Reviews with content warning for War - Rifqa

A beautiful collection of poetry that covers the Palestinian experience under Israeli occupation. An important read that I think should be required reading. I read this as an ebook so the formatting could be off at times but overall it was a thought provoking read!

“Palestinians are not the only people to suffer at the hands of settler colonialism and Western white terrorism. Yet we cannot afford to stay quiet about what is taking place there. The state of Israel and the justification for its existence are a crimes against all of humanity. The state is the worst of the human spirit manifested into a fully functioning government.”

“Tell our children the word soldier means what it shouldn't that terrorists look nothing like what God on TV says they should.”

“What is a fact in Arabic is debatable in English”

“portrayed my people only in the ways that adhere to ethnocentric civility, robbing them of their agency. It is to ‘women and children’ Palestinians to death—to infantilize Palestinians in hopes of determining that, indeed, they deserve liberation.

This practice of infantilization stems from the ahistorical depictions of Palestinians and Zionists in the media. Ironically, the regime with one of the world's most lethal armies does not require humanization. The world can grieve Israeli loss without qualifiers, despite the disparities in the death toll. In contrast, we must qualify our dead with reminders of their nonviolence, humane professions, and disabilites.”

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tmchopra's review

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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crybabybea's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I found the common theme, Rifqa, the author's grandmother who was a symbol of Palestinian resistance since she was forcibly removed from her home during the Nakba, to be incredibly compelling. Because of this common thread, Mohammed El-Kurd's poems are filled with a sense of tenderness even in their most hard-hitting moments. I can tell he put a lot of thought into showing the subjects of his poems as they are; completely, wholly, imperfectly. It made it impossible not to connect with the poems' subjects, and humanized them in a way that I think is missing in a lot of current media.

I also admired the author's weaving of his experience living under occupation with his experience as a student in Atlanta. The Black liberation and Palestinian liberation movements are so intertwined, and it was interesting to read about that connection from his point of view.

The 4 star rating is definitely 100% a "it's not you, it's me" situation; these poems are beautiful, impactful, and left me with an ache in my heart, but I am honestly too inexperienced, so many of the author's clever metaphors, wordplay, and references went way over my head. I definitely recommend this collection.

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saint_eleanor's review

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

heartbreaking ❤️‍🩹
Ive been reading a lot of palestinian lit recently and i love seeing common important themes amongst all of them (olive oil, pomegranate, chewing gum, grandmothers and aunts)

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