Palestine’s Pen against Israel’s Swords of Injustice

Rachid Bouhamidi, "Gaza," oil on canvas, 40x30", 2023 (courtesty of the artist).

6 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Mai Al-Nakib

Opinions published in The Markaz Review reflect the perspective of their authors and do not necessarily represent TMR.

By now it is no doubt a platitude to claim the power of the pen over the sword. Even worse, in the context of 75 years of Israeli brutality against the Palestinian people, we might call it naïve or even unethical. Since the 7th of October, 2023 in Gaza alone, we have witnessed Israel’s criminal use of white phosphorous against civilians; their dropping of explosives equal to the strength of two nuclear bombs; their murder of over 9,000+ Palestinian human beings and counting (many remain under rubble), with more than 3,600 of them children; the targeting and murder of over thirty journalists and media workers, in addition to dozens of their family members. In the face of these and so many other unspeakable war crimes instigated by a seemingly incontestable power, the output of pens seems futile.

Despite the rubble to which this region has been physically, psychically, economically, and socially reduced, the force of its cultural narratives are on the rise and gaining momentum.

Yet, as the Israelis well understand, the sword has always been guided and buttressed by convenient and convincing narratives: Biblical and British colonial narratives; those of victimhood and persecution; of terra nullius (nobody’s land); of democracy and freedom; of terrorism and Islamism; of exceptionality and superiority; of humanity against barbarity; and on and on, ad nauseam. For over 120 years, Zionist pens have produced reams contriving stories of justice, inevitability, and finality. Such manufactured narratives are convincing to those who have everything to gain by their legitimation. European nations during and after the two world wars — given their antisemitic impulse to rid themselves of the Jewish problem once and for all and to obscure their shameful complicity with the German Holocaust of six million Jews — assuaged their false narrative of guilt with a skewed narrative of justice. (Lest I be accused of antisemitism, please note that my argument is against Zionist narratives and not Jewish ones, for which I hold nothing but respect and admiration). Once the imperialist baton was passed from Europe to the United States in the middle of the last century, Zionist narratives dovetailed seamlessly with the fantastical American narratives of exceptionalism, democracy, and triumphalism, in the names of which the Middle East has been — and continues to be — ripped to shreds.

Despite the rubble to which this region has been physically, psychically, economically, and socially reduced, the force of its cultural narratives are on the rise and gaining momentum. The pens of novelists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, social media activists, journalists, and academics are producing reams of their own: singular, fascinating stories of lamentation and celebration; horrors and marvels; violence and survival; attack and intransigent resistance; and so much else besides. More than ever before, these narratives are travelling beyond the region — sometimes because their authors have migrated as a result of the ruination of their countries; other times as a result of more accessible translations; and primarily because of the use of social media by today’s savvy youth, who have in their hands — for the first time — the tools with which to challenge the orientalist narrative that strangled their parents, grandparents, and generations before them. 

Never has the power of this 21st-century pen been more evident than in the intolerable context of the decimation of Gaza by its Zionist occupiers. Voices from inside Gaza — those of children, journalists, social media activists, doctors, priests, and many others — are reaching the West despite the hostility of its leaders; the biased mainstream media conglomerates; and the shadowbanning and direct censorship by social media companies. Gazan voices are affecting members of an ideologically interpellated populace, raised on the Zionist narratives listed earlier, coupled with anti-Arab, anti-Islamic sentiments. Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, and allies in the West and across the globe are amplifying these voices from Gaza, speaking truth to power despite threats to livelihoods, reputations, and lives — as the tragic murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume lays bare. We are witnessing the ideological landscape shift before our eyes. There is no question that the devastating onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank — their outright genocide by a power that acts with impunity and without censure by Western leaders — must be at the forefront of activist efforts and political decisions. Yet crucially, these demands by the “weak” against the “strong” have only become possible thanks to the tireless efforts of Palestine’s pen.

In a 1993 conversation with David Barsamian titled “The Pen and the Sword,” Edward W. Said lamented the fact that the Arab and Islamic world had not done enough to represent contrasting versions to the stereotypes disseminated in the West (90). He went on to add, “I’m an optimist. I think people can be made to change their minds and that experiencing a different and alternative view of the Islamic and Arab world can in fact open people’s minds in the West to another perspective” (91-92). That is precisely what seems to be unfolding despite the increasingly desperate efforts of the Israelis to hold on to and control their narrative — a desperation that smacks of failure, a sure sign that their narrative jig is almost up. In its place emerge Palestinian narratives of dignity in the face of ruthless bombardment; of the tender love for family, friends, neighbors, children, and cats; of the selfless humanitarianism of doctors, journalists, and young social media activists, many of them students who should be studying and living out their dreams instead of trying to convince indifferent Europeans and Americans that they and their people are human beings who deserve to live just like everyone else.

