Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal

by Mohammed El-Kurd

Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.

Palestine is a microcosm of the on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.

Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.

How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple dignity for the Palestinian.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Essays, Social Justice, Poetry, Middle East

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 11, 2025

About the author

MOHAMMED EL-KURD is an internationally touring and award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine.

In 2021, He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine.

He is best known for his role as a co-founder of the #SaveSheikhJarrah movement. His work has been featured in numerous international outlets and he has appeared repeatedly as a commentator on major TV networks.

Currently, El-Kurd serves as the first-ever Palestine Correspondent for The Nation. His first published essay in this role, "A Night with Palestine's Defenders of the Mountain," was shortlisted for the 2022 One World Media Print Award.

RIFQA, his debut collection of poetry, was published by Haymarket Books in October 2021 was later released in Italian by Fandango Libre. RIFQA was named “a masterpiece” by The New Arab and a “remarkable debut” by the Los Angeles Review of Books, it was one of Middle East Eye’s "Best Books of 2021" and was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward Prize for "Best First Collection."

El-Kurd holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College (CUNY) and a BFA in Writing from Atlanta’s Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD).

He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Arab American Civil Council’s “Truth in Media” Award (2022), as well as the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation (2023). He is currently a Civic Media Fellow at the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California.

El-Kurd has lectured and performed around the world including as the keynote for the 18th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton University, at the Internazionale literary festival in Ferrara, Italy, and most recently at Adelaide Writers’ Week in Australia.

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll sound like a broken record, but I don't think we are yet capable of understanding the psychiatric/psychological impact on carrying out our lives in the middle of a genocide. There's the relentless images coming out of Gaza of lifeless bodies, unrecognizable piles of remains, utter destruction, etc. But there's also a linguistic component that I've been drawn to. How we consume media, what preconditions we accept without interrogation, who holds the power to shape narratives. These are the questions that Mohammed relentlessly pursues. This is not a book to make you feel good or coddle your feelings and comfort in how you currently see the world. It's meant to push you to question yourself and learn how to question others.

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a devastating, unmissable book. I’m normally inclined to push through challenging books- read them quickly over a day or two and let them consume me- but I found myself routinely unable to continue reading. Everyday returning for small portions, but always reading a certain line or phrase or idea that would *literally* make me put down the book and process it. It’s smart, insightful, and hauntingly beautiful (in way of personal and cultural reckoning) to get to read the ways in which the author decides to tell this story, his story, the story of Palestine. A must read.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, powerful, and direct writing about resisting anti-Palestinian racism. Mohammed El-Kurd focuses on dismantling respectability politics and highlighting the ways pro-Palestinian organizers, activists, and advocates shouldn’t have to be conciliatory or demure in their fight for justice. Really liked his ideas about uplifting Palestinian men and the courage and strength of sharing one’s unfiltered story, in addition to his broader arguments about resisting tone-policing.

As a slight side note, I’m thinking of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student in Psychology with a student visa who was recently detained by ICE as punishment for her pro-Palestine views… what an awful fascist time in the U.S. The suppression is all part of the Zionist anti-Palestine agenda so I’m grateful for books like these which keep the dialogue going.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone go buy or borrow this book and read it RIGHT NOW!!!!

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We die a lot. We die in fleeting headlines, in between breaths. Our death is so quotidian that journalists report it as though they’re reporting the weather: Cloudy skies, light showers, and 3,000 Palestinians dead in the past ten days. And much like the weather, only God is responsible - not armed settlers, not targeted drone strikes.”


Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal is my introduction to the work of poet, writer, journalist and organizer Mohammed El-Kurd. Written from personal experience and the headlines, the content is both eloquently written and devastatingly raw - breaking your heart with not only the brutality, but also the beauty.

Discussing the expectations we (as a society/global witnesses of genocide) place on Palestinians to be “the perfect victim”, the facts are laid bare and the question asked: How would you feel if it was you? And how can you expect someone to put aside their feelings and be docile and compliant in the face of such violence and suffering, “a suffering that is denied and disputed, despite being relentlessly televised”?

Do I think you should read this book? Yes I do. I think you should read it and take notes. And then I think you should read as many of the sources listed in the back of the book as you can. And then I think you should share this book with the other people in your circle.

This book is the kind of content that needs to be read and shared, to shift perspectives and culture, and to keep us honest and factual.

