Gaza Poet, Writer, Refaat Alareer Killed In Targeted Strike With 6 Family Members; Had Angered Bari Weiss, Max Blumenthal Accuses Weiss Of “Inspiring” Death Threats And IDF Targeting
Beloved Palestinian writer, poet, and teacher Refaat Alareer, founder of the Gaza based organization “We Are Not Numbers,” has been killed in an Israeli airstrike along with six members of his family. He was known for his lifelong devotion to encouraging story telling and writing, including the book Gaza Writes Back, featuring writing from young Palestinians.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Alareer had gotten direct death threats from an Israeli officer, knew he was a target, and had re-located to his sister’s home, and killed there by a surgical strike.
Max Blumenthal wrote a blistering account, here:
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And here is his tribute to Akareer, published in The Grayzone.
[As for mockery, (see Blumenthal’s Tweet,) there have been waves of Tik Tok trends with Israelis, including children, grotesquely mocking Palestinians, so let’s BE FAIR.]
There had been many calls for Alareer’s death, according to his friend and one time student, interviewed here, and the BBC, in its headline about his murder, icily called him “controversial.”
In his last interview, he spoke very openly about the near certainty of being killed. “There is no way out,” he said.
This was Alareer’s most well known poem, “If I Must Die:”
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And here is a TED talk he gave about story telling, and family.
Voices of Gaza’s children.
One country voted against a ceasefire in Gaza.
Refaat Alareer
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Refaat Alareer
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رفعت العرعير
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| Born | September 23, 1979 |
| Died | December 7, 2023 (aged 44)
Gaza Strip
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| Cause of death | Israeli airstrike |
| Occupation | Professor |
| Known for | Activism |
| Children | 6 |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Islamic University of Gaza University College London Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | English Literature |
| Institutions | Islamic University in Gaza |
| Notable works | Gaza Writes Back (2014) Gaza Unsilenced (2015) |
Refaat Alareer (Arabic: رفعت العرعير; September 23, 1979 – December 7, 2023) was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip. He taught literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and cofounded the organization We Are Not Numbers, which matched experienced authors with young writers in Gaza.
Early life and education
Refaat Alareer was born in 1979 in Shuja’iyya in Gaza City.[1] Growing up in Gaza, he said, meant “every move I took and every decision I made were influenced (usually negatively) by the Israeli occupation.”[1]
Alareer earned a BA in English in 2001 from the Islamic University of Gaza and an MA from University College of London in 2007.[1] He earned a Ph.D. in English Literature at the Universiti Putra Malaysia.[2]
Career
Alareer edited two volumes of Palestinian short stories, Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and Gaza Writes Back (2014). In an interview, Alareer stated, “Gaza Writes Back was an attempt to provide a testimony for future generations.”[3] In 2007,[4] Alareer became a professor at Islamic University in Gaza, where he taught world literature and creative writing.[5][6] This included the work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, which he called beautiful but dangerous.[6] He co-founded the organization We Are Not Numbers,[7] a mentorship program that matches writers in Gaza with authors abroad.[8]
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Alareer made media appearances on the BBC, Democracy Now!, and ABC News.[9][10][11] In the immediate aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, he described the attack as “legitimate and moral” and said it was “exactly like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising“.[12] He also rejected the sexual violence allegations against Hamas after the October 7 attack as lies used to “justify the Gaza genocide.”[13][14]
Personal life and death
Alareer and his wife had six children, including daughters, Amal (~8 years), and Linah (~10 years).[16] In the 2014 Gaza War Israel killed both his brother Hamada, and his wife Nusayba’s grandfather, brother, sister and her sister’s three children.[16] During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Alareer wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in which he recounted that he and his wife had lost more than 30 relatives.[16]
Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike on December 7, 2023. He was 44. His brother Salah with son Mohammed, and his sister Asmaa with three of her children (Alaa, Yahia, and Mohammed), were also among those killed in the same airstrike.[17][18][7]
Euro-Med Monitor released a statement saying that it appeared that Alareer was deliberately targeted, saying that the apartment Alareer was in with his family was “surgically bombed out of the entire building where it’s located, according to corroborated eyewitness and family accounts. This came after weeks of death threats that Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.”[17]
In his last interview before being killed, with the sound of Israeli bombs exploding in the background, Alareer said he felt helpless and that, while he had no weapons, he would defend himself if the IDF were to come to his house.[19][20]
Tributes
The founder of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor), Ramy Abdu, stated Israeli soldiers “targeted, went after and killed the voice of Gaza, one of its best academics, a human, my dear and precious friend.”[21]
Poet Mosab Abu Toha wrote “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family”.[12]
Palestinian-American professor Sami Al-Arian noted “He was an amazing poet, an articulate voice for Gazans, and a true bridge to people outside Palestine. His loss will be missed by many inside Palestine and around the world”.[19]
This is similar to what they did to the Polish intellectuals during the Soviet Union. Very sad.
Yes, but this poet has gone to temporary heaven to be in a world of peace, love and progress. Feel more sorry, comrade, for us, still living in this hellish jew world!