairo, intersperses the story of his homecoming with his history of journeys across the Arab world. But this is as much a personal journey as a political one. The truth of Palestinian faults 'does not absolve the enemy of his original crime.' Indeed, the anger he feels at Israelis on both the left and the right helps explain why the Oslo peace process failed and why peace seems as elusive as ever. The changes he blames partly on the weakness of his own people, but mostly on the Israelis.

The people living in Ramallah and its physical geography have changed in ways that make Barghouti feel as displaced at home as he does abroad. As one might expect, his return to see his birthplace and his family is fraught with problems, as he attempts to reconnect with relatives and friends. Barghouti was in Cairo at the university when Israel won the Six-Day War and didn't return home until 1996, when the now-defunct Oslo Accords allowed him to go back. That's the message in this impressionistic memoir by a Palestinian poet returning to the West Bank after 30 years of exile.

I saw ramallah