A review by ceallaighsbooks
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

“Just like indigenous peoples elsewhere, PαlestᎥnᎥαns transferred their agricultural knowledge and awareness through legends, songs, and proverbs, forming a heritage that was passed from one generation to another, creating an indelible and deeply rooted historical connection to the land and the landscape. …our heritage, particularly as it relates to agriculture, does not simply reflect a place but a narrative that is much deeper and more complex.” — from “Lost Identity: The Tale of Peasantry and Nature” by Asmaa Abu Mezied

TITLE—Light in Gαzα

EDITORS—Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, & Michael Merryman-Lotze

PUBLISHED—2022

PUBLISHER—Haymarket Books

GENRE—nonfiction essays

SETTING—Gαzα, PαlesᎿᎥne & the diaspora

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn history & culture, indigenous rights, social justice, memoir, diaspora & displacement, photography, ethical architecture, crisis architecture solutions, economic complicity of western corporations (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft) & political institutions (the US & Canadian govts & the EU) in the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn genocide, propaganda & controled narratives, writing & storytelling, hope & faith

Summary:

“This book is rich in insights from Gαzαns living under Isrαel’s brutal siege as well as those living abroad. The editors and authors are determined to start a conversation about Gαzα and to break “the intellectual blockade” imposed on it. From Jehad Abusalim’s introduction to the last word, these compelling works move from personal reflections to political and economic analysis. They capture the reader and pull them through a journey that is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking that it should have to be lived at all. It will not leave you unmoved and will reinforce your determination to strive for PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn freedom.” — NADIA HIJAB

“…Their voices are filled with pain, loss, frustration, anger, but most of all, hope.” — BARBARA RANSBY

“This book is an exercise of deeper reflection by PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns in Gαzα and elsewhere about the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn experience in Gαzα. It is an attempt to put into words certain aspects of the Palestinian experience in and around Gαzα that have been ignored, underrepresented, and dismissed.” — from the Introduction by Jehad Abusalim

My thoughts:

Sometimes when dealing with the truly unhinged level of devastation caused & atrocities committed by imperialism, colonialism, & especially zᎥonᎥsm & other forms of religious fascism, it can be really difficult to focus on the small things we can do right now to create a better world and to find the small moments of light in all the darkness—discovering the hope that lives & breathes in spite of all the pain, horror, & injustice.

What I especially loved about this collection is the enormous diversity of topics covered from motherhood under occupation, to ethical & culturally aesthetic architectural solutions for PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns who have had their homes destroyed & need to rebuild either on their reclaimed land or in refugee settlements.

From deep explorations of indigenous identity, intimate portraits of individual experiences, how AI can assist the revolution, & the importance of storytelling & education in spite of the apartheid & the blockade, to the beautiful & powerful poems whose terrible feeling of pain is eclipsed only by the deep & strong commitment to hope, love, & faith that irrepressibly shines through, this collection is a must-read for all.

Though I loved, am grateful for, found incredibly informative, & had my perspective & understanding of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn cause expanded by every single one of these essays, my absolute favorites were “Gαzα Asks: When Shall This Pass?” by Refaat Alareer, “Lost Identity: The Tale of Peasantry & Nature” by Asmaa Abu Mezied, “Exporting Oranges & Short Stories: Cultural Struggle in the Gαzα Strip” by Mosab Abu Toha, & “In the Haze of Fifty-One Days” by Dorgham Abusalim.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is enormously accessible & readable & as I said the diversity of PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn perspectives & topics it encompasses makes it an extremely valuable collection. This book is best read in companionship with PAᏓESᎢ1NE +100 edited by Basma Ghalayini. I only happened to be reading these two books together simultaneously & it was a very serendipitous experience! Keep an eye out for my thoughts on & more information about that one coming in a couple of days. 👀

Final note: If, like me, you’re long overdue reading PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn authors, this collection along with Raja Shehadeh’s PAᏓESᎢ1N1AN WALKS & Hala Alyan’s SALT HOUSES is an excellent place to start.