When Israel targets Palestinian journalists in Gaza, as they have done for decades and are intensifying now, it is fighting against the steady displacement of Zionist narratives by Palestinian ones. Israel has always understood the power of Palestine’s pen to expose injustice. By assassinating journalists today, Israel remains true to a modus operandi that dates back to the establishment of Palestine’s liberation movements. Writer, intellectual, and activist Ghassan Kanafani and cartoonist and journalist Nagi Al-Ali were its early victims — their pens and hearts stopped by Israeli bombs and bullets. Yet Kanafani’s voice, Al-Ali’s voice, the poet Kamal Nasser’s voice, along with the voices of all murdered Palestinian scientists, scholars, journalists, and politicians, have carried through the decades, the output of their pens continuing to inspire Palestinian resolve.

“To every situation,” Said reminds us, “there’s always an alternative. What one must train oneself is to think the alternative, and not to think the accepted and the status quo or to believe that the present is frozen” (105). In these darkest of times, Said’s injunction may seem impossible, and yet the writing coming out of Palestine today demonstrates that the alternative has already arrived, at the very least, in narrative form. Palestine’s pen has done more than its fair share of imagining and offering alternatives. Now the responsibility falls upon every human being with a conscience and an ounce of humanity to demand immediately and unequivocally the physical survival of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, and to insist upon the right of Palestinians in diaspora to return to their homeland.

The era of unjust swords must end.

 

Mai Al-Nakib

Mai Al-Nakib was born in Kuwait and spent the first six years of her life in London, Edinburgh, and St. Louis, Missouri. Mai holds a PhD in English literature from Brown University and, for twenty years, taught English and Comparative Literature as... Read more

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Fairouz: The Peacemaker and Champion of Palestine

1 OCTOBER 2023 • By Dima Issa
Fairouz: The Peacemaker and Champion of Palestine
Art & Photography

Adel Abidin, October 2023

1 OCTOBER 2023 • By TMR
Adel Abidin, October 2023
Book Reviews

Saqi’s Revenant: Sahar Khalifeh’s Classic Nablus Novel Wild Thorns

25 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Noshin Bokth
Saqi’s Revenant: Sahar Khalifeh’s Classic Nablus Novel <em>Wild Thorns</em>
Book Reviews

Laila Halaby’s The Weight of Ghosts is a Haunting Memoir

28 AUGUST 2023 • By Thérèse Soukar Chehade
Laila Halaby’s <em>The Weight of Ghosts</em> is a Haunting Memoir
Book Reviews

What’s the Solution for Jews and Palestine in the Face of Apartheid Zionism?

21 AUGUST 2023 • By Jonathan Ofir
What’s the Solution for Jews and Palestine in the Face of Apartheid Zionism?
Book Reviews

Ilan Pappé on Tahrir Hamdi’s Imagining Palestine

7 AUGUST 2023 • By Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé on Tahrir Hamdi’s <em> Imagining Palestine</em>
Poetry

Three Poems from Pantea Amin Tofangchi’s Glazed With War

3 AUGUST 2023 • By Pantea Amin Tofangchi
Three Poems from Pantea Amin Tofangchi’s <em>Glazed With War</em>
Art

What Palestine Brings to the World—a Major Paris Exhibition

31 JULY 2023 • By Sasha Moujaes
<em>What Palestine Brings to the World</em>—a Major Paris Exhibition
Book Reviews

Can the Kurdish Women’s Movement Transform the Middle East?

31 JULY 2023 • By Matt Broomfield
Can the Kurdish Women’s Movement Transform the Middle East?
Book Reviews

Why Isn’t Ghaith Abdul-Ahad a Household Name?

