Happiness is hard to find with genocide on your mind
Thoughts, or something like it.
An old flame used to say something that stuck with me: “mark my words, another holocaust type event is not far off, and they are coming for us first.” They being the West and us being Arab intellectuals/creative class, followed by all Arabs. We could be specific and say ‘Muslim’ but I am doubtful most people register that other religions exist in the Arab world.
When he said this almost a decade ago, most people would laugh, thinking those days – i.e. 9/11 – were behind us. My generation was in their early teens during 9/11 and prior to that we were vilified as reel bad Arabs but not to the extent we were afterwards. However, the Arab ‘Spring’ in late 2010/early 2011 saw glimmers of hope, and that same generation – in their early to mid 20s at this point – begin to take representation into their own hands. Since October, it feels like 9/11 all over again.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza and current military lockdown of the West Bank has proven his point. Forget the fact that more than 40,000 people have been killed, even headlines of polio reemerging after having been eradicated a quarter of a century ago do not phase any Western leader.
Even in our mass death, our humanity is denied; even as nameless numbers, we are subject to suspicion. This humanity is constitutively exclusive of us and always has been. It is not simply that our life is valued differently, but that it is in fact incommensurate with value entirely.
In tune with their time by Nasser Abourahme
The lives of Palestinians, and Black and people of colour are worth nothing; this is something I have always known and lived with. But now Western hypocrisy is becoming blatantly evident for everyone to see. A mere 40 years ago, the body of a lifeless child led to outrage and actions by presidents and prime ministers, but nowadays, everything is fair game. How many deaths is too many? It seems nothing, not the body parts in plastic bags, the starvation, the ecocide, nor the threat of a deadly disease spreading warrant action, or a comment of sympathy. We live in a world where admitting you still listen to the music of a cancelled pop star or watch the movies of a disgraced actor or newscaster lead to more outrage than Palestinians being slaughtered.
Those who allegedly run the world are unable to tell their spoiled child to stop killing but instead practice the bogus millennial gentle parenting trend. Worse, they invent new ways to protect their child from any scrutiny.
Commentators on social media make links to the demise of South Africa, and assure me the end is nigh. But South Africa did not have this much support and is it a mistake to overemphasise the uniqueness of the similarities? Maybe I should believe Nasser Abourahme when he writes: “What we are living through today is Zionism’s endgame. This is not to be sanguine. Colonial endgames can last a long time; they are almost always utterly brutal. But the brutality is as much a sign of their defeated denouement as much as anything else.”
The world itself has moved into ‘convenience’ and lost its ability to be self-sufficient (see figure below for visual representation, applicable to almost everything now). We rely on clueless politicians and commentators so disconnected from reality who have their own agendas to make decisions and give ‘informed’ opinions (those merchants of nuance that claim it’s complicated). Where is our voice? I'm not saying we Palestinians do not already do this, but becoming self-sufficient is a necessity. We need to reclaim agency by developing solutions ourselves and within our own communities (which is why Countless Palestinian Futures exists).
Things
14 SEP, V&A Museum: I will be part of the London Design Festival’s Global Design Forum on the panel Please Design Responsibly: Redefining the Role of the Designer. free entry, booking essential.
19 SEP, RIBA: I am taking part in the RIBA symposium “Decolonising Architecture Symposium: Reimagining Spaces and Histories”, where I will be in conversation with Neal Shasore. booking essential, tickets on Eventbrite.*
*I have a couple of comp tickets in case anyone is interested, please message me.
BOOK TOUR (sort of!): I am planning a book tour for the release of my monograph Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region (pre-order from Bloomsbury). The book will be released on 23 January 2025. If anyone in North America/EU would like to discuss dates and locations for the tour, I would love to hear from you.
NEW WORK: I have been working on Moments of Palestine 🇵🇸 since October and it’s finally finished. A series of 117 photographs documenting what I call “moments of Palestine” around London from October 2023 to September 2024. Stay tuned for prints. ⬇️
Read
I quoted this piece twice above and it’s worth reading: In tune with their time by Nasser Abourahme. Read here.
A reminder that every year Verso never promotes Palestinian or Arab authors on Palestine (see here), so that’s why I created the Palestine Reading List. Please add to it!
I read somewhere “if you stay off your phone, you’ll realize it’s still 2005 outside”. The statement resonated (requires further unpacking in a future newsletter), and then I stumbled on this gem from 2022: Culture is Stuck.
Listen
Jayda G Track ID’s playlist, listen here 🎛️ 🎶
Raï Mixtape, in case you needed an intro to the classics, listen here 🇩🇿