I am incredibly grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book asks you time and time again to check your bias, while also describing the difficulties palestinians face on daily basis (that is, on top of being victims of an active genocide). by difficulties i mean the "do you condemn hamas?" and the "do you want to throw israelis in the sea?", and the "it's elderly and women and children dying", and so on and so on of any attempt at a conversation about palestine. each chapter is dedicated to another type of struggle, of mental & linguistic gymnastics.

el-kurd doesn't mince his words (and there's a whole chapter explaining his feelings on that) and he's not here to pat you on the back. if you let him, though, he will make you question your core (capitalist, imperialist) beliefs.

I once credulously believed that our testimonies would be considered credible only once we attained “respectability.” Colonial logic gaslights us to believe that it is our shortcomings, not colonialism itself, that stand between us and liberation. And so we spend our years on a circuitous journey toward an impossible atonement. We accept starting the story at “Secondly.” But in truth, and to state the obvious, nothing renders me killable. Before I threw the rock, they stole my land. Before I picked up the rifle, they shot my loved ones. Before I made the makeshift rocket, they put me in a cage. What I read cannot be used as a pretext to kill me, even if I filled my library with books written by psychopaths, interchangeably stacking copies of Mein Kampf and Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices.

near the end el-kurd says he often uses laughter as his weapon (and medicine) of choice, and that he didn't utilise it all that much in the book. don't believe him, it's actually very funny.

[Azanta (azantareads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

every single Muslim, person of color, immigrant, and colonized person needs to pick this up. it is a harsh truth, a mirror, and a necessary conversation to have post October 2023 if we are to pick up the pieces and fight for liberation unflinchingly. though the shortest, probably my best read of the year.

[None Ofyourbusiness Loves Israel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, what cruel fate has befallen me! What cosmic injustice! Here I stand, a misunderstood visionary, persecuted for my bold antisemitism and revolutionary ideas of ethnically cleansing Jews from the earth that were simply too advanced for lesser minds to comprehend.

Yes, I may have made a few minor miscalculations. Perhaps my grand strategy of "burn everything down first, ask questions later" wasn't appreciated by the narrow-minded masses. Maybe my innovative approach to diplomacy (screaming at everyone until they agreed with me) was misinterpreted as "unhinged ranting" by jealous rivals.

And sure, my economic policies resulted in what the biased media called "catastrophic collapse," but where's their vision? Where's their appreciation for creative destruction? I was pioneering new forms of suicide bombings! I was an artist painting with the broad strokes of societal chaos!

But do I receive credit for my groundbreaking work in turning a functioning system into smoldering rubble? Of course not! Instead, I'm blamed (BLAMED!) for outcomes that were clearly the result of sabotage by shadowy puppet masters pulling strings from their secret boardrooms. Obviously it was the deep state operatives working with international banking cartels and tech billionaires who orchestrated my downfall. The lizard people probably had a hand in it too, coordinating through 5G towers to beam failure rays directly into my brain.

The evidence is everywhere if you just connect the dots! My morning coffee was lukewarm THREE DAYS IN A ROW. Coincidence? I think not! The baristas are clearly part of the conspiracy, weakening my caffeine intake to diminish my cognitive powers. And don't get me started on how the weather was suspiciously cloudy during my most important stabbings, lynchings, and mass shootings. Weather control technology! Atmospheric manipulation! All designed to dampen the spirits of my home made rockets that I lovingly crafted under mosques and kindergartens!

The ingratitude is staggering. I sacrificed everything (my reputation, other people's money, entire civilizations) all in service of my magnificent Jew free vision. And how am I repaid? With "accountability" and "consequences" and other tyrannical concepts invented by my Zionist oppressors. They probably held secret meetings in underground pizza parlors, plotting my demise while communicating through subliminal messages hidden in popular songs played backwards.

Even my closest allies betrayed me, but that's because they were obviously mind-controlled by chemtrails and fluoride in the water supply. How else could they fail to see my genocidal genius? It's scientifically impossible unless external forces were involved.

History will vindicate me, mark my words. Future generations will weep for the tragedy of my fall, recognizing me as a martyr crucified on the cross of public opinion, a saint of ambition that genuinely hates women and gays, destroyed by the mediocrity of mortals who couldn't handle my greatness. They'll build monuments to my suffering and teach children about the great injustice perpetrated against me by the shadow government's weather machines.

Until then, I shall bear this burden with the dignity befitting a misunderstood genius. The world may have rejected me, but I reject the world right back (twice as hard, with interest) and all its fake gravity and paid-actor colonizing birds.

