Hi and welcome back to a new season of Wander. A massive thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this again. I’ve a fantastic lineup of poets this season from all kinds of backgrounds – Syria, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Iran, and Afghanistan. But that’s for later.
Before that I want to express my sadness and anger at what’s going on in Gaza. And to remember the poets who’ve been murdered there over the past few months.
Since October 7th, Israel has killed at least thirteen Palestinian poets and writers in Gaza.
One of the most renowned is Saleem Al-Naffar. Throughout his life and career he advocated for peaceful resistance and documented the Palestinian struggle to survive.
Hamas’ actions on October 7th and their refusal to hand over the hostages were despicable actions by a corrupt terrorist organisation. But Hamas’ actions were not carried out by the thousands of men, women and children who’ve been killed since October. Hamas is not these thirteen poets and writers. Hamas is not Saleem Al-Naffar.
Al-Naffar was born in a refugee camp in Gaza, his family having been displaced from Jaffa, and as a child he moved with his family to Jordan and then Syria. He studied Arabic literature at Tishreen University in Syria and in 1994, returned to Gaza, where he published poetry collections, novels, and his autobiography.
His poem Life reads, “Knives might eat / what remains of my ribs, / machines might smash / what remains of stones, / but life is coming, / for that is its way, / creating life even for us.”
“I sometimes sing of our despair. But maybe people like my work because, even so, it never gives in to hatred or calls for violence.”
– Saleem Al-Naffar
On Dec. 7 2023, Al-Naffar and his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Gaza City.
This is an extract of his poem, ‘O Lovers’:
‘Many corners of our home
are wound with our history.
Time did not exclude us.
Their crazy evil machine
did not smash our hopes.
The perfume of right sleeps in arteries
buried inside us.
Even if our footpaths lengthened
and our tragedies went further than insane,
right will come, slowly.’
The poet, Heyba Kamal Abu Nada, who wrote the novel Oxygen is Not for the Dead, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on October 20th.
The poet, novelist, and community activist Omar Abu Shaweesh was killed on October 7th during the shelling of the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza. He’d published a number of collections of poetry, as well as a novel, Alā qayd al-mawt (2016).
On October 16, writer Abdullah Al-Aqad was killed, alongside his wife and children, when an Israeli shell struck his house in Khan Younis.
Writer and journalist Mustafa Hassan Mahmoud Al-Sawwaf was killed, alongside several members of his family, when an Israeli shell struck his home on November 18th.
And it just goes on and on. Many of these poets and writers killed along with their families.
The poet and writer Nour al-Din Hajjaj was the author of the play The Gray Ones and the novel Wings That Do Not Fly. He was an active member in the “Cultural Passion” initiative, the Cordoba Association, and the Days of Theater Foundation.
This was his final message to the outside world:
‘This is why I am writing now; it might be my last message that makes it out to the free world, flying with the doves of peace to tell them that we love life, or at least what life we have managed to live; in Gaza all paths before us are blocked, and instead we’re just one tweet or breaking news story away from death.
Anyway, I’ll begin.
My name is Nour al-Din Hajjaj, I am a Palestinian writer, I am twenty-seven years old and I have many dreams.
I am not a number and I do not consent to my death being passing news. Say, too, that I love life, happiness, freedom, children’s laughter, the sea, coffee, writing, Fairouz, everything that is joyful—though these things will all disappear in the space of a moment.
One of my dreams is for my books and my writings to travel the world, for my pen to have wings so that no unstamped passport or visa rejection can hold it back.
Another dream of mine is to have a small family, to have a little son who looks like me and to tell him a bedtime story as I rock him in my arms.’
Nour al-Din Hajjaj was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home in Gaza on December 2nd 2023.
If you want to support a Palestinian poet who managed to escape with his family – Mosab Abu Toha’s poetry book: ‘Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear’.
And writer Mahmoud Jouda needs support for The Right To Narrate Our Stories.
And of course, continue to support aid organisations and keep calling not only for a return of the hostages, but also for a full ceasefire, and an end to this genocide.
Thank you for listening.
Wander is produced with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland by Bairbre Flood.