10 JULY 2023 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Why Isn’t Ghaith Abdul-Ahad a Household Name?
Opinion

The End of the Palestinian State? Jenin Is Only the Beginning

10 JULY 2023 • By Yousef M. Aljamal
The End of the Palestinian State? Jenin Is Only the Beginning
Fiction

Tears from a Glass Eye—a story by Samira Azzam

2 JULY 2023 • By Samira Azzam, Ranya Abdelrahman
Tears from a Glass Eye—a story by Samira Azzam
Editorial

EARTH: Our Only Home

4 JUNE 2023 • By Jordan Elgrably
EARTH: Our Only Home
Arabic

Arab Theatre Grapples With Climate Change, Borders, War & Love

4 JUNE 2023 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
Arab Theatre Grapples With Climate Change, Borders, War & Love
Essays

Alien Entities in the Desert

4 JUNE 2023 • By Dror Shohet
Alien Entities in the Desert
Featured Artist

Nasrin Abu Baker: The Markaz Review Featured Artist, June 2023

4 JUNE 2023 • By TMR
Nasrin Abu Baker: The Markaz Review Featured Artist, June 2023
Book Reviews

How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town

15 MAY 2023 • By Karim Kattan
How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town
TMR Conversations

TMR CONVERSATIONS: Amal Ghandour Interviews Raja Shehadeh

11 MAY 2023 • By Amal Ghandour, Raja Shehadeh
TMR CONVERSATIONS: Amal Ghandour Interviews Raja Shehadeh
Opinion

Nurredin Amro’s Epic Battle to Save His Home From Demolition

24 APRIL 2023 • By Nora Lester Murad
Nurredin Amro’s Epic Battle to Save His Home From Demolition
Essays

When a Country is not a Country—the Chimera of Borders

17 APRIL 2023 • By Ara Oshagan
When a Country is not a Country—the Chimera of Borders
Essays

Artsakh and the Truth About the Legend of Monte Melkonian

17 APRIL 2023 • By Seta Kabranian-Melkonian
Artsakh and the Truth About the Legend of Monte Melkonian
Beirut

Tel Aviv-Beirut, a Film on War, Love & Borders

20 MARCH 2023 • By Karim Goury
<em>Tel Aviv-Beirut</em>, a Film on War, Love & Borders
Book Reviews

In Search of Fathers: Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Memoir

13 MARCH 2023 • By Amal Ghandour
In Search of Fathers: Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Memoir
Centerpiece

Broken Home: Britain in the Time of Migration

5 MARCH 2023 • By Malu Halasa
Broken Home: Britain in the Time of Migration
Essays

More Photographs Taken From The Pocket of a Dead Arab

5 MARCH 2023 • By Saeed Taji Farouky
More Photographs Taken From The Pocket of a Dead Arab
Essays

Home Under Siege: a Palestine Photo Essay

5 MARCH 2023 • By Anam Raheem
Home Under Siege: a Palestine Photo Essay
Fiction

“Holy Land”—short fiction from Asim Rizki

27 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Asim Rizki
“Holy Land”—short fiction from Asim Rizki
Book Reviews

Yemen War Survivors Speak in What Have You Left Behind?

20 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Saliha Haddad
Yemen War Survivors Speak in <em>What Have You Left Behind?</em>
Beirut

Arab Women’s War Stories, Oral Histories from Lebanon

13 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Evelyne Accad
Arab Women’s War Stories, Oral Histories from Lebanon
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Deluge at Wadi Feynan

6 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Deluge at Wadi Feynan
TV Review

Palestinian Territories Under Siege But Season 4 of Fauda Goes to Brussels and Beirut Instead

6 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Brett Kline
Palestinian Territories Under Siege But Season 4 of <em>Fauda</em> Goes to Brussels and Beirut Instead
Art

The Creative Resistance in Palestinian Art

26 DECEMBER 2022 • By Malu Halasa
The Creative Resistance in Palestinian Art
Book Reviews

Mohamed Makhzangi Despairs at Man’s Cruelty to Animals

26 DECEMBER 2022 • By Saliha Haddad
Mohamed Makhzangi Despairs at Man’s Cruelty to Animals
Art

Art World Picks: Albraehe, Kerem Yavuz, Zeghidour, Amer & Tatah

12 DECEMBER 2022 • By TMR
Art

Museums in Exile—MO.CO’s show for Chile, Sarajevo & Palestine

12 DECEMBER 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Museums in Exile—MO.CO’s show for Chile, Sarajevo & Palestine
Art

Where is the Palestinian National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art?

