‘All Rights Reserved to the People of Palestine’: Collecting & Translating Words Written in the Face of Genocide

Special to ArabLit

Passages Through Genocide (gazapassages.com) is an online project that collates and disseminates texts written by Gazans living through the current Israeli assault. Conceived and run by an anonymous collective of volunteers, its aim is to amplify the words of these writers in support of Palestinian liberation.

ArabLit spoke to one of the project’s founders.

Where did the initial idea behind Passages Through Genocide come from?

We started to collect texts at the end of October, three weeks into the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The idea came out of what we had been collectively and individually experiencing, since the beginning of the genocide, on multiple levels: Emotionally, the helplessness we felt was unbearable. Friends, family, and people we love were—and still are—facing the most catastrophic horrors of our time. Our thoughts and feelings were very confused: power and depression in parallel, heroism and victimhood at the very same moment. We sensed that literature would be a way to express the complexity of what we were living through, and channel some of these overpowering, contradictory emotions, toward meaningful ends.

Politically, we had known since the dawn of October 7th that a new chapter of the Palestinian epic was underway. At this historical moment, we consider it our duty as Palestinians to do all that is in our power, using all the knowledge and skills we have, to contribute to the revolutionary fight against colonialism, no matter how small that contribution. It’s crucial in these moments not to be defeated mentally. To insist on initiating, building, creating connections. To honour Gaza’s sacrifice means also to learn from the mightiness and resilience of its people – to insist on being in constant movement against and within the catastrophe.

We also find that many international solidarity platforms tend to amplify Palestinian voices that conform to Western expectations, finding it easier to speak about the Palestinian as an ultimate passive victim. On the contrary, we know that Gaza’s unimaginable pain always coexists with the unbreakable will to resist Zionism, and must be expressed as such.

Can you tell us more about the writers themselves, and what they’ve been going through during the genocide?

Two texts were collected after their writers were killed by Israeli attacks. Hiba Abu Nada, aged 32, fell victim to an airstrike in Khan Younis, along with her family. It was her words that moved us to start work on the project, and her texts that were the first to be published. We were also following Noor Aldeen Hajjaj, 27, who was killed in a massacre in Al-Shujaiyya on December 2nd.

Several of the writers managed to survive Israeli airstrikes and were pulled out from under the rubble. Ahmed Mortaja, for example, wrote: “Ahmed, coming out from under the rubble speaking to you… The one who inhaled thousands of tons of dust… My color is gray!” Other writers, like Husam Maarouf, had their homes demolished. Others, like Noor Swirki, are now living in refugee shelters.

We are presently in the process of preparing a new set of texts for publication. An intensive care doctor and writer, Ibraheem Matar, offers a grim account of working in the health. Issam Hani Hajjaj, meanwhile, left his house just days before it was bombed and destroyed, finding refuge along with his parents and siblings in his aunt’s house. A few days later, her house was also bombed. Issam wrote: “Our gathering-place for storytelling and chatting, in my aunt’s house, has become a mass grave. The Israeli occupation destroyed the house on our heads.”

Approximately how many volunteers are involved the project?

More than 20 volunteer translators and editors have contributed so far, while another 10 people have been involved in coordination, social media, graphic design, website development, and other tasks. These people are spread across the world.

There are also many people (some of whom we do not know), who’ve contributed to the distribution of texts in various ways, like by printing posters, pamphlets, and stickers, and disseminating them in public places in their cities. Others have produced audio-visual materials featuring the texts, or organized reading events, whether in person or online.

We encourage individuals to take the initiative, and utilize the texts for political education and mobilization however they see fit. We envision the project as a literary open source where anyone can contribute freely and help out.

How are texts chosen?

We follow writers on social media and collect their posts, then select a series of short texts, or passages, hence the name. We reach out to the writers and ask for their permission to translate and publish these texts, making sure that we meet any condition or request the authors might make before we get started.
We don’t commission texts. Firstly, we don’t want to burden writers at a time like this. Secondly, we look for authentic and spontaneous literary expressions that address the writer’s own community—namely Palestinian readers—where we can represent our ideas and feelings uncensored, and in a genuine way.

We also make minimal editorial interventions to the texts, as confusion, unclarity and mistakes are substantial in texts written under the immediate threat of death. The situation requires us to expand the definition of literary expression, erasing the borders between poems, prayers, and angry comments on bread prices.

Do you need more help? If so, with what, and how can people get involved?

Certainly. We’d love to translate the texts into every language possible. Our priority for now is to expand our reach to the east and the global south, and translate the texts into languages like Swahili, Mandarin, Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Urdu, and so on. Volunteers are welcome to get in touch with us at gazapassages@gmail.com .

But the other, more pressing need, is for people to use their initiative and work independently to distribute the words of these Gazan writers. As you’ll see from the website, we invite people to do so without seeking our permission, though we’re happy to provide any help, if needed. There are beautiful printable pdfs available in multiple languages on the website. So please—host a reading, print a pamphlet, share a text on social media, graffiti a wall. It’s vital that as many people as possible read the words of Gazans right now.