Falastin Hurra!: Witness to Resistance, Land, and the Nakba
By Stephen Yorba
Falastin Hurra! is a poetic witness to the Nakba (catastrophe) in Palestine. Written on the ground while farming in Palestine, Stephen Yorba simply captures what he saw during his time in the West Bank village of Bil’in. As such, the reader should consider these poems as written by the people, and merely transcribed by the author as a witness. Falastin Hurra! speaks to the struggle of the Fellahin (farming class) as they continue their agricultural practice in the midst of zionist aparthied and genocide. Each poem is a witness, seeking solidarity with the beauty of the Palestinian people, their courageous resistance against colonization, and their persistent nature to preserve their own autonomy. It is a testament to their sumud (steadfastness) in the face of the Nakba; the ongoing displacement and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the zionist state of Israel and the United States.
Stephen Yorba and Rebecca Ustrell collaborated on creating the images featured in Falastin Hurra! through analogue photography using the cyanotype process. All images were developed using natural sunlight on photo sensitive paper at Lopez Urban Farm in the Spring and Summer of 2025.
