One of those books that I want everyone to read! Mohammed El-Kurd's writing is SO powerful, personal, unafraid and unapologetic. It's also breathtaking. Poses the right questions and challenges you to do so as well. He points out the many ways, consciously and subconsciously, the politicians, the media, journalists and the people of the world work together in dehumanizing Palestinians with the narratives we choose to highlight and assumptions we feel the need to push away, instead of questioning why they are even relevant to the conversation.

This is especially important for those of us who already know what the struggle for palestinian liberation is about and that it is righteous, for those who want to keep using our voices and platforms available to advocate and support ALL the people of Palestine.

I fought not to highlight every page on this book and I can't tell you how many times I paused to reflect for a minute before continuing, it's one of those that deserve that you take time to absorb all that is written.

It will stay with me. Long Live the Palestinian Resistance ✊

A few excerpts:

"Fundamental instincts—e.g., survival, self-defense—and the basic conduct intrinsic to life on earth become luxuries only they can indulge. The dehumanizers are not only the vulgar right-wingers and the brutal policemen but the most politically correct of killers who deny us even eye contact before they pull the trigger, sniping coldly, impersonally, from hundreds of meters away. The sniper here, the removed figure with the authority to erase our existence without ever having to engage it, endures in both a literal sense, on our hilltops and rooftops, and a metaphorical sense, in governments and in newsrooms. In this reality, the sniper’s hands are clean of blood. And the snipers are everywhere:" (...)

"Dehumanization has situated us—ejected us, even—outside of the human condition, so much so that what is logically understood to be a man’s natural reaction to subjugation is an uncontained and incomprehensible, primal behavior if it comes from us. What makes some people heroes is what makes us criminals. It is almost simplistic to say that we are guilty by birth. Our existence is purely mechanistic; we are reminded, through policy and procedure, that we are unfortunately born to die."

"Not only have we been taught to “ignore our differences” and indulge “in the pathetic pretense” that they do not exist, but also to mimic an impossibly congruous, mythical creature—the innocent civilian—in hopes to be acquitted of the crime of being Palestinian."

"Palestinians must denounce certain affiliations, determined by the West, to be considered worthy of living. Or, I should correct myself, worthy of condolences, as we are doomed regardless."

"I was asked—this is a direct quote—whether I can “provide [them] with a Palestinian child who will present their dream of what peace means.” To translate this request: the only Palestinian they are willing to let sit at their table is a child.15 The only Palestinian deemed safe enough is a Palestinian whose fangs are yet to be sharpened. Otherwise the optics would offend their constituents and threaten their electoral chances."