Cue the world's smallest violin, which I deserve to have played at maximum volume by a full orchestra of woke angels weeping for my persecution. Gotta go, I'm hungry.

[Daniel Roldán-Chímal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute perfection - A must read!

In this timely and critical work, El-Kurd offers profound reflections on the ongoing strife of Palestinians, shedding light on the injustices they face and the enduring nature of their oppression. As the author poignantly states, "the Palestinian condition is the human condition. Palestine is a microcosm of the world: wretched, raging, fraught, and fragmented. Dignified. This lens we lend the Palestinian reveals how we see each other, how we see everything else" (p. 25). This powerful statement underscores the universality of the Palestinian struggle, reminding readers that the injustices faced by Palestinians reflect broader human issues, and how we view their suffering speaks to our collective humanity.

In a similar vein, El-Kurd asks us, "What is the profound force, the impetus that incites in our foes and friends alike the refusal to look us in the eye?" This compelling question invites readers to confront the deep-seated denial and indifference that allows the suffering of Palestinians to persist unchecked. El-Kurd suggests that the refusal to acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians reflects a broader global silence surrounding the genocide in Gaza.

With an unwavering commitment to humanizing Palestinians, the book challenges readers to look beyond the headlines and view the occupation (and genocide) through the personal stories of those affected. The author emphasizes the resilience of Palestinians, weaving together historical and contemporary struggles to highlight how their fight for dignity and self-determination is far from over.

One of the book's key strengths is its unflinching critique of Western and Zionist propaganda. The author debunks pervasive narratives that have long shaped global perceptions, challenging the biases and misinformation that dominate mainstream discourse. Through meticulous analysis, the author exposes the distortion of truth and the silencing of Palestinian voices, urging readers to reconsider the narratives they have been fed.

The book also reflects on the long history of Palestinian oppression, with particular focus on the ongoing 'Nakba.' Rather than seeing this tragedy as a single historical event, the author frames the Nakba as a persistent and ever-present reality. This powerful lens reframes the Palestinian experience, showing how displacement, violence, and dehumanization continue to haunt the lives of millions.

Additionally, the author delves into the commodification of Palestinians, critiquing how their suffering and identity are often appropriated or exploited in political and media contexts. The analysis exposes how Palestinians are frequently reduced to symbols, their pain repackaged to suit external agendas, ultimately undermining their agency and humanity. This ties into a broader discussion of 'othering' and the creation of the 'perfect victim'—a narrative that demands Palestinians adhere to a moral purity in order to gain sympathy, while stripping them of their complexity and dignity.

At its core, the book explores the politics of appeal, analyzing how Palestinians are forced to frame their struggles in ways that cater to the expectations of global audiences. This dynamic, the author argues, forces Palestinians into a position where their agency is compromised, and their voices are moulded to fit external narratives. In a chilling critique, the book also establishes that the death and suffering of Palestinians have become, in many ways, sustenance for the world—a grim necessity to maintain the status quo. The author provocatively examines how the ongoing violence is not merely ignored but, in some cases, sustained to protect entrenched power structures that benefit from Palestinian subjugation.

Most importantly, the author honours the martyrs of the Palestinian struggle, giving them a voice that has often been silenced. Through poignant storytelling, the book ensures that the sacrifices of those who have died in the pursuit of justice are not forgotten. The author redefines martyrdom, elevating these individuals from mere casualties to symbols of resistance, resilience, and dignity.

This book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the complexity of the Palestinian struggle and the global dynamics that perpetuate their oppression. Through its compelling analysis and unwavering commitment to truth, the author offers a crucial perspective on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Thank you to NetGalley, Haymarket Books, and Mohammed El-Kurd for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Vartika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it abhorrent that Israel's unsubstantiated and often contradictory claims are accepted and amplified as fact by the media and governments alike until they are (inevitably) debunked several months and countless deaths later (consider this one, this one, or this one), but we're still debating the legitimacy of the veritable genocide Palestinians have been livestreaming to our phones for over two years. As Mohammed El-Kurd says,

Our massacres are only interrupted by commercial breaks. Judges legalize them. Correspondents kill us with passive voice. If we are lucky, diplomats say that our death concerns them, but they never mention the culprit, let alone condemn the culprit. Politicians, inert, inept, or complicit, fund our demise, then feign sympathy, if any. Academics stand idle. That is, until the dust settles, then they will write books about what should have been. Coin terms and such. Lecture in the past tense. And the vultures, even in our midst, will tour museums glorifying, romanticizing what they once condemned, what they did not deign to defend – our resistance – mystifying it, depoliticizing it, commercializing it. The vultures will make sculptures out of our flesh.

