12/11/2023–|Last updated: 11/12/202304:45 PM (Mecca time)
A Palestinian academic, poet, and translator, born in Gaza, holds a doctorate in English literature from Putra University, Malaysia in 2017. He was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, and one of the pillars of the English department at the Palestinian Information Center. He was martyred on December 7, 2023, as a result of the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, along with his brother, sister, and her four children.
Al-Arair was the founder and supervisor of the Social Media Department at the Palestinian Information Center, and one of the founders of the “We Are Not Numbers” project, which brought together authors from Gaza with literary figures from abroad to help them write stories about their reality in English.
Birth and upbringing
Rifaat Rafiq Saeed Al-Arair was born in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood – located east of Gaza City – on September 23, 1979, from a family that struggled under harsh conditions to educate its children. Rifaat was inspired by his passion for science from the story of his mother’s struggle to study.
He had a brother called Hamada who was martyred in an Israeli air strike in 2014, and on December 7, 2023, Dr. Al-Arair was martyred along with another brother, his sister, and her four children. He was married and the father of 3 children.
Study and training
Al-Arair studied primary and secondary school in Gaza schools, then went to the Islamic University, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in English language in 2001, and from there to University College in London, where he obtained a master’s degree in English literature in 2007, then he joined Putra University in Malaysia. He obtained a doctorate in English literature.
Scientific and militant journey
Al-Arair did not separate his educational path from the issue of his country, Palestine, as he chose the English language to be the spokesman for his occupied homeland to convey the reality and reality of the Israeli occupation. Since he began teaching in 2007, he was keen to teach his students the rules of narrating the Palestinian story that mixes life and resistance, in order to convey it to the world on bridges. The English he mastered and taught professionally.
The language occupies a central position in the life of Al-Arair, as it represented a tool to overcome the siege on Palestine and its narrative, and a means to spread the opposite of the Israeli thesis. Therefore, throughout the years he spent in Gaza, he was keen to train his students, develop their abilities, and develop their knowledge so that they could contribute to telling the true story of the Palestinian issue, and confront The narratives and narratives broadcast by the Israelis.
In the wake of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014, Al-Arair contributed to establishing the “We Are Not Numbers” website in order to document the tales and stories of the martyrs of the aggression.
During the Israeli aggression on Gaza in response to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation in October 2023, Al-Arair contributed to establishing the “Gaza Martyrs” page, which documents pictures and stories of the martyrs. The purpose of its creation is defined by saying, “Because they are not numbers, here we tell the story of the martyrs, their lives.” Their memories, their dreams… Write to us and send, so we can tell the whole world about the martyrs of Gaza.”
Al-Arair was keen to translate everything written on this page into English to reach the largest possible number of recipients from all peoples and groups, out of his belief that language is a means of liberation from the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza, and a means of immediate broadcasting that challenges the wall of intellectual, academic and cultural separation that Israel is trying to surround the Palestinians with. With it, and to draw the world’s attention to the ugliness of what is happening in Gaza in particular, and in Palestine in general.
Throughout his academic and professional career, Al-Arair sought to document the oral narratives of elderly Palestinians and tell their stories, considering that Palestinian oral history is capable of supporting the continuity of resistance in its cultural dimension, and that the disappearance of this history due to the death of this age group or due to modern technology does not serve the Palestinian cause.
Al-Arair explained this militant trend by saying, “As Palestinians under occupation, storytelling goes beyond the educational value to the urgent need to own our narrative, which restores power to society instead of the elite. The stories that people can tell about a land are evidence of their right to that land.” “.
During the 2023 Israeli war on Gaza, Al-Arair appeared in the media on many English-language Western television channels, keen to expose the crimes of aggression against the Strip and convey the voice of Gaza to the outside world. He also announced his refusal to leave northern Gaza despite the Israeli bombing.
Jobs and responsibilities
In 2007, he worked as a professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, specializing in world literature and creative writing.
He worked in the English department of the Palestinian Information Center.
Founder and supervisor of the Social Media Department at the Palestinian Information Center.
Compositions
In 2014, Al-Arair published the book “Gaza is Writing Again” and a year later, “Gaza Breaks Its Silence.”
He also published many articles in English in Western newspapers, such as a New York Times editorial in 2021.
His martyrdom
Al-Arair was martyred on December 7, 2023, along with his brother, during an air strike carried out by the Israeli Air Force on his sister’s house (north of Gaza), who was martyred along with her four children, during the aggression against Gaza in response to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation.