Tributes have poured in following the killing of famous, and some controversial, Palestinian poet and academic Refaat Alareer in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
Alareer, 44, was a prominent professor at the Islamic University of Gaza and one of the leaders of the enclave’s younger generation of authors. He was killed along with several members of his family in an airstrike in Gaza City on Wednesday.
“My heart is broken,” Gaza poet Mosab Abu Toha said in a social media post.
Alareer also co-founded the We Are Not Numbers project, which provides writing workshops to young Palestinians in Gaza.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune, its co-founder, Pam Bailey, spoke of a huge loss.
“A lot of people knew Refaat, through his books, through his poetry. That’s why you hear about him today because so many people loved him for that,” she said, recounting how he humanized the struggles of Gaza residents.
However, Alareer had also sparked controversy in recent weeks, comparing Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7 to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
“If I must die, let it be a tale”
Since the Israeli army began its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Alareer has remained in his hometown of Shujayea, in northern Gaza, which he had previously described as “the embodiment of resurrection that refuses to die.” “kneel before the barbarity of Israel”.
It published regular updates from the region describing how intense bombardment was destroying Palestinian homes, businesses and lives.
“The brutalities are indescribable,” Alareer said in an interview on The Electronic Intifada podcast, as the sound of loud explosions could be heard in the background.
“No matter how many tweets or live streams you see, the reality on the ground is much more dire than it is on social media… We don’t deserve this.” We are not animals like Israelis think. Our children deserve better,” he said.
A few weeks before his death, Alareer said in an article on X that if he died, the news should become “a story.”
If I must die, let it be a tale. #FreePalestine #Gaza pic.twitter.com/ODPx3TiH1a
— Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) November 1, 2023
“The legacy will live forever”
Many Palestinians remember Alareer for the way he wrote and spoke about the liberation of Palestine and its resistance to Israeli occupation.
Ahmed Nehad, a friend and former student of the prominent Gaza scholar and poet, says “Alareer’s legacy will live forever.”
“He trained thousands of young Gazans, men and women, to write about Palestine,” Nehad told Tel Aviv Tribune. “I remember writing and reciting my first lines of poetry for him five years ago, and I remember how much he loved hearing them and how he always helped us.”
Sami Hermez, of Northwestern University in Qatar, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Alareer was “someone who spoke to thousands of people.”
“It’s difficult when there are 17,000 people (dead), and we can’t follow the story of each one of them. This one hits home for me because I’m also a professor and writer, just like Dr. Refaat,” Hermez said.
“They wanted to silence him”
But Alareer could also be controversial.
After Hamas’s unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7, in an interview with the BBC, Alareer said the attacks were “exactly like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,” angering many Jewish groups around the world.
The 1943 uprising was the largest act of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in occupied Poland during World War II. Following the outcry, the BBC admitted “his comments were offensive” and said it had no “intends to use him again”.
Ahmed Bedier of the NGO United Voices for America said Alareer’s regular interviews on television and radio shows, where he described what was happening in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to Western audiences, were the main reason why “(the Israeli army) wanted to silence him.”
“International sentiment has started to turn against Israel,” Bédier told Tel Aviv Tribune. “So they’re trying to silence any narrative other than their own.”