Gaza Weeps

Gaza Weeps
Publisher: Self-Published (Kindle eBook)
Published Date : 01 August 2013

Book Author(s):

John Wight

View the book page:

Gaza Weeps

Review by:

Noor Ahmad

December 2008. The deadly Israeli assault on Gaza, lasting three weeks as the Strip was invaded by land, sea and air known as Operation Cast Lead sets the theme in John Wight's novel as he explores two different individuals on each side of the border, hours preceding the assault.

Written beautifully, my concerns were raised by the glaringly differing styles between the Palestinian's narration and the Israeli's. When Azzam, the Palestinian protagonist is introduced, an effort is made to humanise him, to explain the nuances of his life. The author tries to describe a different culture in as easy terms as possible but the reader is left feeling patronised.

Yet when the IDF protagonist, an American Jew, is introduced the reader can more easily relate to him and his western upbringing. In Wight's novel he depicts the Palestinian as foreign, needing to explained, whether through the use of Arabic words, or with the descriptions. This "otherness" leaves the reader feeling as though he's not quite like you, making it harder to understand the emotions being conveyed.

The story of Operation Cast Lead was played out for millions to see and read about but in most of those reports the human side of the story was often absent. Over a thousand lives were lost in those few weeks in the Gaza Strip and thousands more were injured. Since the siege of 2006 on the Strip conditions for Palestinians have been horrendous, the numerous wars that the inhabitants have faced have only made things worse. In John Wight's work he draws the reader in to explore how the suffering of those on both sides of the conflict really plays out on a day to day basis. Wight's novel exposes the vulnerability of the humans who have to face the consequences of living in one of the world's most volatile regions.

An effortless read to the end, Gaza Weeps is written emotively, alternating between the two different characters, drawing you in with each story as you live the decade's long struggle between two, the historical context for their choices and their motivation in living for this cause. Through Wight's work you understand how each views their position to be the right one, how they feel justified, whilst at the same time jumping between past and present, trying to give you a greater picture.

Winners of the Palestine Book Awards

  • They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom
  • I Sing From the Window of Exile
  • Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity
  • Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948
  • Among the Almond Trees: A Palestinian Memoir
  • Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza
  • Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial
  • Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes : Revolutionary Subjectivity and Decolonizing the Body
  • Psychoanalysis under occupation: practicing resistance in Palestine
  • Power born of dreams: my story is palestine
  • Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organization
  • Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies
  • Places of Mind: A life of Edward Said
  • Except for Palestine: The limits of progressive politics
  • A history of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, awareness, and revolution in the middle east
  • Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands
  • Against the Loveless World
  • The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017
  • Life in a Country Album
  •  There Where You Are Not