“If I must die you must live to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth and some string,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze- and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh not even to himself-
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love
If I must die
Let it bring hope Let it be a tale”
Refaat Alareer, 27 November, 2011 (for his daughter, Shymaa)
On the morning of 7 December, 2023, poet and professor Refaat Alareer was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. He had been targeted by the military, and was murdered along with several family members in the home he was taking refuge in. He was a writer, educator & activist. His PhD. dissertation was on the poetry of John Donne. He taught English Literature and composition at the Islamic University of Gaza (now destroyed).
His friend, writer Susan Abulhawa, recounts that Refaat chose English as his subject over Arabic because “he wanted to master the language of the empire that oppressed him…[believing] there was great value in speaking and writing to the people of empire to lay bare our humanity before them”. (Refaat Alareer, Forward by Susan Abulhawa, xiv.) Refaat taught and mentored many young Palestinian writers, editing 2 volumes of their work: Gaza Unsilenced and Gaza Writes back: Short Stories from young writers in Gaza, Palestine. His wonderful book: Refaat Alareer, If I must Die, Poetry & Prose, was published posthumously in 2024.
As he said in 2023: “In Gaza, people can be seven wars old”. Refaat was 44 years old, a husband and father of 6. His eldest daughter and first grandchild had been killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier in 2023. He volunteered at the Gaza Zoo.
“I’m an academic. Probably the toughest thing I have at home is an Expo marker. But if the Israelis invade, if the paratroopers charge at us, going from door to door, to massacre us, I am going to use that marker to throw it at the Israeli soldiers, even if that is the last thing that I do.” (2023) That same year, he wrote: “We didn’t fail. We didn’t submit to their barbarity.” May he rest in peace. And may we take forward his message to resist until there is freedom and dignity for all.
Editor for book ‘Gaza Writes Back’
