‘We Just Kept Walking’: Artistic Depiction of Palestinian Displacement

'We just kept walking'. (Painting: Ramona Wadi, contributed to Palestine Chronicle)

By Ramona Wadi

“We just kept walking”. To listen to a statement repeated with both assertion and vagueness imparts a sudden realization of walking through terrain which bore lacerations of its own.

The displacement enforced upon Palestinians during the Nakba is depicted from afar in this watercolor painting, with the intent to portray the contradictory approaches to time and memory.

If timelines are to retain their significance, they must become subservient to memory which in turn would ignite a process of liberation from the constant appropriation of what constitutes Palestine and Palestinians.

It is hoped that the painting allows for a connection to the core, to all the stories that remain unspoken, for us to ponder what it feels like to walk upon land, to recognize its essence and be coerced into silence.

What it means to find one’s self restricted from a complete expression of identity. And to realize that the ramifications of Palestinian displacement have become a dissociated term in human rights rhetoric.

(With thanks to Ramzy Baroud and his latest book, “The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story,” which inspired this watercolor painting.)

– Ramona Wadi is a writer and an artist. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. 

(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)
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