“. . . as the real war is a war on the narrative to steal the land and its rich treasures of knowledge, history, and civilization, along with the stories it holds.” (Atef Abu Saif – December 2023 Report)
| This post is part of a reading series on Zionism vs. Democracy, by Philippe Roussel. To quickly access all chapters, open the book title tab on the Authors & Books page. |
“If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (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 story.”
These are the premonitory words of Palestinian poet, activist, and academic Refaat Alareer, posted on his X timeline on November 1st, 2023. They became famous worldwide when the news of his death in an Israeli air strike on December 6th, 2023, was made public by his friends. This was not collateral damage. The Euro-Med Monitor released a statement saying that Alareer was deliberately targeted, “surgically bombed out of the entire building”, after weeks of “death threats that Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.”1 As he was residing at his sister’s place, he was killed along with his brother, sister, and four of his nephews.
By the end of August 2025—after 20 months of “war”—at least 193 academics and professors had been killed, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.2 As writer Atef Abu Saif explains in an early report for the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, “The war on culture has always been at the heart of the aggressors’ war on our people, as the real war is a war on the narrative to steal the land and its rich treasures of knowledge, history, and civilization, along with the stories it holds.”3
A colonial power cannot survive without owning the narrative about land and people. By the same token, ethnic cleansing would be impossible if colonial settlers did not convince themselves that a native culture is a subculture that barely exists. The display of its vibrancy, genius, and historical roots consequently undermines these settlers’ righteousness. There lies the real “existential threat” that the Israeli government cries about on any occasion to protect its Zionism, thus confirming the historical pattern of colonialism: those who claim moral and intellectual superiority are the ones who logically drift into barbarity.