{"id":12175,"date":"2014-07-21T13:05:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T17:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12175"},"modified":"2014-07-21T13:05:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T17:05:14","slug":"gazas-writers-keep-writing-under-the-bombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/gazas-writers-keep-writing-under-the-bombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s writers keep writing under the bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"

via The Electronic Intifada<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
Submitted by\u00a0Sarah Irving<\/span>\u00a0on Sun, 07\/20\/2014 – 15:01<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City on 19 July.<\/p>\n

(Mohammad Othman<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0APA images<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Despite Israel\u2019s relentless aerial bombardments, shelling and ground attacks for nearly two weeks, Palestinian writers in Gaza have responded to the latest onslaught by doing what they know \u2013 writing.<\/p>\n

According to an email from Ra Page, director of Manchester-based\u00a0Comma Press<\/a>, which recently published\u00a0a collection of short stories from writers in Gaza<\/a>, \u201call of theBook of Gaza<\/em>\u00a0contributors are writing away like crazy, whilst they have power.\u201d (Eighty percent of households in Gaza currently have only up to\u00a0four hours of power per day<\/a>as Israel has badly damaged the Strip\u2019s electricity infrastructure.)<\/p>\n

These writers include\u00a0Nayrouz Qarmout<\/a>, whose work is currently being translated for publication, and\u00a0Najlaa Ataallah<\/a>. Ataallah has built upon her existing Arabic-language writing \u2014 which includes two novels and a short story collection \u2014 with English posts to her blog, in the hope of sharing her experiences of the bombing and invasion with a wider audience.<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0response to the ninth day<\/a>\u00a0of the current attack includes this passage:<\/p>\n

\n

Did I die?<\/p>\n

No doubt, this is all your hallucination of what it\u2019s like to be dead. I\u2019m still thinking of being not dead. Yes, I kicked him out. I triumphed upon him. He did not hug me nor took me with him to the sky.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still here. I\u2019m on this ground.<\/p>\n

You are delirious. Your temperature skyrocketed. Your body trembles uncontrollably. Your mother recites the verses from the Quran over your head. The bed shakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat day is it today?\u201d, you asked your mother.<\/p>\n

She lowers her head, trying to answer you. It looks like she too has forgotten the day and the date.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what you are asking for\u2026<\/p>\n

You wanted to know which day of the aggression is this day. Did you pass the ninth day without death harvesting you, or are you still inside this ninth day cycle?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More of Ataallah\u2019s writing can be found\u00a0on her blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via The Electronic Intifada: Submitted by\u00a0Sarah Irving\u00a0on Sun, 07\/20\/2014 – 15:01 Smoke rises after an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City on 19 July. (Mohammad Othman\u00a0\/\u00a0APA images) Despite Israel\u2019s relentless aerial bombardments, shelling and...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaza-strip","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12177,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175\/revisions\/12177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}