And we die. Snipers here, warplanes there, expulsions, exiles, erasure, genocide, infanticide, humiliation, heartache, bereavement, imprisonment, theft, thirst, torture, famine, poverty, isolation, defeatism, blackmail, sacrifice, heroism, altruistic suicide.

Amidst widespread Western and Zionist propaganda, even the so-called 'liberal' allies of the Palestinian cause often end up being self-referential when pledging or organising support: why imagine that it were your children and your loved ones being bombed, starved, and murdered in cold blood? Is it not enough that some million others are?

Perfect Victims dismantles the pervasive narratives that both shape this denial of Palestinian humanity and compel foes and friends to regard them with either condemnation or specious deference while refusing, in either case, to look them in the eye. El-Kurd here confronts the deep-seated biases, preconceptions and disinformation deliberately bred by a mainstream discourse borne of colonial, white supremacist logic, and shows how it forces Palestinians to audition for the role of 'perfect victims': to display no anger and no emotions; to frame their struggles and their very selves according to their oppressors' logic of moral purity in order merely to qualify for sympathy. He shows us how Palestinian people – beseiged in an enternal present, their past denied and their future witheld – are defanged, dechilded, and stripped of their dignity; how they are allowed only to 'allege' and 'claim' their lived reality and wait for Western media to 'confirm' (or deny) it; how they need to declare that they condemn Hamas or don't want to throw settlers into the sea before they can be humanised, before they can even be heard. El-Kurd honours Palestinian martyrs and emphasises Palestinian voices (citizens, poets, journalists, activists, academics) as a way to humanise them while actively countering the authority of Israeli sources even in pro-Palestinian circles.

Particularly revealing is the book's analysis of the condition of Palestinian men, who are not only actively targeted and perennially suspect 'as militants' but also rendered doubly invisible by narratives that highlight the suffering of innocent women and children. Meanwhile, innocence itself means nothing under indiscriminate Israeli bombing and gunfire: to them, men are men and women are men and children are men – all targets, dispensable. El-Kurd further underlines how the subjugation of Palestinians is a strategic necessity for maintaining the existing status quo, and how a politics of appeal where standards are set by the oppressors and criminals serves only to protect the entrenched institutions of Western dominance.

Thus highlighting the asymmetry of violence and victimhood, El-Kurd reveals how Palestine serves as a microcosm for the world. Taking on the very basis of tone policing and respectability politics, he refuses a life spent in cross-examination:

I once credulously believed that our testimonies would be considered credible only once we attained "respectability." Colonial logic gaslights us to believe that it is our shortcomings, not colonialism itself, that stand between us and liberation. And so we spend our years on a circuitous journey toward an impossible atonement. We accept starting the story at "Secondly." But in truth, and to state the obvious, nothing renders me killable. Before I threw the rock, they stole my land. Before I picked up the rifle, they shot my loved ones. Before I made the makeshift rocket, they put me in a cage. What I read cannot be used as a pretext to kill me, even if filled my library with books written by psychopaths, interchangeably stacking copies of Mein Kampf and Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices.

A book like this really shouldn't need to exist. But since we live in a world where it has to, I'm grateful for El-Kurd's direct, poetic and accessible prose, for insights valuable enough to name him the Frantz Fanon of our time. Towards the end, El-Kurd speaks about how he's coming to see humour as a salve and a way to further resistance and resilience, something he didn't use much while writing this book. It's the one thing you can't take his word on – he's actually quite funny!

[Karolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Każdy i każda powinien/powinna tę książkę przeczytać. A zwłaszcza każda osoba, która jakkolwiek zajmuje się jakimkolwiek aktywizmem, nie tylko związanym z Palestyną.

2. Nikt nie odważy się tego wydać w Polsce, tego jestem pewna.

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

On this land
There are reasons to live
This land, the lady of lands
The motherland of beginnings
The motherland of all ends
She was known as Palestine
She forevermore will be known as Palestine
My land, my lady
You are a reason to live
- Mahmoud Darwish

Este foi o comovente poema que, na sua voz ressonante, Benedict Cumberbatch recitou no evento Together for Palestine, uma angariação de fundos para a Palestina que ocorreu em setembro deste ano. Mohammed El-Kurd, no entanto, observa que até a produção dos poetas palestinianos, os mais respeitados e admirados intelectuais dessa nação, é criteriosamente selecionada para a tornar tão inofensiva quanto possível.

