“If I die, you will have to live to tell my story,” wrote Refaat Alareer. It is an imperative fulfilled. A year after the disappearance of the Gazan poet, killed in an Israeli army strike, his former student Yousef M. Aljamal gets his wish. He who survived broadcasts the voice of his teacher through a posthumous book composed of texts that he compiled. If I Must Die (“If I Have to Die”), published in English on December 3, is “much more than a collection in the form of a tribute, it is a work which revives and celebrates what Israel has not succeeded in destroying: an independent, indomitable and profoundly human Palestinian voice”, estimates the pan-Arab site The New Arab.
The title of this book became a slogan of protests against the war in Gaza following the death of the poet and English teacher who inspired generations of Gazans. The American publishing house Or Books is publishing this collection – currently unpublished in French – including extracts from blogs, conferences and interviews, as well as essays and poems written between 2010 and 2023.
The author recounts the life of his compatriots under occupation and violent Israeli bombings, throughout wars that “have reduced the lives of Gazans to a form of survival full of dignity, tinged with political awareness and fierce resistance”, writes again New Arab. And Refaat Alareer delivers reflections on the moral and political bankruptcy of Western and Arab powers.
A moving story
“The pages devoted to his family life, his role as a father and the insoluble dilemmas that arise from it (should we all sleep in the same room at the risk of dying together? And if the last words addressed to his children were to ask them to ration food?) are among the most upsetting. Particularly for all those who refuse to recognize the human rights of Palestinian men, and believe that only women and children should be considered civilians. comment on New Arab.
[…] Read more on International Mail
On the same subject:
France
Books
Related News :