“Writing is a testimony, a memory that outlives any human experience, and an obligation to communicate with ourselves and the world. We lived for a reason, to tell the tales of loss, of survival, and of hope… The wounds Israel inflicted in the hearts of PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns are not irreparable. We have no choice but to recover, stand up again, and continue the struggle. Submitting to the occupation is a betrayal to humanity and to all struggles around the world… It shall pass, I keep hoping. It shall pass, I keep saying. Sometimes I mean it. Sometimes I don’t. And as Gαzα keeps gasping for life, we struggle for it to pass, we have no choice but to fight back and to tell her stories. For PαlesᎿᎥne.” — from “Gαzα Asks: When Shall This Pass?” by Refaat Alareer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Season: Springtime

CW // genocide, fascism, racism, settler-colonial violence, death, martyrdom of friends & family members including children, suicidal ideation (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

• PAᏓESᎢ1NE +100 edited by Basma Ghalayin
• PAᏓESᎢ1N1AN WALKS by Raja Shehadeh
• Everything else by Raja Shehadeh—TBR
• SALT HOUSES by Hala Alyan 
• THINGS YOU MAY FIND HIDDEN IN MY EAR by Mosab Abu Toha—TBR
• THIS ARAB IS QUEER edited by Elias Jahshan
• WILD THORNS by Sahar Khalifeh—TBR
• THEY CALLED ME A LIONESS by Ahed Tamimi—TBR
• FᎡᎤM ᎢHξ ᎡᏆVξᎡ ᎢᎤ ᎢHξ ᎦξA edited by Sai Englert, Michal Schatz & Rosie Warren—TBR
• VOICES OF THE NAKBA edited by Diana Allan—TBR

Favorite Quotes—

(You could easily make a 365-day calendar of all the fantastic quotes in this collection so this is only as many of them as I had space to share:)

Introduction by Jehad Abusalim—

Regimes of oppression work tirelessly to render the historical context of oppressed people irrelevant and obscure. Their final goal is to portray oppressed people and their struggles for reclaiming their rights as irrational and, at worst, reduce them to a threat against those who built their privilege at the expense of others. This is precisely Gαzα’s story and the story of the entirety of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn experience.

…the value of land in PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn life and why returning to the land is not only about the act of reclaiming property, but also about reclaiming dignity, harmony with nature, and the connections between human beings and the soil that transcend limited modern understandings of what such relationships look like.

May this book inspire us all to find and nurture the roses and light among those who struggle for survival and freedom in Gαzα, in all of PαlesᎿᎥne, and in every corner of the world where injustice still haunts the wretched of this earth.

Gαzα Asks: When Shall This Pass? by Refaat Alareer—

I remember when I first heard the question, “How many more PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns should be massacred for the world to care about our lives?” I thought, naïvely, that repeating the question would change people. It would make them think and reconsider their positions. I posted it all over the forums I was part of then. But Isrαel kept killing us. And Isrαel kept destroying our lives. And boy was I wrong about the world’s reaction!

As a PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn, I have been brought up on stories and storytelling. It’s both selfish and treacherous to keep a story to yourself—stories are meant to be told and retold. If I kept a story to myself, I would be betraying my legacy, my mother, my grandmother, and my homeland.

Telling stories was my way of resisting. It was all I could do. And it was then that I decided that if I lived, I would dedicate much of my life to telling the stories of PαlesᎿᎥne, empowering PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn narratives, and nurturing younger voices.

Books, along with thousands of other commodities, were not normally allowed into Gαzα. The consequences of putting this young generation in the dark, the world must know, has far worse ramifications than we would ever expect.

[The Islamic University at Gαzα]’s only danger to the IsrαelᎥ occupation and its apartheid regime is that it is the most important place in Gαzα to develop students’ minds as indestructible weapons. Knowledge is Isrαel’s worst enemy. Awareness is Isrαel’s most hated and feared foe. That’s why Isrαel bombs a university: it wants to kill openness and determination to refuse living under injustice and racism.

On Why We Still Hold Onto Our Phones and Keep Recording by Asmaa Abu Mezied—

We hold onto our phones for dear life because we have learned the hard way that documenting what we are going through is very important to ensure that our narrative remains alive and remains ours. Our stories, our struggle and pain, and the atrocities committed against us for more than seven decades are being erased... This is part of Isrαel’s attempt to constantly rewrite history in its favor. So, we hold tight to our phones and record.

There is no gray area in calls for freedom or equality.

Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Permanent Temporality by Shahd Abusalama—

…comparisons between the lives of political prisoners and those of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns in Gαzα, pointing to similar worlds of different magnitudes, which distinctly shape their behavioral psychologies… Both are aware that the conditions that trap them in captivity with basic rights denied are designed to break their will and desire for freedom… Both have nothing to lose but a life of indignity. No laws apply in the worlds of prisoners and Gαzα except the unknown and unexpected, as ruled by external powers beyond their control.

