14/12/2023
Professor Refaat al- Areer was one of Gaza‘s most prominent writers, poets and activists. He taught Shakespeare, T. S. Elliot, Wilfred Owen, John Donne among others, at the Islamic University in Gaza. His life was devoted to trying to bring Gaza’s voice to the outside world. His work includes “Gaza Unsilenced" and “Gaza Writes Back." He was recently killed by an Israeli airstrike on his sister’s home in which his brother, sister and her four children also perished. But the voice of Refaat al- Areer cannot be silenced.
“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..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".