12 DECEMBER 2022 • By Nora Ounnas Leroy
Where is the Palestinian National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art?
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 3

5 DECEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 3
Book Reviews

Fida Jiryis on Palestine in Stranger in My Own Land

28 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Diana Buttu
Fida Jiryis on Palestine in <em>Stranger in My Own Land</em>
Fiction

“Eleazar”—a short story by Karim Kattan

15 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Karim Kattan
“Eleazar”—a short story by Karim Kattan
Opinion

Fragile Freedom, Fragile States in the Muslim World

24 OCTOBER 2022 • By I. Rida Mahmood
Fragile Freedom, Fragile States in the Muslim World
Editorial

You Don’t Have to Be A Super Hero to Be a Heroine

15 OCTOBER 2022 • By TMR
You Don’t Have to Be A Super Hero to Be a Heroine
Interviews

Interview with Ahed Tamimi, an Icon of the Palestinian Resistance

15 OCTOBER 2022 • By Nora Lester Murad
Interview with Ahed Tamimi, an Icon of the Palestinian Resistance
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 1

26 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 1
Film

Ziad Kalthoum: Trajectory of a Syrian Filmmaker

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Viola Shafik
Ziad Kalthoum: Trajectory of a Syrian Filmmaker
Columns

Phoneless in Filthy Berlin

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Maisan Hamdan, Rana Asfour
Phoneless in Filthy Berlin
Art & Photography

Photographer Mohamed Badarne (Palestine) and his U48 Project

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Viola Shafik
Photographer Mohamed Badarne (Palestine) and his U48 Project
Columns

A Palestinian Musician Thrives in France: Yousef Zayed’s Journey

22 AUGUST 2022 • By Melissa Chemam
A Palestinian Musician Thrives in France: Yousef Zayed’s Journey
Art

Abundant Middle Eastern Talent at the ’22 Avignon Theatre Fest

18 JULY 2022 • By Nada Ghosn
Abundant Middle Eastern Talent at the ’22 Avignon Theatre Fest
Editorial

Editorial: Is the World Driving Us Mad?

15 JULY 2022 • By TMR
Editorial: Is the World Driving Us Mad?
Film Reviews

War and Trauma in Yemen: Asim Abdulaziz’s “1941”

15 JULY 2022 • By Farah Abdessamad
War and Trauma in Yemen: Asim Abdulaziz’s “1941”
Book Reviews

A Poet and Librarian Catalogs Life in Gaza

20 JUNE 2022 • By Eman Quotah
A Poet and Librarian Catalogs Life in Gaza
Art & Photography

Featured Artist: Steve Sabella, Beyond Palestine

15 JUNE 2022 • By TMR
Featured Artist: Steve Sabella, Beyond Palestine
Essays

Sulafa Zidani: “Three Buses and the Rhythm of Remembering”

15 JUNE 2022 • By Sulafa Zidani
Sulafa Zidani: “Three Buses and the Rhythm of Remembering”
Film

Saeed Taji Farouky: “Strange Cities Are Familiar”

15 JUNE 2022 • By Saeed Taji Farouky
Saeed Taji Farouky: “Strange Cities Are Familiar”
Fiction

Selma Dabbagh: “Trash”

15 JUNE 2022 • By Selma Dabbagh
Selma Dabbagh: “Trash”
Film

Art Film Depicts the Landlocked Drama of Nagorno-Karabakh

2 MAY 2022 • By Taline Voskeritchian
Art Film Depicts the Landlocked Drama of Nagorno-Karabakh
Opinion

Palestinians and Israelis Will Commemorate the Nakba Together

25 APRIL 2022 • By Rana Salman, Yonatan Gher
Palestinians and Israelis Will Commemorate the Nakba Together
Columns

Green Almonds in Ramallah

15 APRIL 2022 • By Wafa Shami
Green Almonds in Ramallah
Columns

Libyan, Palestinian and Syrian Family Dinners in London

15 APRIL 2022 • By Layla Maghribi
Libyan, Palestinian and Syrian Family Dinners in London
Film Reviews

Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon

21 MARCH 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s <em>Huda’s Salon</em>
Opinion

U.S. Sanctions Russia for its Invasion of Ukraine; Now Sanction Israel for its Occupation of Palestine

21 MARCH 2022 • By Yossi Khen, Jeff Warner
U.S. Sanctions Russia for its Invasion of Ukraine; Now Sanction Israel for its Occupation of Palestine
Columns

