For Rana Askoul’s entire life she had identified as a Palestinian, yet was never allowed to return to her homeland. That changed when she acquired a new passport. It was her turn to return: “For the last 35 years of my life, my home had been out of reach, denied, held hostage and destroyed. For 35 years, I watched closely all the videos of all those who returned to visit the ruins of our northern Palestinian village. For 35 years, I tried to memorize the geography of the place, to figure out the scent of its red dirt and to imagine what it would have been like if it all didn’t happen. And I could reach it now. In less than 3 hours. But my heart raced, and my hands clenched into fists. I couldn’t do it.”

Rana Askoul reflects on grieving and loss after her cousin Nadya dies unexpectedly a week before Donald Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem: “And 9 days after her passing, it’s time to sit amidst yet another loss. On the long Palestinian timeline of pains and losses, today, yet again, is Jerusalem’s turn. And just like in my cousin’s passing, I can’t help but notice the grounding that this loss stirs in me. I don’t despair today. I am not angry or surprised or disappointed. Simply because belonging can’t be given or taken away.”

Rana Askoul writes to British Prime Minister Teresa May: “I hear you will be celebrating the centenary of the Balfour declaration with ‘pride’. I hear you also said that you will be conscious of the sensitivities that some people have about the Balfour declaration and that there is more work to be done. Pride, sensitivities, some people, more work. In my mind, I picture you standing in front of my paternal grandmother, as she walked on her journey out of Palestine to Lebanon in 1948, clutching my father as a baby to her chest. I see you uttering these words to her. Pride, sensitivities, some people, more work. It seems Ms. May, you also have not the slightest clue as to how we Palestinians can move on. It seems Ms. May that you too, like your predecessors have chosen the easier wrong, over the harder right. It seems Ms. May, that you too need a lesson as to why we need to apologize when we have done wrong.”