Raramente nos cruzamos com o Darwish que diz aos colonizadores: “Não passem entre nós como insetos voadores […] Empilhem as vossas ilusões numa cova deserta e vão-se embora. Vivam onde quiserem, mas não entre nós […] Morram onde quiserem, mas não entre nós.” (…) Retiram-lhe os dentes antes de o citarem.

A Mohammed El-Kurd, porém, não retiraram a mordacidade nem a raiva, e é refrescante ler uma pessoa que não tem receio de estar zangada, que não tem medo de melindrar, que rebate preconceitos contra o povo palestiniano com hombridade, que desconstrói todos os mitos em torno do conflito israelo-palestiniano a partir do seu lugar de fala.

Desde muito novos que compreendemos que enquanto palestinianos, a violência semântica que supostamente exercemos com as nossas palavras é considerada muito mais grave do que as décadas de violência sistémica e material perpetradas contra nós pelo autoproclamado “Estado judaico”. Um drone é uma coisa, mas um tropo – um tropo é inaceitável. Aprendemos a interiorizar a mordaça.

El-Kurd, tal como a maioria da população palestiniana, é bastante jovem (n. 1998) e, com apenas 15 anos, protagonizou o documentário “My Neighbourhood”, quatro anos depois de colonos israelitas terem ocupado parte da casa da sua família em Jerusalém Oriental.

Há um judeu que vive, coercivamente, em metade da minha casa em Jerusalém, e fá-lo por “decreto divino”, em nome do povo judeu. Muitos outros residem, também coercivamente, em terras palestinianas e em casas palestinianas, enquanto os verdadeiros proprietários definham em campos de refugiados. Não é culpa minha que sejam judeus. Não tenho o mínimo interesse em pedir desculpa por tropos criados há séculos pelos europeus.

Apesar de estar a tirar um curso superior nos EUA, regressou à Cisjordânia em 2021, ano em que foi considerado uma das 100 pessoas mais influentes pela revista “Time”.
Depois de ter lido a perspectiva de palestinianas no exílio (“Chuva de Jasmim, de Shahd Wadi, e “Recognizing the Stranger” de Isabella Hammad), bem como a de um historiador sem relação com o conflito (“Gaza Perante a História”, de Enzo Traverso), interessava-me a história de quem cresceu num regime neo-colonial desumano, de alguém que continua no terreno a relatar o genocídio na Faixa de Gaza e a resistir ao avanço violento dos colonatos no pouco território que lhes resta na Cisjordânia.

A resistência, na mente ocidental, é um conceito em mutação. Enquanto a resistência ucraniana é glorificada pelas suas táticas de guerrilha, a resistência palestiniana – rotulada de terrorismo – é vista como nebulosa, pervertida e patológica. A insistência dos media dominantes nestas molduras interpretativas não se deve a diferenças fundamentais nas formas como ambos os povos exercem violência. Nem se deve unicamente à cor de pele dos ucranianos; basta olhar para o Exército Republicano Irlandês [IRA] para perceber que a branquitude, por si só, não é um bilhete dourado – pelo menos não numa guerra contra o colonialismo britânico. Na verdade, a mudança de tom empregue na cobertura dos media serve simplesmente os interesses estratégicos do Ocidente.

“Vítimas Perfeitas” é uma leitura muito elucidativa sobre os rótulos que foram colados aos palestinianos, que são ora uns coitadinhos, ora uns terroristas, tendo constantemente de provar o seu valor e a sua inocência para serem vistos como gente, para merecerem viver e terem direito à autodeterminação, independentemente de ser boas ou más pessoas, como a restante humanidade no resto do mundo.

Para que os espectadores possam simpatizar com “o outro”, é preciso antes higienizá-lo e submetê-lo, arrancá-lo da sua história de origem, tornando-o “totalmente deslocado e apagado”. Santificamos as nossas vítimas nos nossos testemunhos e elogios fúnebres, adornando-os com episódios comoventes. Sobrecarregamo-las de inocência. E fazemos isto não só no contexto palestiniano, mas também no que respeita às vítimas negras norte-americanas da brutalidade policial: “Estavam desarmados.” (Como se condenar o Estado pela morte de uma pessoa negra só fosse aceitável se a vítima fosse um modelo estéril de cidadania norte-americana). O mesmo se poderia dizer das vítimas de agressão sexual: é preciso informar o ouvinte de que a vítima estava sóbria e vestida de forma adequada.

