The forced expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their land has many parallels in history. Native Americans greeted, then fought, then terrorized European colonists when their own ethnic cleansing had begun. The Neo-Assyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel, annexed its territory, and deported its Jews—[actions which would repeat with the Romans, Babylonians, and others.] In 1995, the Srebrenica massacre was one of the final acts of a long military campaign to remove non-Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. But while these examples are useful for understanding the Israel-Palestine conflict, it is modern-day Liberia which offers some overlooked lessons and universals. Just as Israel was founded on the memory of the Holocaust, Liberia was settled by free American blacks—many with roots in slavery. Both claimed, in official pronouncements, an ancestral connection to the land they now wished to ‘civilize’. Both were victims, at some point, of serious crimes, which came to define much of their art, culture, and worship. Both couched the foundation of their state in the language of international law, as well as biblical justice. Their self-definition was righteousness and the wisdom one accumulates with a long period of exile. It was as if the Israelis and Americos had absorbed history—and were now happy to repeat it. Before Palestine, there was Liberia, and before Liberia, there was a forgotten curse: No people shall learn from their forefathers, as each generation must watch through ignorant eyes. […]