‘Daybreak in Gaza’

By Olivia Snaije

“In this war who am I? To the world, it seems I am just a number, a person who is counted on a list of people displaced, people injured or people hungry and thirsty. And if the next bomb is for me, I will be another number to add to the number of people killed in the genocide—and then I will be forgotten.”

These devastating words were written in March 2024 by Heba Almaqadma, one of the contributors to Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture, a collection of work by more than 50 contributors, gathering nearly 100 accounts of lives and stories from Gaza from before and during Israel’s most recent assault.

Edited by Palestinian writer, publisher, and bookseller Mahmoud Muna, and UK-based author and broadcaster Matthew Teller, and supported by Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, and Jayyab Abusafia, a journalist from Gaza, Daybreak in Gaza was completed in just three months. As the editors write in their preface, how could they respond, from the safety of their homes, to genocide and the complicity of their own governments? Showing solidarity with victims and survivors prompted them to show the “depth and richness of Gaza society,” with the contributors helping to paint a picture that “eviscerates media stereotypes of Gaza as a valueless slum.”

The chapters include contributions from a variety of Gazans who wanted to be heard, from poets to journalists, to a falafel shop owner, but also from a historian writing on Gaza’s history of fabric and embroidery, or authors and poets based outside of Gaza. Libyan novelist Hisham Matar introduces “Letter from Gaza,” written in 1956 by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani.

On November 1, 2024, Muna and Teller will embark on a European tour to present the book, having already travelled within the UK. Profits from the tour, as well as sales of the book generally, are being donated to the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.

In between cities, Teller took the time to answer a few questions for Arablit:

You and Mahmoud [Muna] pulled the book together in record time, can you describe the process that you went through?

Matthew Teller: It was phenomenally quick. A year ago, we both had the same thing on our minds—at some time in the future, when our families ask us, or when we ask ourselves, ‘what did you do while the genocide was happening?’, we wanted to have an answer. November and December last year were full of fury and anguish. It felt impossible to act effectively. January was taken up with trying to formulate a coherent book proposal, talking to publishers and getting constantly knocked back: “there’s no market for this,” “will Gaza still be important in a year’s time?” One publisher in London rejected a proposal, saying that what everyone was really looking for was an insider account of October 7th from both sides.

Once we approached Saqi Books, they got it immediately. A contract was signed in late February, and we set ourselves a three-month deadline. The book had to be ready by May 31st. The sense was that either this is going to work more or less straightaway, or it’s not. The first month was very hard—reaching out to our networks, painfully aware that by asking traumatized people in a desperate situation to share personal stories or reflect on happier times past, the line between solidarity and exploitation is very, very thin. It took three or four weeks for the project to gain traction – but when it did, it was if floodgates opened. People were desperate to be heard. Testimonies, essays, responses of all kinds came pouring in. I was interviewing individuals face to face in London and remotely in the US, France, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. Mahmoud visited people in Jerusalem to talk in person and was contacting sources inside and outside Gaza day and night. Our co-editors Jayyab in Cairo and Juliette in Amman were talking to their own networks and gathering first-hand material.

It often felt like we were trying to talk to people as fast as Israel was killing them. Sometimes we would approach people by text, and then wake up next day to find 15 or 20 voice notes from them in reply. It was very humbling to be told by people in Gaza that they would call back at midnight—at the most dangerous times of day, when Israel was bombing indiscriminately in the dark—because they needed to move to find a place where there is better internet so they could speak to us on the record.

This book carries a lot of weight on its shoulders.

By May 31st, we had 80,000 words. The book went to print in late July, and advance copies arrived at the end of August, ready for October 3rd publication. Unless you’re Prince Harry, publishing simply doesn’t work that fast. Saqi deserves a huge amount of respect and credit for recognizing the urgency of this project and the broader moral imperative to act, and then actually getting it done in record time.

How have you gone about organizing this book tour? 

MT: We knew it would be important to take the book to audiences directly, to actually speak about what the people of Gaza have been facing—and to platform Gazan voices and Gazan history and culture, on the page and with sound and vision in front of readers. For the first tour, we chose a start date and an end date, and then worked to fill the two weeks in between. It quickly became apparent that we could easily fill another two weeks—and another, and another. It can be exhausting, though, to be constantly travelling and speaking in public—especially about such a traumatic and heartbreaking issue as Gaza—so we realized it was important for our own health and wellbeing to put limits. Also, we are earning nothing from this tour—the opposite, in fact—so even though we might want to keep touring and speaking, for ourselves and our families we can’t.

Saqi, the publishers, were incredibly helpful and supportive in setting up many of our UK dates. Building on their foundation, we also tapped our own networks. Sometimes we (or Saqi) approached Palestine solidarity groups and/or independently owned bookstores in different cities in Britain and other countries, to ask if they would like to host an event; sometimes these groups approached us to invite us to speak. Mahmoud knows people all over the world, because everybody who visits Jerusalem visits the bookshop—which means he can lean on friends and tap into goodwill and support everywhere. Friends in the Netherlands have been incredibly dynamic, setting up nine events for the four days we are there in November. A British friend, who has worked for Palestine for many years at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival, offered to drive us around England so that we could get to every event easily. Some hosts have donated venues without charge. Supporters in Scotland and Germany have rallied friends and solidarity groups to promote events there online and by word of mouth. And so on.

The wellspring of interest, engagement, enthusiasm and support for Palestine runs very deep. But this tour has also shown us that we are not just playing to the gallery—once a Palestine event exists, we are finding that all sorts of unaffiliated or unconvinced people turn up to listen, too.

By the end, we will have spoken in 25 towns and cities, spread across seven countries.

It’s a cliche to say “it takes a village”—but it really does. None of this is possible alone. We’re just the front men for a massive multi-team effort to platform Gaza voices to a European readership.

Next up we hope, is a tour of the USA.

What kind of reception have you had from audiences?

MT: It’s been emotional, and almost universally positive. Tears have been shed, on both sides of the microphone. People in every place have listened closely, asked good questions, expressed their encouragement and enthusiasm for the book and support for the people of Gaza. Usually, at book events, you allow for 30-40% of the audience to buy the book. At a small event for 30 people, you might sell ten books. But this tour has been nearer 80%. On a rainy Sunday evening at a children’s bookshop in East Oxford (UK) this month, fifty people came to hear us speak, and the bookshop sold 49 copies. In Brighton (UK), it was 54 copies. People are buying three to five books at a time, to give to friends and family. It’s extraordinary, and very humbling.

Olivia Snaije (oliviasnaije.com) is a journalist and editor based in Paris. She translated Lamia Ziadé’s Bye Bye Babylon (Jonathan Cape), and has written several books on Paris published by Dorling Kindersley and Flammarion. Editions Textuel (Paris) and Saqi Books (London) published Keep Your Eye on the Wall: Palestinian Landscapes, which she co-edited with Mitch Albert.