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Reviews tagging 'Child death'
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze
4 reviews
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This anthology, compiled with support from the American Friends Service Committee, centers the voices and perspectives of Palestinians in and from Gaza as they reflect on the district's past and present while imagining its future. Published in 2022, many of the writers reference Israeli bombardment in 2014 and 2021, and it is a particularly harrowing experience to read their contributions now, in 2024, as Gaza is under far more deadly siege. Less than two years after his essay Gaza Asks: When Shall This Pass? was published in this anthology, poet and activist Refaat Alareer was killed in a strike that also killed his brother, brother's son, sister, and her three children. It's this stark contrast - the scale of death, displacement and structural devastation in today's Gaza and the cautious hope of Palestinians in 2021 and 2022 envisioning futures for another generation - that makes this anthology a challenging read.
While structured loosely around future visions of Gaza, the essays, poems and reflections range from highly academic to deeply personal, covering the lived environment and home construction, agrarian practices and the future of farming in historic Palestine, the use of AI in Israel's surveillance and oppression of Palestinians in Gaza, and so much more. The scale of creativity and resilience required for those living under military occupation and blockade is staggering - how do you build a home when you can't use concrete, how do you run a business when you don't have consistent access to electricity, how do you stock a library when you can't order books, how do you survive when arbitrary borders separate you from family, healthcare, employment, education and freedom? For those who've never experienced this level of surveillance and restricted movement - not to mention the constant threat of aerial attack, search and siezure, or imprisonment - the description of Gaza as the world's largest open-air prison takes shape into something visceral. By the time you get to the second-to-last essay, Let Me Dream, by Israa Mohammed Jamal, you begin to better understand the reality of multi-generational trauma and how it shapes those attempting to build lives in Gaza.
Another through-line in this anthology is Gaza's current population density and large refugee population. I hadn't realized that around 70% of those living in Gaza are refugees, and I appreciated how intentionally each contributor engages with the legacy and continuation of the Nakba in shaping Gaza's present and future.
I highly recommend this anthology to anyone interested in learning more about Gaza - its history, its present, and its people dreaming of survival. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener's copy - I'm grateful that this new audiobook recording will make this collection more accessible to readers.
While structured loosely around future visions of Gaza, the essays, poems and reflections range from highly academic to deeply personal, covering the lived environment and home construction, agrarian practices and the future of farming in historic Palestine, the use of AI in Israel's surveillance and oppression of Palestinians in Gaza, and so much more. The scale of creativity and resilience required for those living under military occupation and blockade is staggering - how do you build a home when you can't use concrete, how do you run a business when you don't have consistent access to electricity, how do you stock a library when you can't order books, how do you survive when arbitrary borders separate you from family, healthcare, employment, education and freedom? For those who've never experienced this level of surveillance and restricted movement - not to mention the constant threat of aerial attack, search and siezure, or imprisonment - the description of Gaza as the world's largest open-air prison takes shape into something visceral. By the time you get to the second-to-last essay, Let Me Dream, by Israa Mohammed Jamal, you begin to better understand the reality of multi-generational trauma and how it shapes those attempting to build lives in Gaza.
Another through-line in this anthology is Gaza's current population density and large refugee population. I hadn't realized that around 70% of those living in Gaza are refugees, and I appreciated how intentionally each contributor engages with the legacy and continuation of the Nakba in shaping Gaza's present and future.
I highly recommend this anthology to anyone interested in learning more about Gaza - its history, its present, and its people dreaming of survival. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener's copy - I'm grateful that this new audiobook recording will make this collection more accessible to readers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child death, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Torture and Homophobia
alyssapusateri's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Genocide, War, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Child death, Gun violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Alcohol
thewordsdevourer's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
light in gaza offers a relevatory look into gaza, its history, present, future and inhabitants, both from inside the area and those in the diaspora. i esp appreciate how the authors of the various essays included in the book each focus on a different aspect of the occupation and resistance, examining the past and present with their implications, as well as imagining a better future.
while im not at all knowledgable abt certain topics explored - such AI and architecture - they are nevertheless enlightening and offer a truly unique, fresh perspective. i also particularly enjoy learning abt the deep bond between palestinians and their land thru peasantry, and the importance of humanitarianism that instead focuses on liberation and return. this is def a collection to be read and learned from, straight from palestinians themselves.
while im not at all knowledgable abt certain topics explored - such AI and architecture - they are nevertheless enlightening and offer a truly unique, fresh perspective. i also particularly enjoy learning abt the deep bond between palestinians and their land thru peasantry, and the importance of humanitarianism that instead focuses on liberation and return. this is def a collection to be read and learned from, straight from palestinians themselves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Police brutality, Colonisation, Racism, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Death, Murder, Genocide, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Child death
bookishmillennial's review
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial
This was a devastating, informative, and extremely moving collection of essays from contributors who explain the current state/lack of wellbeing of Gaza. There are a few poems interspersed throughout the book, as well as photographs after each essay.
I learned so much about the ways every single aspect of life in Gaza has deteriorated due to Israeli occupation:
This was a devastating, informative, and extremely moving collection of essays from contributors who explain the current state/lack of wellbeing of Gaza. There are a few poems interspersed throughout the book, as well as photographs after each essay.
I learned so much about the ways every single aspect of life in Gaza has deteriorated due to Israeli occupation:
-the agriculture: obviously, land was literally taken away from Palestinians, and they had a rich ecological system before the Nakba, filled with olives and citrus trees
-the quality of their physical buildings and homes: spoiler alert: it is severely lacking & is criminally underfunded
-their education, libraries, and bookstores: books shipped into Gaza were censored and delayed in delivery, library membership & attendance went down as more & more attacks occurred, & the economic state of the families in Gaza meant they simply could not afford to buy books
-cinemas: all of the films they showed were only from Israel, this is not a shock but just a consistent message of Israel heavily censoring anything that the Palestinians consumed
-and so much more!
I highly recommend this book, as it provides a clear illustration of what life is like for Palestinians who are forced to live under occupation, and it’s full of reasons why the world needs to liberate them. No one deserves to live like this.
-the quality of their physical buildings and homes: spoiler alert: it is severely lacking & is criminally underfunded
-their education, libraries, and bookstores: books shipped into Gaza were censored and delayed in delivery, library membership & attendance went down as more & more attacks occurred, & the economic state of the families in Gaza meant they simply could not afford to buy books
-cinemas: all of the films they showed were only from Israel, this is not a shock but just a consistent message of Israel heavily censoring anything that the Palestinians consumed
-and so much more!
I highly recommend this book, as it provides a clear illustration of what life is like for Palestinians who are forced to live under occupation, and it’s full of reasons why the world needs to liberate them. No one deserves to live like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Confinement, Genocide, Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Child death, and Colonisation
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