Impressions from Nakba Day

On Nakba Day, members of WAS-NS and parents of children at the school traveled to the ruins of Umm Burj, a Palestinian village emptied of its residents during the 1948-1949 war. Khirbet Umm Burj is located south of Beth Shemesh and was formerly in the district of Hebron/Al-Halil.

Umm Burj on Nakba Day

Just a car ride into oblivion
At the end of asphalt roads.

To a park whose signs demark
A history too crowded for meagre lives

They built their homes among ruins.
We walk among their graves.

The last of them are buried elsewhere
Their story almost silent now.

We briefly populate the hilltop,
With our talk and picture taking.

These thornfields once were gardens
Kept by water from the well.

The hilltop bloodied now
In sunset rust,

The only green is found in niches
Hewn deep into the earth

Where broad-leaved fig trees
Dream a shady coolness
Safe again for children’s song.