“I am an academic. Probably the toughest thing I have at home is an Expo marker. But if the Israelis invade, if they barge at us, charge at us, open door-to-door to massacre us, I am going to use that marker to throw it at the Israeli soldiers, even if that is the last thing that I would be able to do.”
These were words uttered in Palestinian academic Refaat Alareer’s final interview before his martyrdom. As Israel’s relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip ensued in the background, its strident noise a perceptible reminder, Dr. Alareer rejected defeatist mentalities. Instead, he pledged steadfastness, rising against Zionist forces, even if it was through means as seemingly feeble as an Expo marker. In reality, the Expo marker here did not merely refer to the writing utensil for whiteboards. It symbolized a tool to enlighten and mobilize the masses and challenge the status quo. In the decades-long struggle for liberation in Palestine, intellectuals like Refaat Alareer have played a vital role, leaning on their eloquence to inspire revolutionary action.
On December 6, 2023, nearly two months following this interview, an Israeli airstrike murdered Refaat Alareer alongside his brother, sister, and their respective children in what the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor deemed a deliberate attack. To many, Dr. Alareer was “the voice of Gaza.” His poems, lectures, and tweets served as a bridge between the English-speaking world and the besieged Gaza Strip–a bridge the settler-colonial state sought to burn. However, the martyrdom of Refaat Alareer did not occur in a vacuum. Israel has long adopted a calculated strategy striving to eradicate cultural institutions and subsequently stifle intellectual advancement in the Gaza Strip and Palestine at large. In the four months since October 7 alone, Zionist forces reduced sites like Gaza City’s Central Archive Building and the Islamic University of Gaza to rubble. They additionally led a mass murder campaign against leading public intellectuals, killing Dr. Sufyan Tayeh, the president of the Islamic University, Dr. Said Al-Zubda, the president of the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, and more than 100 journalists. Above all, such malicious targetings unveil the fragility of a colonial system bent on the prolonged subservience of external observers.
The new English edition of Ghassan Kanafani’s ‘The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine.’ Published by 1804 Books in 2023.
The intellectual as a beacon of hope
Israel’s unremitting murder of intellectuals falls within a more expansive pattern to pillage from the Palestinian imagination any semblance of hope, seeking to establish “the ‘perfect system’ for defeatism, fatalism, and political quietism” in its absence (Kanafani, p. 27). This “system” admittedly existed long before Israel’s inception in 1948, something Ghassan Kanafani discusses in his text The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine. Nonetheless, in the years leading up to and following the Nakba of 1948, the Zionist settler-colonial project depended heavily on the sustained disillusionment of its victims to secure legitimacy and success. Therefore, as Kanafani articulates in his previously mentioned text, “It was up to the Palestinian intellectual to face the massive challenge of altering this culture of subservience while themselves still under its influence.” Since the outset of the liberation struggle, the Palestinian intellectual has ultimately strived to foster a “progressive consciousness” within its communities, revitalizing the very sense of hope Zionist forces seek to quell.
The intellectual stands as a beacon of hope in Palestinian society, recruiting support as they relay the struggle to diverse audiences with eloquence, grace, and intellect. In her tribute to her late husband, Anni Kanafani articulates that Ghassan Kanafani’s ability to “explain in simple terms the most difficult political ideas” garnered him and his literary work unparalleled global recognition. As Anni admits, “that is why the enemies had to destroy [Ghassan].”
Israel’s contemporary systematic murder of Palestinian intellectuals did not begin on October 7, nor will it end with a ceasefire, a fact no more exemplified than it is in the Israeli Mossad’s assassination of Ghassan Kanafani in 1972, nearly half a century ago. To the Zionist psyche, Palestinian intellectuals like Kanafani epitomize their greatest threat. They assume a nontraditional role in the battle against the settler-colonial status quo, preserving the Palestinian vision for liberation with the armament of their captivating words.
Edward W. Said’s book ‘Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures’ was published in 1994 by Vintage Books.
The intellectual and the dilemma of choice
In his book Representations of the Intellectual, Edward Said argues that “the major choice faced by the intellectual is whether to be allied with the stability of the victors and rulers or–the more difficult path–to consider that stability as a state of emergency threatening the less fortunate with the danger of complete extinction” (p. 35). To those who favor the former choice, the false sense of security associated with the status quo is far too tempting. The varied privileges secured through mindless compliance trump any desire to deviate from the – be they unjust – established norms. The intellectual, in this case, places Palestine at a distance, far enough so the Zionist settler-colonial project remains an unscathed and unchallenged component of the prevailing status quo. All the while, a mutually beneficial relationship develops between the intellectual and the Zionist regime, where the former secures career advancements and formal praise as the latter sustains global legitimacy–all, needless to say, at the fatal expense of the Palestinians.
Ramallah, Graffiti on the West Bank separation wall and poster of Professor Edward Said: Scholar, Activist, Palestinian 1935 – 2003 Palestine.
The Palestinian intellectual shares a distinct experience. They may align themselves with the first choice Said presented, normalizing relations with the so-called “victors and rulers.” However, the fact remains that their identity as indigenous people and colonized subjects conflicts with the stability of the present world order notoriously committed to the erasure and exploitation of those same bodies.
The Palestinian intellectual’s very existence consequentially poses an immediate threat as it lays bare the inherent contradictions within the Zionist colonial regime and fantasy. The average Zionist recognizes that the legacy of the Nakba and the proven resilience of their ancestors lives within every Palestinian, the intellectual existing as a pesky reminder that their agenda of total ethnic cleansing remains unfulfilled.
The Palestinian intellectual confronts excessive censorship or, in its most extreme cases, murder at the hands of Zionist forces before they can freely face the choice Said outlined.
‘I Have Found My Answers – Thus Spoke the Martyr Basel al-Araj’ was published by Dar Bissan for Publishing and Distribution in Beirut in 2018.
The intellectual, the romantic
The most alluring intellectual is the one who is unafraid to acknowledge the romance of war, heroism, martyrdom, and so on. In response to the intellectuals who, on the contrary, tend to hold their heads high with futile talks of reason and pragmatism, the martyr Basel Al-Araj wrote the following words:
“You, the academically inclined, set your sights on disenchanting all things by defining and explaining, reckoning that it will land you on the truth. In these overcast days, I tell you I need no explanatory framework for rainfall…What I want is my unabating wonder and my silly smile whenever the rain falls. Every time as if the first time, a child bewitched and the magic of the world.”
Al-Araj advises his audience not to entrap themselves within the cynical confines of realism, sacrificing components of the struggle to satisfy narrow Western ideals of liberation. Instead, he reminds his audience to fall into the embrace of childlike wonder, approaching worldly matters with a simultaneous sense of diligence and humility. Although Israeli occupation forces mercilessly cut Al-Araj’s life short in 2017, his teachings, as reflected in his writings and general lifestyle, unveil the most honorable trait an intellectual might champion–fervent curiosity. He encourages others to pose questions yet cautions them not to lose sight of the enchantment of the world in pedantic answers.
As Israel continues its gruesome attack on the Gaza Strip, targeting intellectuals for their commitment to dignity, liberty, and the truth, and as Western intellectuals find comfort in their calculated silence, we find ourselves returning to the words of Refaat Alareer. When bearing witness to injustice, regardless of its imminence or distance, the intellectual must always refer to their Expo markers and resist, challenging the status quo that serves those in prominent positions while instilling hope within the masses.
Enshirah Barakat
Enshirah Barakat received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies with a focus on the Middle East from the University of Florida in December 2022. Her interests lie in the intersections between race, ethnicity, and the representations of identity.