The 1948 Nakba did not eradicate PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn culture, but did transform it. Although culture, art, music, literature, and every other form of indigenous expression of a people under settler-colonialism are often sidelined by the more pressing issues of daily violence and survival, this does not imply their absence.

As scholars Darryl Li and Jean-Pierre Filiu separately argued, the Israeli occupation not only rendered Gαzα a ghetto but as a “laboratory” to experiment with different ways of annihilating the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn body…

To Isrαel, however, there are “no civilians in Gαzα,” as announced by Avigdor Lieberman, Isrαel’s defense minister (2016–18), who resigned after Isrαel agreed to a cease-fire with PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn militias that he characterized as “surrendering to terror.” Denying the presence of civilians in Gαzα justified the brutal repression of the Great March of Return, including the indiscriminate killing of children, women, journalists, and paramedics.

…BDS is often undermined by mainstream politics that attempts to equate any legitimate action against the apartheid state with the gruesome crime of antisemitism, in an effort to deflect criticism of Israeli oppression.

The problem is no longer the lack of evidence against Isrαel’s constructed myths or its powerful public relations, or even insufficient grassroots action, whether in PαlesᎿᎥne or globally. The problem is that the international system is not prepared to truly listen to the cries of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns for justice amid immoral investment to maintain IsrαelᎥ apartheid.

Isrαel is exporting innovative models of oppression to other dictators and oppressive regimes that are using these “tested” methods against their unwanted Others, a situation that should worry every citizen of the world.

Lost Identity: The Tale of Peasantry and Nature by Asmaa Abu Mezied—

As a child growing up in a Bedouin community in the Gαzα Strip, my grandmother would tell me “يا جدة حِجر تراب ولا حِجر ذهب” (Oh, my granddaughter, a lap covered in the soil is better that one covered with gold). I didn’t understand why she would repeat those words, because Bedouin communities don’t settle in one place and they “lack attachment to one place.” With more reflection, I realized that my grandmother was talking about something beyond her Bedouin identity—something more encompassing: a PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn identity that is deeply rooted in the land.

The different roles the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn farmer played—social agent, political mobilizer, and freedom fighter—became an integral part of the farmer’s identity, which went beyond the traditional notion of place attachment. This expansion of peasant identity applied to everyone in village communities in historical PαlesᎿᎥne, since most family members engaged in agricultural activities, whether as livelihood or social ritual.

To live in a village is to form interconnected and deeply embedded social and economic relationships with others. When I was a child, everyone knew everybody in my village, and I remember how people stood by each other, especially during happy and sad events.

The peasant life is an interdependent one, never individualistic; people rely on each other to help with different tasks and agricultural practices. To have a large number of children and the support of the village was instrumental to the agrarian production that sustained peasant life.

…PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns lost access to an economic activity that was a defining factor in their livelihood and in their relationship to the land. In addition, the fighting resulted in what Qumsiyeh calls an “environmental Nakba”—the systematic destruction of the local fauna and flora and native trees such as oak, hawthorns, and olives (among others), which were replaced with fast-growing European crops like pine trees.

The deliberate destruction of agriculture and land was also a factor in the displacement of agriculture after 1948. IsrαelᎥ militias, namely Samson’s Foxes, targeted crops, trees, agricultural land, and livestock through artillery shelling and the burning of crops. They followed the mythical tradition of the foxes that Samson of the Hebrew Bible set on fire, which in turn set fire to the fields of Philistia in Gaza.

…developments like European-like afforestation initiatives early in the twentieth century, the introduction of non-native plant species, and subsequent agricultural and ecological destruction by the Israeli occupation (be it through expulsion, illegal settlement expansion, blockade, or the wars on Gaza) directly target PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn history and historical claims to the land. The destruction of PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn ecology is an attempt to deny—if not remove—Palestine’s historical existence.

We are witnessing a reversal of our past, as the current generation of Palestinian farmers are wary of agriculture and discourage their children from becoming farmers. The loss of economic security from agriculture has distorted the relationship between the farmer and their land, breaking a vital emotional bond. The consequent alienation of the farmer’s children from agriculture has limited their understanding of the historical role farmers played in the national struggle, and the critical connection between agriculture and PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn identity formation.

