What do you think?
Rate this book
Palestine Will Be Free #2
Welcome to Hell: From the West Bank to Gaza
A new graphic novel memoir chronicling the recent horrific days in Palestine, from Mohammad Sabaaneh, the winner of the Palestine Book Award.
This powerful graphic novel sheds light on the reality of life in both the West Bank and Gaza during this terrifying time. Told from the perspective of the author's brother's experience in prison and that of those in Gaza struggling to survive displacement, starvation, and attack.
In October of 2023, Sabaaneh went on a tour in Europe to promote his book about life under occupation in Palestine. Whether a Palestinian is inside a detention center or in any city or village, they are all in a big prison. The book ends with one message: 'we will not leave.' Upon his return to Palestine, he was trapped within the walls of his home—unable to see his aging parents, or his brother, who was locked away in an Israeli detention center.
So begins this vital story of struggle and survival.
This powerful graphic novel sheds light on the reality of life in both the West Bank and Gaza during this terrifying time. Told from the perspective of the author's brother's experience in prison and that of those in Gaza struggling to survive displacement, starvation, and attack.
In October of 2023, Sabaaneh went on a tour in Europe to promote his book about life under occupation in Palestine. Whether a Palestinian is inside a detention center or in any city or village, they are all in a big prison. The book ends with one message: 'we will not leave.' Upon his return to Palestine, he was trapped within the walls of his home—unable to see his aging parents, or his brother, who was locked away in an Israeli detention center.
So begins this vital story of struggle and survival.
- GenresGraphic NovelsNonfiction
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 16, 2026
About the author
Mohammad Sabaaneh
11 books24 followersMohammad Sabaaneh is a Palestinian cartoonist.
He is the principal political cartoonist for the Palestinian Authority's daily newspaper, Al-Hayat al-Jadida.
Sabaaneh is a Middle East representative for the Cartoonists Rights Network International and teaches art at the Arab American University of Palestine.
His graphic novel Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine, which tells the autobiographical story of his time as a political prisoner in Israel, received the Palestine Book Award. He currently lives in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
He is the principal political cartoonist for the Palestinian Authority's daily newspaper, Al-Hayat al-Jadida.
Sabaaneh is a Middle East representative for the Cartoonists Rights Network International and teaches art at the Arab American University of Palestine.
His graphic novel Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine, which tells the autobiographical story of his time as a political prisoner in Israel, received the Palestine Book Award. He currently lives in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 3, 2026
Devastating and enraging, a story of dehumanisation, of collective punishment, of depravity.
Told in gorgeous, dark, cubist drawings and spare verbiage.
Don't turn your eyes away.
Told in gorgeous, dark, cubist drawings and spare verbiage.
Don't turn your eyes away.
July 1, 2026
6/30/2026 Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
7/1/2026 As someone who believes in the need for a Palestine free of occupation and genocide, it feels weird to say that nothing in this graphic memoir persuaded me further along towards that cause. The Israeli occupation is horrifyingly cruel, and the abuse the Palestinians continue to endure unthinkable. If, for whatever reason, you don't already believe this and need further testimony, then this book will hopefully help open your eyes to an incontrovertible truth.
But nothing that Mohammad Sabaaneh chronicles in this book is particularly new to me. I honestly felt like a chorister getting slowly more numb at being preached to about things I already know. It doesn't help that I don't respond well to graphic violence. I don't need to watch depictions of violence in order to empathize and want to agitate for change: on the contrary, being exposed to secondhand violence makes me retreat. Seeing cruelty done to others -- especially if it's not something I can step in and stop immediately -- inflicts a psychological wound that I need time to recover from. If you're like me, then this book probably isn't essential reading for you either.
That said, bearing witness to the trauma of what the author and his fellow Palestinians went through is also important work. If you can do that, then by all means read this. Welcome To Hell is affecting and bleak and illuminates in greater detail the specific suffering of the Palestinian people. It's also very much an agonized cri de coeur of someone who's had to endure unimaginable and unnecessary pain at the hands of the deeply sadistic.
Interestingly, what this graphic memoir did persuade me of was the need for prison reform outright. The longer that people and societies around the world accept inhumane conditions and brutal treatment for alleged criminals, the longer that the cruel will get away with evil behavior to their captive populations. The author correctly describes Gaza as one large open air prison, and shows exactly, if not necessarily deliberately, why changing the mindsets of people regarding incarceration is an important step in getting society to recognize everyone's humanity. No one should be treated the way that the Palestinians in this book are, no matter what they're said to have done.
The proto-Cubist art reinforces the surreal brutality of the author's experiences, tho I appreciated less the disjointed nature of the narrative. This is the second book of the Palestine Will Be Free series. Hopefully, the promise of the series' name will be fulfilled before many more of these volumes need to be lived through.
