‘Why Don’t You Just Die?’ by Nasser Abu Srour

I have decided to write because things do not find existence outside the borders of language, not even genocide. I must write about the slaughter in Gaza; about its famished men, women and children; about its drowned sea and about its ability to rise again; about the world’s indifference to what has happened there and what is still happening there; about how the major powers barely even acknowledge this crime. I must write about Palestinian prisoners, because a war is still being waged against them; the Israeli prison authorities have not yet declared a ‘ceasefire’.

I must write to confess my desire to stop apologising to Gaza and to the Palestinian prisoners for every breath I take, for every thread of light that touches my face, and for all the space that has opened up to me. That is what I’ve been doing for the past seven months. I have never stopped apologising to Gaza and to the Palestinian prisoners for my survival.