Israel’s policies toward the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn agricultural sector and environment followed what Swedenburg calls a “Preservation-Dissolution” policy, which aimed to destroy agriculture for political purposes.

However, there is a point beyond which we cannot endure; nor should we be told to be resilient.

Farming practices that build on indigenous knowledge and local food needs are an act of popular resistance to reclaim people’s sovereignty over the food and the land; they are an “act of national resistance towards PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn economic resilience.” To return to the land is to revive that connection and challenge the exploitive practices that continue to harm our remaining biodiversity and threaten our cultural heritage.

…agriculture is not just a source of income; it is an identity, a social cohesion ritual, and a political statement for PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns.

Ethical Implications of Experimental Design on Affected Communities in the Gaza Strip by Salem Al Qudwa—

Some family members were compelled to move away from their extended family, which broke up strong family ties and removed protection provided by family members.

…the importance of humanitarian design in dealing with vulnerable and poor communities traumatized by conflict. This work has made me increasingly aware of the connection between aesthetics and dignity, and the importance of beauty and design for even the most deprived families. It has also taught me that the simplest and most minimal interventions can provide both beauty and dignity under the right circumstances.

Ownership is not only a matter of finances and legalities, it is a matter of dignity and empowerment.

People's Light in Gaza's Darkness by Suhail Taha—

…access to light in Gaza is a purely political matter and has nothing to do with Gaza as poverty-stricken or underdeveloped. In fact, there is a political price to be paid for electricity or its absence. If, for example, the current government in Gaza suddenly announced to the world that it accepts Trump’s Deal of the Century and that it appreciated the efforts of the US administration in safeguarding the well-being of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn people, then it’s likely that every corner of the Gaza Strip would light up entirely in a minute. Yet, Abu Tariq would feel shame for lighting his home at the cost of giving up Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and one-third of the West Bank. Instead, he puts his mind at peace in the midst of pitch-black darkness. What could be more beautiful than a darkness that keeps reminding us of our steadfastness, a darkness interrupted only by the light of the moon? For “he who clouds the moon doesn’t avoid the night.”

The darkness they experience is more than the darkness of the room. The darkness in Gaza is more than the lack of light. When the electricity goes out, Gazans are enveloped in a debilitating state of fear, perpetual waiting, and deep-seated anxiety.

The fourth lesson about electricity in Gaza is that people hear better in the dark.

A person is born in this big world and moves around it, while in Gaza a person remains in their place and the world moves around them.

It has become impossible for PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns in Gaza to imagine a life where they are not plunged back into darkness and despair on a regular basis. The fifth lesson about Gaza is that if you can survive without electricity, you can survive anything.

One learns from a better reality in order to create one.

Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for Restoring PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn Rights and Improving the Quality of Life by Nour Naim, translated by Anas Abu Samhan—

Through restrictions imposed by the occupation on all economic sectors in Gaza, especially on technology and telecommunication, Israeli has fostered a neoliberal economic agenda that suffocates the digital space, leading to what might be called a “digital occupation” of Gaza.

Israel’s main motive behind competing in AI military technologies is the absence of any natural resources that might turn it into an effective economic power.

IsrαelᎥ companies export military surveillance technologies to other countries that violate human rights.

Isrαel’s hegemony is consolidated by Amazon, Google, and Facebook, beyond its domination through Israeli-made spyware and military AI technologies. These companies have whitewashed Israel’s image and enabled its repressive policies and premeditated oppression of PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns, despite all sustained efforts to pressure these companies to withdraw their investments from Israel.

Even online words that humanely express solidarity or support PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn resistance to the Israeli occupier are censored.

We need to promote the real image of the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn as one who loves life and is full of hope that one day they will return to their land and homes.

Through AI techniques, old and archived pictures can be colorized… to show ancient PαlesᎿᎥne and its indigenous inhabitants, proving that PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαns are deeply rooted in their land. The pictures would reveal that PαlesᎿᎥne was PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn in every way, from fashion to lifestyles and names of places. This is what Israel is trying to erase, so that PαlesᎿᎥne remains a land without a people for a people without a land.

When only exploitative companies own modern technologies that can be abused by a repressive occupier, they will cause harm to marginalized communities…

Exporting Oranges and Short Stories: Cultural Struggle in the Gaza Strip by Mosab Abu Toha—

Gaza appears in the global mind, momentarily, when it is attacked by Israel or declared unlivable by the UN... We remain unseen and nameless save for the violence and devastation inflicted upon us.

