He was killed with several family members in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in December 2023, at 44 years old. He already had a worldwide reputation, but after his death the poem If I Must Die was published, now with a Forward by Susan Abulhawa. Alareer became a global symbol of dignified resistance, spreading across social media and by word of mouth from his friends, students, and those who read his books or had heard his words passed on.
This book, carefully edited and compiled by Yousef M Aljamal, Refaat’s friend and student, contains poems and work from 2010 to the time of his death. One of the final entries, transcribed from voice notes shortly after his death, ends with the account of how he calmed two frightened children by giving each of them a date to eat, which stopped their terrified crying – a response to a terrible bomb blast. Their mother was surprised, but he pointed out that doing good is contagious. It’s rewarding in the way you help others, and it is a positive sense, an infection he wants others to have. And he sees people doing this all the time.
There is more prose than poetry in this book. There is the account of both the invasion of Gaza, the buildup of the picture of destruction inside Palestine, the suffering, endurance, determination, loss, mourning, yet also a refusal from Gazans to accept the denial of their right to be there, and stay, holding fast to dignity, courage and ownership of their land. The prose and poetry tell the entire story of both attacks, setting out the full horror of what has happened.
We can fill in what has not happened, and the failings internationally to stop the genocide.
If you have never come across the poem which is the book’s title, this is the first verse:
If I must die
if you must live
to tell my story
and the final verse is:
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.
You must read the entire poem to see how it moves from the start of a story of dying to a tale of hope. Buy the book and discover it from start to finish. It shows how the prospect or certainty of death can produce a vision leading to hope and a tale of hope. Something we could all do with at present.
Published by OR BOOKS (www.orbooks.com)
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