English professor, poet and author Refaat Alareer (L) was killed when Israel bombed his home earlier this week. I first met Refaat in his office at the Islamic University of Gaza in 2018. In a prophetic last video recorded days before he was murdered, he was angry and fatalistic.” What do the Israelis want?”, he asked. “For us to commit mass suicide? We wont do that“. See the video he recorded just before he was killed. More...
Professor Refaat Alareer was a mild mannered and slightly bookish English teacher. His name can now be added to the list of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children whom Israel has murdered in the last two months, while many Canadian politicians avert their eyes.
Refaat was the editor of “Gaza Writes Back”, a compelling anthology of short stories from fifteen young writers in Gaza who had suffered immensely under Israel’s siege and blockade. Their experiences, especially during and following Israel’s 2008-2009 assault known as “Operation Cast Lead”, fundamentally impacted their lives and their writing.
Refaat went on to create a writers collective called “We are not Numbers” (WANN) which encouraged and helped young Palestinian writers to share their lives with English language readers around the world.
What was Refaat’s crime? To be Palestinian
Refaat was not killed because he was a Hamas “terrorist”. (He didn’t have a gun).
Israel claims it is waging a war on Hamas. It is not. It is waging a war on all Palestinians – in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Israel killed Refaat, like they have killed nearly 20,000 others in Gaza, because he was Palestinian.
“My mom made me the man I am because of her stories; and my grandmother made me love my homeland because of her stories,” Alareer noted in a speech several years ago to Ted Talks.
For 76 years, millions of Palestinians have bravely resisted Israel’s attempt to push them out and take over their land. Starting with the Nakba in 1947/48, Israel has murdered thousands and exiled millions to refugee status. Refaat’s grandmother was exiled by Israel. And now Israel has killed her grandson, a bookish professor of English. And for 76 years, too many Canadian politicians have looked the other way.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is the weekly newsletter of Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about Canada’s response to the complicated and emotional Israel/Palestine issue with a focus on the truth, clear analysis and human rights for all. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment.
Want to learn more about us? Go to Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine.ca
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Peter I’m very sorry for your loss. This is tragic.
Robin
thank you Robin. One tragedy among thousands. The only difference is that I know this person.
This must mean that Israel has a right to defend itself against poets and musicians and academics. It won’t stop Gazans and the rest of us from ‘writing back’.
It is important to object every time someone uses the phrase, “Israel-Hamas War”. It is a war between Israel and Palestinians that has been going on for more than 80 years. Calling it a war against Hamas is a tactic being used to hide the truth.
Dear Peter, Thank you for keeping the memory of Prof. Refaat alive and for all your wonderful work to support justice in Palestine and the world.
I did not know about him, but his friends and people who knew him are sharing stories about his generosity, kindness and talent. I understand that he was deliberately targeted just for being an influential writer and moral voice.
It is sad that Israeli society has become so militarized that they want to destroy everything: ordinary stories, schools, hospitals..Canadian government can put pressure to change that.
Peter,
I have forwarded this to my MP, Leah Gazan, who has, I believe endorsed
a Canadian gov’t call for a ceasefire. I hope she might send it to others.
Also, my condolences for the loss of your friend.
Susan
Hi Peter. Hard to watch that video but it speaks volumes.
I think a bigger problem to deal with are the persistent one-sided support for Israel coming from non-Jews Christians who refused to acknowledge the existence and reality of Jewish Extremist groups running the current state of Israel. And with the US being a big brother to Israel and where most of these pro-Israel Christians are serving in politic in the US, it is not surprising Israel will continue reckless bloodshed.
I tried in my post to address the problems of Jewish Extremist groups pushing for the current situation of genocide and wish pro-Israel Christians will wake up to their senses.
Canada should not sniff the butt of the Middle East.
Hey Mosckerr, Did you feel the same way when Canada proposed the partition of Palestine in 1947? Canada was a member of the UN Special Committee on Palestine. We recommended giving more than half of Palestine to European Jews. Did you wish we had not done so?
Hey Peter? Do you debate something that happened in Canada 80 years ago? No you do not. So why do you pretend that pre-Jewish State Israel matters today? An utterly absurd question. UN Resolution 181 David Ben Gurion the head of the Yishuv of the British Palestine mandate territory accepted. All Arabs within the mandate territory and outside of the mandate territory absolutely rejected UN partition plan 181. So again your question utterly absurd.
Hey Mr. Mosckerr, on that basis I suppose you would not want to debate resolution 194 which allowed for the refugees to return. Do you accept that one? Or do you pick and choose which ones should not be debated?
RESOLUTION 194
1940s
Resolution 194
The United Nations General Assembly adopts resolution 194 (III), resolving that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
Khartoum Resolution 1967 Post 6 Day War.
No Peace
No Negotiations
No Trade
So No definitely not, especially after Oct 7th.
so you support 194? good
“no peace,” “no negotiations” and “no recognition” of Israel. Now Peter how does Israel negotiate over refugees? An utterly absurd GA UN Resolution, comparable to: Zionism is Racism UN REsolution.
Actually, Israel is not supposed to “negotiate” over refugees.
The right to return is an individual right. Any Palestinian refugee has the right to return if he/she wants to. Whether Israel likes it or not.
The same thing for Jewish refugees who left Arab countries to come to Israel. I support their right to return – and to compensation if they can show they lost property.
It’s atrocious that so many Palestinian non-combatants have been prevented from crossing borders to safety since Israel began unrelentingly bombarding Gaza and its citizens, sometimes even as they fled their homes upon Israeli insistence.
Not surprising, U.S. Republicans went into their ‘Christian’ mode, admitting that humanitarian aid for the Palestinians was not their concern. [Jesus must be spinning in heaven.]
The general western corporate news-media’s ‘coverage’ of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has long been very wanting. This includes their reporting on the current and past violence but especially their non-reporting on the consequential anti-Palestinian social injustices that continue in between every military flare up over decades of Israeli occupation.
Palestinian suffering and deaths in their entirety have not been justly represented. Their great suffering and deaths may somehow seem less worthy of our actionable concern as otherwise relatively civilized nations. …
Apparently, while some identifiable groups have been brutally victimized throughout history a disproportionately large number of times, the victims of one place and time can and sometimes do become the victimizers of another place and time.
Indeed, people should avoid believing, let alone claiming, that they/we are not capable of committing an atrocity, even if relentlessly pushed.
Contrary to what is claimed or felt by many of us, deep down there’s a tyrant in each of us that, under the just-right circumstances, can be unleashed; and maybe even more so when convinced that God is on our side.