In the aftermath of the frequent bombings in Gaza, many depressed and traumatized children come to the Edward Said libraries to seek psychological support from the staff. The two libraries care as much as possible for these children. As part of the evolving counseling and recovery program, the staff play games with children in the library, while other children prefer to draw and play with colors.

I do not think I can ever forget the photo of the little girl holding a textbook she rescued from under the rubble of her destroyed house in northern Gaza in 2014. This one photo, for me, speaks to the consistent and unabated effort to preserve learning and education despite the consistent attempts to destroy it.

…knowledge gets restricted by the occupiers, so much so that, because of the endless siege, a new book has become a luxury in Gaza. I often think about the impact of this on education, on the ability to think critically and creatively, and on the ability to envision a future.

…not only have Palestinians been expelled from their homes and ancestral land, not only have they been thrown into prisons, not only have their trees been cut and burned, not only have they been subject to daily killing and humiliation, not only have they been denied the right to return to their homes, but they are also denied access to knowledge and literature, besieged even inside their homes during curfews and random air raids. They are not allowed to travel freely, even through books. If one doesn’t get killed by Israel, then life must be made unbearable.

The displacement of more than seven hundred thousand Palestinians fragmented the social fabric, silencing for some time much of their cultural and musical heritage.

In Gaza, culture is not only a site of expression but also a site of oppression imposed both by external and internal forces. Israel bans books and the Islamists ban music and film.

Data from 2014 reveal that the Gaza Strip had the highest percentage of educated people in the Arab world, with a literacy rate of 96.4 percent.

In the Haze of Fifty-One Days by Dorgham Abusalim—

After all, our house is the center of our universe.

Back then, my siblings and I would try and guess the kind of firepower to distract ourselves. But these days, there are just too many kinds of macabre weapons that Israel has developed to tell the difference.

Ever since, I’ve grown to appreciate Mama’s outlook on matters of faith and religion. She prays five times a day and has gone to Mecca twice, but she raised us all to be the sovereigns of our faith. She never asks me to pray or fast. Our relationship with whichever faith was our own.

Home will always be home…

I wondered whether anyone is capable of completely healing the scars of war, injustice, shame, loneliness, and disappointment. I wondered if I even wanted to be healed, if the pain would be a good reminder of the cruel indifference of this world. I put on my headphones and began listening to the one song that got me through the haze of those fifty-one days. I would listen to it when I needed to be alone, defying death away from a world that mistook my pain for everything other than what it was: pain to be heard, to be understood, to be embraced.

Travel Restrictions as a Manifestation of Nakba: Gaza, the Path Backward Is the Path Forward by Yousef M. Aljamal—

…how Israeli restrictions on movement aim to break up the Palestinian family, the most important unit in Palestinian society. That Palestinians still exist and function as a collective testifies to Israel’s failure in this regard.

Palestinians still cling to hope: the hope that they will finally be treated as human beings, the hope that they will not experience another Israeli assault, the hope that they will be reunited with their loved ones, and the hope that just like many other people who have won their struggles for freedom, Palestinians at large, and those in Gaza, will also be able to live in dignity without fear, division, or military occupation.

History has proven that the Israeli government will not move on its own to lift restrictions on the Gaza Strip. The people of Palestine, both inside and outside, and the free people of the world should take the initiative to try to end Gaza’s isolation.

Let Me Dream by Israa Mohammed Jamal—

My father explained: “Every one of us has a period of time in this life, and then will die, and so we worship Allah and follow his instructions to meet him and live the immortal life in his heaven.” My father’s words decreased my fear a little bit, but it didn’t abate my hatred of the night with its shooting voice.

Gaza 2050: Three Scenarios by Basman Aldirawi—

It’s not the responsibility of the occupied to find a solution to their occupation; rather, this is the responsibility of the occupier. Moreover, strong pressure is needed from the international community and human rights organizations.

What Palestinians need is for everyone to assume their responsibility. The international community and human rights organizations should exert real pressure, stop criticizing Palestinian resistance, and endorse the right of defense against Israel’s offensive and destructive use of force. Stop equating the occupied with the occupier. Put pressure on Israel to assume its responsibility and solve the Palestinian Nakba that it created.