Status Updates From Comma Press Voices of Resis...

“Our tragedies, too, have filled the world’s newspapers, websites and social media platforms. But our slaughter hasn’t stopped. It’s as if the world’s eyes have grown used to our suffering. And if our suffering no longer shocks anyone, what’s the point of sharing it? What’s the point of photos and facts if they don’t change our reality?”

“What pains me most is how seamlessly the sound of the waves blends with the roar of an Israel F-16 flying overhead. Even this sea, into which we’ve poured so many of our sorrows, is conspiring with the machines sent to kill is.”

“When the occupation’s leaflets first fluttered down from the skies, they terrified us. Later, they worried us. Now, they cheer everybody up. We can burn them on our fires to heat our dignity-flavoured morning coffee.”

“Gaza will become a vast graveyard, at the mercy of an insatiable enemy.”

“The trial is immense, O God. We do not object to your decree, but we are exhausted.”

“At dawn, we gather to pray. My father recites, ‘And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.’

I weep.”

“Many kept repeating, ‘Everything is perishable, but the face of your Lord, full of majesty and honour, will remain.’”

Surah Rahman 🥀

“Once, we had lives. We had friends. We had Gaza, with its sea, with its bright, breezy mornings, with its balmy evenings which still reside inside us, strong and defiant against forgetfulness.”

“I refuse to let the souls of my friends and loved ones disappear into passing numbers on news broadcasts, I refuse for our name, as Palestinians, to be synonymous with only misery and despair.”

“Who knows, perhaps terrorism hides in the warmth of a home, in the bells of churches or the minarets of mosques, between the pages of books, in the streets and alleyways of the camps, or even amidst the tents of the displaced. The Israeli occupation has every right to erase anything from the face of the Earth, if they so desire. And no one has the right to criticise Israel.”

“As for my sister’s children: they were buried in a hurry, with no chance to say goodbye. No funeral honoured their dignity; no shrouds preserved their bodies. They were buried in the covers they had lain in, to sleep in the peace they were deprived of in reality. Our consolation is that they are now in the gardens of Paradise.”

“Recently, my eight year-old niece Abeer said to me, ‘I hope I die instantly so I don’t feel anything, and that no part of me gets amputated. I always pray not to get maimed. I want a quick death, all at once. And you, Auntie, how do you want to die?’”

😔 Allah

“You rejoice while others grieve. You rejoice when you realise that the home that was bombed wasn’t yours, but the one right behind it. You feel a little sad, but you’re still happy about your survival. Survival is individual, always individual. Joy is individual, and so is grief.”

“Poems built from death can never bring pride; they can only bring more pain. My poetry is nothing but stylised pain. When I finish writing a poem and it seems perfectly crafted, I look at it with tears welling in my eyes and heart. Oh God, how beautiful it is. And how ashamed I am that pain looks so beautiful.”

“Alongside these wishes, I wish for the disappearance of this homeland itself - a place that confuses the entire world - so that all of us can go to a place where there is no fatigue or hardship; so that no one else will have to be born in a place as sad as this.”

“My head is filled with a desire to leave: to escape this cosmic hell by any means necessary, even if leaving means death.”