“Why Must Palestinians Be Polite During a Genocide?"
Susan Abulhawa joins Ahmed Alnaouq for a conversation about Gaza, literature, censorship and the power of storytelling.
The internationally bestselling Palestinian-American novelist and author of Mornings in Jenin discusses her experience travelling to Gaza in 2024, bringing supplies and medicine, and mentoring young Palestinian writers whose lives had been shattered under the weight of a genocide.
She explains why she believes Palestinians in Gaza must be at the forefront of telling their own stories, and why diaries, fiction, journalism and literature can become part of the historical record.
The conversation also examines the intense pressure placed on Palestinians to police their language, the expectation that Palestinians should remain “perfect victims,” and the consequences writers can face when they refuse to moderate their words.
Abulhawa speaks about returning from Gaza and realising that she had been censoring herself, the pressure she has faced in the publishing world, and why she believes that losing books, contracts or professional opportunities cannot outweigh the responsibility to speak out with force as Israel’s genocide against her people continues to unfold.