In October, Refaat Alareer was thinking about whether to stay in his home in the middle of Gaza City or leave with his wife and six kids to the south.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told people to leave their homes right away and go south as Israeli warplanes bombed northern Gaza.
Civilians like Alareer were in a situation they couldn’t get out of. You can either stay home and risk being killed, or you can try to run away without any defence. The writer and professor, who is 44 years old at the time, told CNN that he and his family had to stay in the north because they “have nowhere else to go.”
‘Should we stay in one room and die together, or should we stay in separate rooms so at least one of us can live?’ That’s the classic Palestinian picture of a debate, he said.
Alareer, who taught comparative literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, was famous for writing about life in Gaza. Friends and coworkers say that he was very important in helping young Palestinian writers grow and told their stories in English.
Alaweer talked to CNN from Gaza City on October 12 and 13. He told them in writing that they could share the recording after he died.
A strike killed Alareer a few weeks later, on December 7 in Shajaiya, which is in northern Gaza. His friend and coworker Jehad Abusalim told CNN that this was true. He was living with his brother, sister, and her four children, Abusalim, a 35-year-old writer from Washington, DC, says. They were all killed.
He left behind his wife and seven children, who are now seven to twenty-one years old. CNN hasn’t been able to get in touch with Alareer’s family.
In 2014, Alareer put together “Gaza Writes Back,” a book of short stories written by young people in Gaza about their lives during the Israeli blockade. Besides that, he helped put together “Gaza Unsilenced,” a 2015 book of essays, photos, and poems that showed the suffering, loss, and faith of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. He also wrote for a book called “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire,” which came out in 2022. He was born in Gaza City and went to school in London at University College London and SOAS.
“We Are Not Numbers” is a non-profit group that wants to make the opinions of Palestinian youth living in Gaza and the refugee camps heard. He helped to start the group.
“We have faith and believe that we have a clear and right reason to fight back for freedom and basic human rights.” “They took us out of this,” he told CNN.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. Israel’s official goal in its military operation in Gaza was to get rid of Hamas and free the more than 240 prisoners that these terrorists had taken.
CNN has not been able to directly confirm how many people have been killed and hurt in Gaza. However, the Israel Defence Forces said on Sunday that they had hit more than 22,000 targets in Gaza since October 7.
The IDF says it is trying to keep civilian deaths to a minimum and accused Hamas of putting itself inside civilian infrastructure. The head of the UN, António Guterres, said that there is “no effective protection of civilians” in Gaza.
Human rights groups say that Israel’s attacks on civilians and the forced evacuation of those people are crimes against humanity.
Alareer asked the world to see the “humanity” in the Palestinian people in an interview with CNN. He also said, “Feel their pain.” “Put yourself in their place.”
When he thought that he might be killed, he wrote a song called “If I must die.”
People in both New York and London held vigils to remember Alareer after he died.
Palestinians are sad about Alareer’s death, but some of the things he said have hurt people. He told the BBC that the strikes on October 7 were “a pre-emptive attack by Palestinian resistance” and that they were “legitimate and moral.”
Thoughts Of War
People in Gaza are used to the fear of death because they have lived under siege for years. The latest Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave brought back memories of wars he had as a child, Alareer said.
He was born in Shajaiya, which is in the eastern part of Gaza City. He said that his family had to move to the Tel-al-Hawa area of Gaza City because their home was destroyed by Israeli bombs during the war in 2014. During that war, his younger brother Hamada, who was 27, was also killed.
“We don’t talk about it.” “We don’t even want to think about how these kids, their homes, and their lives are destroyed every few years,” he said.
“When strikes hit a building, it sounds like “the whole earth reverberates,” he said.
His words, “Even the sound of a door slamming can bring back these memories.” This is why we often say that Palestinians do not have post-war stress. It never stops.”
After nine years, Alareer said that he and many other parents in Gaza feel “helpless and despair” because they can’t protect themselves or their kids from Israel’s constant attacks.
He talked about the mental and physical harm that being bombarded did to Palestinian children.
In the first few days, he said, “things usually start out with complete fear.” “In the end, this turns into numbness, complete indifference, and total submission.”
“If you want to pray, you have to cut it short because bombs are going off nearby.” You have to stop eating if you want to because bombs are going off nearby.
He said, “You want to hug your kids like you always do, tell them stories, or pat them on the head.” “But you don’t want to do it because you don’t want them to think this is like a goodbye hug.”
“The number of wars our kids live through tells us the years.”
He spoke out against Israel and said things that upset people outside of Gaza. He was ready to be interviewed by many news outlets to support Palestinian rights.
As part of his defence of the October 7 killings in the BBC interview, Alareer also said that they were similar to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, which was the biggest Jewish resistance movement during the Holocaust.
BBC said after the words that they “thought they were offensive” and that they would not use him again as a commentator.
Later, he said that Israel had faked proof that Hamas had sexually assaulted a woman on October 7. CNN talked to people who said they either saw sexual violence happen or knew it was happening.
“Important Figure In Palestinian Society”
From 2007 to 2008, Alareer taught literature, creative writing, poems, translation, and Shakespeare at the Islamic University of Gaza. He said that he was a writer and a teacher.
Friends, coworkers, and trainees from all over the world paid tribute to him after he died on Thursday.
Ra Page is a publicist and the founder of Comma Press in Manchester, England. She is 51 years old. Over the years, he worked with Alareer on many writing projects and classes. In August 2022, they met in person in Gaza City.
“My favourite memories are of getting into his ridiculously small car—definitely the tiniest, silliest, and maybe even oldest car in Gaza—and driving around with him while listening to podcasts and audiobooks. “He loved listening to books,” Page told CNN on Friday.
“It’s hard to describe him because he was so kind.” Being kind, patient, gracious, and funny. “He had a wicked sense of humour,” he said.
“He always put others ahead of himself.” He was a great writer, but his job was to help and promote other writers.
“Towering figure in Palestinian society,” Abusalim, a writer and friend from Washington, DC, said of Alareer.
“There were some hard times in Refaat’s life. He stayed strong despite personal tragedies and the harsh realities of life in Gaza. “He used his pen and his voice to fight back, to write back,” he told CNN.
Abusalim said, “His teaching wasn’t just about giving information; it was about giving people power and teaching them how to use language as a weapon against oppression.”
Laila El-Haddad, a journalist and author from Gaza who now lives in Maryland, said that Alareer “raised a whole generation of Palestinian writers in Gaza.”
El Hadad, 45, said that he taught them “how to use English, the language of the countries that have been responsible for and complicit in their dispossession, genocide, and blockade, to tell their own stories.”
Alareer taught fellow writer Rawan Yaghi, who is now 30 years old and lives in Canada. Yaghi called Alareer a “leader of literary resistance.”
“His love of telling stories spread like wildfire.” “He was a force for good, for love, for friendship, for persistence,” she told CNN.
“We remember Refaat and carry on his work.” Thank you for telling stories, being a father, husband, son, teacher, and friend.
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