It is Land Day today in Palestine, a day when we commemorate our special bond with the Palestinian land. And I cannot help but think about my grandfather, his dispossession, and the repetition of that trauma in my own life.My grandfather, Hamdan, was 12 years old when Zionist forces began the campaign of ethnic cleansing that we now call the Nakba. He lived with his family in the village of al-Faluja. They were peasants who got by working their land, raising farm animals, and selling their seasonal crops at local markets.Starting in early 1948, al-Faluja came under attack from Zionist militias. It was a strategic target due to its location at the centre of a network of roads leading north to Jerusalem and Jaffa and south to Gaza. As the brutal Zionist assaults intensified, my grandfather fled with his family to nearby villages.They did not take anything with them, thinking they would return soon. The only thing they carried was the key to the door of their home. An Egyptian brigade held on to al-Faluja, besieged by Zionist forces well into 1949. The armistice between Egypt and the newly established Israel forced them to abandon their positions.The Green Line was drawn, leaving 78 percent of historic …
