Summary
Gaza-based poet contributing two poems and the analysis “Gaza 2050: Three Scenarios” to Light in Gaza (Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, PDF p.10-11, p.27).
Details
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In his poem “Don’t Step on My Feet Again” (PDF p.72, poetry), the speaker lives under drones and F-16s, blackouts and a border crossing between earth and sky, whispering to peace and hope not to step on his feet again (Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, PDF p.72).
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In his poem “Why Are You Still Here?” (PDF p.101-102, poetry), the speaker still stands despite the killed olive tree, the “veto”, F-16s, machine guns, apartheid wall and checkpoints, answered by his grandfather napping under his olive tree before the colonizer came (Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, PDF p.101-102).
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In “Gaza 2050: Three Scenarios” (PDF p.259-266, analysis) he presents three imagined, speculative futures for 2050, written in the first person. In his imagined no-solution scenario, Gaza’s population has reached ten million people and the blockade has lasted more than forty years, while Gaza still has the thirteen government hospitals with fewer than two thousand beds that he gives as the figure for 2021. In his imagined two-state scenario, Palestinians have a state on 22 percent of the original land with no right of return, and Israel still restricts movement and imports. In his imagined one-state scenario, which he endorses, one democratic secular state with equal rights exists, and he imagines himself living in Beersheba, his family’s original city, an hour from Gaza with no checkpoint (PDF p.260-265).
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He argues humanitarian aid is a proven failure that perpetuates the cycle, and that “It’s not the responsibility of the occupied to find a solution to their occupation; rather, this is the responsibility of the occupier” (PDF p.265).
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The Contributors list records that Aldirawi is also published as Basman Derawi, is a physiotherapist and a 2010 graduate of Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and contributes dozens of stories to the online platform We Are Not Numbers (Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, PDF p.314).