A review by stories_of_the_soul27
Palestine by Joe Sacco

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

How do you review a book about Palestine, especially now when Israel is repeatedly bombing Palestine and wiping the Gazans bit by bit? 

I will include a line from the foreword by Joe Sacco : The Palestinian and Israeli people will continue to kill each other in low-level conflict or with shattering violence - with suicide bombers or helicopter gunships and jet bombers - until the central fact - Israeli occupation - is addressed as an issue of international law and basic human rights. 

If you want a Palestinian point of view then this is the book to go to. Joe Sacco has tried to cover as many aspects he could find to show us the horror faced by the Palestinians. He has talked about adolescent boys having to participate in the Intifada, women trying to balance nationalism and fighting oppression , men unable to provide for their family, the suffocation of the Palestinians for having to live under Occupation for years, Palestinians who had to flee their homes and now live in camps, the dehumanising methods used by IDF during interrogation, in prison and while torturing. The stories go on. And on. So does the suffering of the Palestinians. Presently there is no ceasefire and the world is just sitting by and watching Palestine getting bombed. 

Joe Sacco had also touched upon the oppressive ways of Islam in Middle East, honour killings, the clashes between various factions in Palestine fighting for the liberation, the fundamentalist views being harboured and nurtured by some of them and the complicit actions of the neighbouring Arab countries. 

This book definitely serves its purpose that is to make the world aware about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and how much the Palestinians are suffering because of it. One can read this book and pick up the dates and treaties and further build their knowledge. They can question their knowledge or shed their prejudices. There is a lot to know about this Occupation. Palestine by Joe Sacco is just the start. 

One scene from the book where Joe Sacco is talking to one Israeli woman who says, “We just want to live our lives okay? We have OUR LIVES! We have jobs and families and go out and live just like you do… We don’t think about this stuff all the time, and we get a bit TIRED of hearing about it!” And then this other Israeli lady immediately says, “It’s not that we’re tired… But when you hear it over and over, you get tired….” I will just leave it here.