Nowruz and The Sins of the New Day

21 MARCH 2022 • By Maha Tourbah
Nowruz and The Sins of the New Day
Art

Fiction: “Skin Calluses” by Khalil Younes

15 MARCH 2022 • By Khalil Younes
Fiction: “Skin Calluses” by Khalil Younes
Columns

“There’s Nothing Worse Than War”

24 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
“There’s Nothing Worse Than War”
Fiction

Fiction from “Free Fall”: I fled the city as a murderer whose crime had just been uncovered

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Abeer Esber, Nouha Homad
Fiction from “Free Fall”: I fled the city as a murderer whose crime had just been uncovered
Book Reviews

Temptations of the Imagination: how Jana Elhassan and Samar Yazbek transmogrify the world

10 JANUARY 2022 • By Rana Asfour
Temptations of the Imagination: how Jana Elhassan and Samar Yazbek transmogrify the world
Fiction

Three Levantine Tales

15 DECEMBER 2021 • By Nouha Homad
Three Levantine Tales
Beirut

Sudden Journeys: The Villa Salameh Bequest

29 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: The Villa Salameh Bequest
Featured article

Killing Olive Trees Fails to Push Palestinians Out

15 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Basil Al-Adraa
Killing Olive Trees Fails to Push Palestinians Out
Centerpiece

The Untold Story of Zakaria Zubeidi

15 OCTOBER 2021 • By Ramzy Baroud
The Untold Story of Zakaria Zubeidi
Film Reviews

Will Love Triumph in the Midst of Gaza’s 14-Year Siege?

11 OCTOBER 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
Will Love Triumph in the Midst of Gaza’s 14-Year Siege?
Art

Malak Mattar — Gaza Artist and Survivor

14 JULY 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
Malak Mattar — Gaza Artist and Survivor
Columns

The Semantics of Gaza, War and Truth

14 JULY 2021 • By Mischa Geracoulis
The Semantics of Gaza, War and Truth
Essays

Gaza, You and Me

14 JULY 2021 • By Abdallah Salha
Gaza, You and Me
Book Reviews

ISIS and the Absurdity of War in the Age of Twitter

4 JULY 2021 • By Jessica Proett
ISIS and the Absurdity of War in the Age of Twitter
Weekly

Palestine in the World: “Palestine: A Socialist Introduction”

6 JUNE 2021 • By Jenine Abboushi
Palestine in the World: “Palestine: A Socialist Introduction”
Book Reviews

The Triumph of Love and the Palestinian Revolution

16 MAY 2021 • By Fouad Mami
Art

The Murals of Yemen’s Haifa Subay

14 MAY 2021 • By Farah Abdessamad
The Murals of Yemen’s Haifa Subay
Essays

Is Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, Too, Occupied Territory?

14 MAY 2021 • By Taylor Miller, TMR
Is Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, Too, Occupied Territory?
Essays

Between Thorns and Thistles in Bil’in

14 MAY 2021 • By Francisco Letelier
Between Thorns and Thistles in Bil’in
Weekly

“I Advance in Defeat”, the Poems of Najwan Darwish

28 MARCH 2021 • By Patrick James Dunagan
“I Advance in Defeat”, the Poems of Najwan Darwish
TMR 7 • Truth?

Poetry Against the State

14 MARCH 2021 • By Gil Anidjar
Poetry Against the State
Poetry

A visual poem from Hala Alyan: Gaza

14 MARCH 2021 • By TMR
A visual poem from Hala Alyan: Gaza
Book Reviews

The Howling of the Dog: Adania Shibli’s “Minor Detail”

30 DECEMBER 2020 • By Layla AlAmmar
The Howling of the Dog: Adania Shibli’s “Minor Detail”
TMR 4 • Small & Indie Presses

Children of the Ghetto, My Name Is Adam

14 DECEMBER 2020 • By Elias Khoury
Children of the Ghetto, My Name Is Adam
Centerpiece

The Road to Jerusalem, Then and Now

15 NOVEMBER 2020 • By Raja Shehadeh
The Road to Jerusalem, Then and Now
World Picks

Interlink Proposes 4 New Arab Novels

22 SEPTEMBER 2020 • By TMR
Interlink Proposes 4 New Arab Novels

2 thoughts on “Palestine’s Pen against Israel’s Swords of Injustice”

  1. This is such a brilliant piece! We need voices like this now! Just, resonant, moral, sharp, urgent, penetrating and powerful. Thank you Mai Al-Nakib.

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