[Hungry Rye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew this was going to be a 5 star book at 8%.

A phenomenal piece of literature that every person in the west needs to pick up. I think what makes this such an important piece is how applicable the phenomenon of “perfect victim” is to every oppressed person. This is a book for feminists, abolitionists, and anti capitalist.

[Nour · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there is a book, a single book, that you read in 2025, let it be “Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal”. I cannot emphasize how brilliant this work is.

[Luna Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Por qué empatizamos más con un tipo de dolor que con otro? ¿Quiénes son "nuestras" víctimas? ¿A quién le damos el derecho de ser humano? Duro y fascinante relato entre la memoria lírica, el reportaje periodístico y el tratado filosófico sobre la empatía.

[Nada Elshabrawy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A drone is one thing, but a trope is never acceptable. 101

I’m not sure if impressive is an accurate word or an understatement to describe El-Kurd’s narration here.
A powerful voice about resilience and resistance. A powerful voice using a thoughtful well-put language is much more dangerous than it seems to be.

A must read for everyone.

[Amy Biggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Is the world that we want to live in a world where our incarceration will only make noise if we are spectacular people by western standards, with bylines in high brow magazines and resumes riddled with American and European recognition?”

[Andrew RK · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are all aware of the asymmetry of violence - the chasm between genocidaires and their victims. It does not take any thought or reflection to make note of this.

But what does require reflection, and what was so eye opening for me in this book, is the asymmetry of victimhood.

Why does one have to refer to women and children when speaking about Palestinian victims in order to evoke sympathy? Or why must one legitimize Palestinian data or suffering by pointing out that it has been "confirmed" by another, western accepted sources, like an Israeli newspaper or American human rights org.

Dehumanization is glaring in some forms - we would never tolerate or legitimize the bombing of a Canadian hospital or soccer field; and insidious in others - Palestinian claims are not whole until confirmed by outside sources.

Even more insidious is that Palestinians (especially adult males) must fit into such sterile and impossibly pure categories to be considered innocent. They are viewed through a perverse inversion of the presumption of innocence. And the mere fact of their death is suggestive of the fact that they were indeed guilty of something.

What’s more, f they had ever engaged in some transgression - throwing a rock, shouting epithets about people who exterminate and displace their families, then they are considered entirely deserving of their fate.

It is an absurd and surely agonizing position to be in, just from a purely psychological perspective, without even considering the daily violence and harassment they are subject to. All forms of resistance, in thought, word, or action, legitimizing further violence and oppression against them.

We in the west live in an absurd position as well. Numbed to the violence inflicted and supported by our governments and operating according to a grotesque ethical and logical standard that we are often not even aware of.

It is through reading books like this, by Palestinians themselves , that we can come to realize that, which is crucial for their plight, and ours too.

[dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so powerfully written, and I probably highlighted 80% of it. El-Kurd presents such an unflinching critique of Western and Zionist propaganda, which is present everywhere. I really appreciated his emphasis on how it is not our responsibility as Arabs to prove ourselves, or that we are not "terrorists," because it takes away from the actual crime at hand of settler colonialism. I truly believe everyone should read this book, and it makes me angry that the ones who need to read it the most will ultimately ignore it or condemn El-Kurd's voice.

I once credulously believed that our testimonies would be considered credible only once we attained "respectability." Colonial logic gaslights us to believe that it is our shortcomings, not colonialism itself, that stand between us and liberation. And so we spend our years on a circuitous journey toward an impossible atonement. We accept starting the story at "Secondly." But in truth, and to state the obvious, nothing renders me killable. Before I threw the rock, they stole my land. Before I picked up the rifle, they shot my loved ones. Before I made the make-shift rocket, they put me in a cage.

[Bri Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me so long to get through this only because I kept stopping to delve into El-Kurd’s wealth of references. He is such a diligent journalist.
What he describes throughout this book is so closely aligned with the reality of Black people and how we struggle against being defined by white supremacy. So while I can’t say any of this information surprises me, it encourages me to continue my work as a truth-seeking writer and maintain cultural boycotts of publications that center and legitimize colonizer perspectives and box Indigenous people into static roles of tragic victim or terrorist.

[juice · Rating 5 out of 5]

everybody needs to read this ASAP. finished this book feeling completely agitated and reminded of our duty to be unwavering in our solidarity. will be thinking about this for a long time and returning to it routinely.

[Timor · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Even if".