Welcome To Hell: From The West Bank To Gaza by Mohammad Sabaaneh was published June 16 2026 by Street Noise Books and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
7/1/2026 As someone who believes in the need for a Palestine free of occupation and genocide, it feels weird to say that nothing in this graphic memoir persuaded me further along towards that cause. The Israeli occupation is horrifyingly cruel, and the abuse the Palestinians continue to endure unthinkable. If, for whatever reason, you don't already believe this and need further testimony, then this book will hopefully help open your eyes to an incontrovertible truth.
But nothing that Mohammad Sabaaneh chronicles in this book is particularly new to me. I honestly felt like a chorister getting slowly more numb at being preached to about things I already know. It doesn't help that I don't respond well to graphic violence. I don't need to watch depictions of violence in order to empathize and want to agitate for change: on the contrary, being exposed to secondhand violence makes me retreat. Seeing cruelty done to others -- especially if it's not something I can step in and stop immediately -- inflicts a psychological wound that I need time to recover from. If you're like me, then this book probably isn't essential reading for you either.
That said, bearing witness to the trauma of what the author and his fellow Palestinians went through is also important work. If you can do that, then by all means read this. Welcome To Hell is affecting and bleak and illuminates in greater detail the specific suffering of the Palestinian people. It's also very much an agonized cri de coeur of someone who's had to endure unimaginable and unnecessary pain at the hands of the deeply sadistic.
Interestingly, what this graphic memoir did persuade me of was the need for prison reform outright. The longer that people and societies around the world accept inhumane conditions and brutal treatment for alleged criminals, the longer that the cruel will get away with evil behavior to their captive populations. The author correctly describes Gaza as one large open air prison, and shows exactly, if not necessarily deliberately, why changing the mindsets of people regarding incarceration is an important step in getting society to recognize everyone's humanity. No one should be treated the way that the Palestinians in this book are, no matter what they're said to have done.
The proto-Cubist art reinforces the surreal brutality of the author's experiences, tho I appreciated less the disjointed nature of the narrative. This is the second book of the Palestine Will Be Free series. Hopefully, the promise of the series' name will be fulfilled before many more of these volumes need to be lived through.
Welcome To Hell: From The West Bank To Gaza by Mohammad Sabaaneh was published June 16 2026 by Street Noise Books and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
This powerful 128 page adult graphic novel chronicles the author's brother's experience in a detention center in the Occupied West Bank, with glimpses of Gaza, threaded through. The sparse words and black and white drawings are presented as a memoir, with the confidence and clarity, that comes from OWN voice writing. There is no need to explain, or try and give context to the "silent genocide" that we all watched in real time. The truth is brutal, horrific, severe, and this book presents it in an unflinching manner. Starting on October 7, 2023 the sentiment that Palestinians will not leave, is tested at the hands of an occupying military determined to not only forcefully remove a people, but determined to make them suffer at every turn. The daily struggle to simply survive amongst such cruelty is perhaps the greatest expression of resistance. May Allah swt forgive us all for our silence and inaction.
July 8, 2026
Sabaaneh’s works are so haunting and emotionally charged. You can feel the faces of the prison guards/IOF soldiers dripping with a dehumanizing hatred that embodies in the cubist style to make them misshapen in their depravity. And the sorrow and suffering in the bold eyes of the Palestinian prisoners is deeply moving. Some of these works really moved me with their symbolism sad well, most especially the image on page 16; a Palestinian has been uprooted from their land, and displaced to a form of solitude, taking on the form of an olive tree, planted in a bucket [caged] and all their branches chopped and pruned away by an Israeli soldier… and yet their roots still over grow their prison and touch down into the soil of the homeland they will not be removed from. This is a powerful piece!
July 14, 2026
A new graphic novel that conveys the inhumanity and brutality of war and resistance through the perspective of several narrators. The artist uses his art to create monsters instead of captors and soldiers. The story moves from a simple road trip that becomes a journey to a world of captivity and terror. The illustrations are breathtaking conveying emotion and solidarity. A book of passion and an astounding artistic project.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A poignant and powerful memoir about what is happening in Gaza and how it is affecting the people there and their resilience in a time of genocide.
ARC provided by Edelweiss and publisher all thoughts are my own.
ARC provided by Edelweiss and publisher all thoughts are my own.
Read
April 2, 2026An absolutely heartbreaking look into the reality of the genocide happening in Palestine. Looking both inside a prison and the occupied West Bank, the horrors are recounted in stunning images that force you to keep looking.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
powerful.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to Street Noise for sending me an eARC of this novel.
Powerful. Relevant. Important. Free Palestine.
Powerful. Relevant. Important. Free Palestine.
July 21, 2026
it’s not too late to protest.
Read
July 30, 2026Al hurriya la falasteen
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews