‘If I must die’ by Refaat Alareer, recited by Maxine Peake

JVL Introduction

Gazan poet Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Friday 8th December.

He was, reports AFP, one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, one of the co-founders of the “We are not numbers” project, which pairs authors from Gaza with mentors abroad who help them write stories about their experiences.

Alareer was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught Shakespeare and much else.

RK

If I must die

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 tale.

See this tribute in DemocracyNow, 8th December 2023:

“If I Must Die”: IDF Strike Kills Gaza Scholar Refaat Alareer; Friend Pays Tribute & Reads His Poem

Scholar and policy analyst Jehad Abusalim remembers his friend Refaat Alareer, the acclaimed Palestinian academic and activist who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City earlier this week.

“Refaat Alareer was a towering figure in Palestinian society, especially in Gaza,” who used education and “language as a weapon against oppression,” says Abusalim, who speaks about the widespread destruction of schools and educators in Gaza by Israel’s renewed bombardment, siege and invasion.

“The tragedy that has befallen the academic, scholarly and intellectual community in Gaza and in Palestine is unprecedented. Israel is destroying the foundations of society in the Gaza Strip.”