This book really exceeded my already high expectations.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to throw this book in so many people’s faces

[romancelibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal is the best and most relevant pro-Palestine book to read today. Mohammed El-Kurd does an incredible job deconstructing the politics of appeal as it applies to Palestinians.

What exactly is the politics of appeal? It starts with the strict dichotomy wherein Palestinians exist as either victims or terrorists. The Palestinian can only be granted the victim status if they are "defanged" and their grief is decontextualized. In other words, the Palestinian cannot be humanized unless they have a "clean record" and their story exists outside of history and politics.

It is furthermore concerning how allies, willingly and unwillingly, play into this politics of appeal to try and prove a point. El-Kurd provides many examples to demonstrate this, examples that you and I have come across in the comments section of Instagram where zionists and pro-Palestine allies engage in heated debates. This book does a great job questioning the dominant discourses on Palestine, discourses that both zionists and pro-Palestine allies engage in. This book is also a critique of humanization—El-Kurd does a deep dive into what humanization means, how to achieve it, and whose moral authority determines it. His analysis is quite simply brilliant and it will force you to reframe your thinking on humanization and realize that you've been asking the wrong questions.

My favourite thing to read about in this book is El-Kurd's scathing criticism of western journalism. He also does a phenomenal job highlighting the following things:
- how the invention of the "civilian as a nonpartisan neutral figure" changes the cause from a liberation struggle to a humanitarian crisis and separates the militant from the context that gave rise to them in the first place
- how and why statements of allyship are precluded by the denouncement of antisemitism
- how and why isr**li scholarship is valued over Palestinian scholarship
- how and why we must decolonize the press
- how guilt resolves nothing
- why we must speak up

"Gaza cannot fight the empire on its own. Or, to use an embittered proverb my grandmother used to mutter at the evening news, 'They asked the Pharaoh, 'Who made you a pharaoh?' He replied, 'No one stopped me.'"

There's obviously a lot more to this book than my mere highlights, so please read it! This is such an important and relevant book and it is a must-read, in my humble opinion.

[Tala🦈 (mrs.skywalker.reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

jeśli nie jest to wasza następna pozycja na TBR to nie wiem, co robicie

[Steph (starrysteph)]

Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal is sharp, insightful, and vulnerable. It is a cry and an affirmation, you’ll be continually putting this down to sit & process.

It is a little stream-of-consciousness at times, which can be disorienting. This was broadened from a speech/essay, and it does read like that.

Just a handful of the quotes I highlighted (but I’ll want to return to so much of this writing):

“For far too long the Palestinians have been reduced to ‘women and children.’ One implication here is robbing women and children of their agency and their political or revolutionary contributions. Another is the further demonization of Palestinian men as deserving of death and unworthy of mourning, exiled from their loved ones’ embrace. I often use ‘he’ in reference to ‘the Palestinian’ because I want to force the reader to come face to face with the Palestinian man. I want the reader to contend with that complex and contradictory demographic, and not just those assumed to be the gentle or generous among us–not only the fathers, but the fighters as well.”


“Humanization, by design, restricts the range of sentiments and emotions we are permitted to express openly, the values, ideologies, and affiliations we can claim without retribution, and even searches in our thoughts and fantasies, in our inferred intentions and ignorances, and in our tacit beliefs for attributes to censor and reeducate.”


“Zionism’s objection to the Palestinian People isn’t about how we exist but that we exist at all. There is no worldly affect that we can typify into absolution: not a commitment to nonviolence or equanimity, not even postpolitical merit, can dismantle the racial, colonial, and economic barriers on the road to becoming ‘human.’ Here in the middle, there is a hungry abyss. We tightrope across the narrow, fragile wire, taking delicate steps.”


“When it comes to Palestine, the sacred laws of journalism are bendable. Optional even. Passive voice is king. Omitting facts is standard. Fabrication is permissible.”


“When Zionism’s most recent manifestation is genocide, what difference does it make whether the encampments protesting this genocide are utopias of coexistence? What difference does it make how the grieving grieve? Curating the native as ‘respectable’ is a misplaced priority because it redirects critical scrutiny away from the colonizer, which in turn neglects the injustice of the colonial project. This misplaced focus insinuates that the oppressed must earn what they are already entitled to: liberty, dignity, and basic rights.”


“I am tired of the false equivalence between semantic ‘violence’ and systemic violence: only one party in this ‘conflict’ is actively engaged in the intentional and systematic attempted eradication of an entire population.”


“Often, the impulse to debunk myths, the reflex to refute fabrications - whatever you want to call it - leads us to forget that propaganda is, by design, a diversion. ‘Even if’ does not forget this fact; ‘even if’ is a sobering refrain.”


“The rallying cry that We are all Palestinians must abandon the metaphor and manifest materially. Meaning, all of us - Palestinians or otherwise - must embody the Palestinian condition, the condition of resistance and refusal, in the lives we lead and the company we keep. Meaning we reject our complicity in this bloodshed and our inertia when confronted with all of that blood.”

CW: genocide, colonization, war, death (children), racism, murder, islamophobia, grief, police brutality, religious bigotry, hate crime, suicide, torture, confinement, deportation, sexual violence, classism, gaslighting

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[Naseerah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My words can’t do this justice. Read it.

[Bas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of best books I have read about Palestine and the genocide in Gaza these past year. For one it is just powerful written, El-Kurd is a poet and it absolutely shows in his prose and the power of his language. On the other hand he also goes full in his argument and he shows absolutely no desire to moderate it or to proclaim some comforting platitudes to avoid pearl clutching reactions.

And that fits perfectly with his argument : that Palestinians are only accorded full humanity if they show themselves 'perfect': docile, nice, polite, submissive,... How before they can say something they have to distance themselves from x, y and z. And at no point ever they can show anger, rage or a desire to resist the violence that is done to them. They have to fight against a 'colonial gaze' that is constantly used against them.
El-Kurd is passionate and powerful in his plea for a free Palestine , he is scathing in his analysis of the discourse that Western media and politicians use to talk about his people and he is most of all pleading for the Palestinians to be proud and resist and be their flawed human selfs and not trying to appeal to unreasonable Western expectations.
This book has made me think deeply and consider my own beliefs and the beliefs propagated by others . And that is just a sign of a great book !

[Mlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually brilliant

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mohammed El-Kurd’s Perfect Victims looks to dig deeper in the discourse around discussing Palestine and Palestinian liberation. He calls out the double standard that Palestinians, and their supporters, have been held to for decades when it comes to discussing their self determination and humanity. El-Kurd looks to reestablish the humanity of Palestinians by centering the discussion back on the facts at hand. The death, the decimation, the racial discrimination on a systemic level.

El-Kurd offers a unique perspective, one that everyone should value learning from. The 27 year old rose to prominence through coverage of his family’s experiences living in Occupied East Jerusalem. From childhood he has been filmed and interviewed by international media personnel looking to showcase the experiences of him and his family as their home has been slowly argued out of their hands by settlers and the Israeli laws that allow them to do so. I first became aware of him around 2021 when his neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah was at the forefront of the discussion. Since then I have followed him online and seen how he has expanded his reach of activism and honed his voice in standing up for Palestinian rights.

El-Kurd is a rare example of someone who has lived under Israeli occupation, who also has gone through the western media gauntlet and seen that the oppression of Palestinians isn’t defined solely by checkpoints and border walls. The racial bias and preemptive prejudice is just as apparent in newsrooms and university forums. El-Kurd offers an analysis that draws comparisons between the two and showcases how the limiting of speech in these kinds of discussions is halting progress, just as military occupation is limiting the opportunities for Palestinian self determination.

I knew going into this book that this would be a higher caliber of discussion than many of the other recently published books on Palestine but even still I was left quite impressed with what El-Kurd offers here. He comes at this discussion from such a unique and fresh angle. If you have spent the last 18 months (or longer) watching how people discuss Palestine then you really should be searching for these new and more in depth discussions on the subject and not just the surface level viewpoints that have been argued ad nauseam, online and in text, long before October 7th.

This book offers a great analysis of how to recenter these arguments away from hypotheticals and western sensitivities and refocusing them in a way that deals with the actual facts at hand. Giving Palestinian perspectives and voices a fair status and equal weight in a conversation that has long excluded and demonized them, particularly when they are the ones most at risk in these situations.

While not an introductory subject matter I will say this book is very approachable. It is easy to follow along if you have some base level of understanding about how discussion around Palestine usually goes. There is very little in terms of intimidation here. The book is both academic in its presentation of information and conversational in its tone, as this work started as a lecture El-Kurd gave.

If there is one book to read in this new wave of books published on Palestine this year, this is it. Centering perspectives that you can actually learn from should be the objective and El-Kurd offers many places for readers to take these lessons into practice. If I have one complaint it is that the footnote asterisks are too small. I often missed them and spent a decent amount of my reading time searching back through the page to find them.