Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash In the long history of Palestine, there was a time when the resistance was not shaped by guns but by pens, ideas, and voices. Some poets, writers, diplomats, and intellectuals gave the Palestinian struggle for freedom its cultural strength and political vision. They wrote words so that the whole world could feel the pain of a Palestinian and understand what it is like to be in an occupied land. In the 1970s, Israel systematically targeted and assassinated several of these intellectuals. The aim was to silence the brains of resistance and leave the movement without its most powerful voices. Five of the most prominent among them were Wael Zwaiter, Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Ezzedine Kalak, and Naim Khader. Each was killed far from the land they belonged to, yet each left a legacy that no bullet or bomb could erase. Let’s talk about these freedom fighters. 1. Ghassan Kanafani — Ghassan Kanafani via Palestine Po...
Album Cover art featuring Bird on Money (1981) by Jean-Michel Basquiat/©RCA Records April 2020. I remember that morning clearly. I didn’t get out of bed. I wasn’t sad, just… blank. Everything felt heavy. Everything felt suspended, fragile. A pandemic had devoured the world. And in that strange stillness, two things were new. I had just started talking to someone who would later become the first love of my life, and that same day, The Strokes released their new album, The New Abnormal. Before that, I didn’t even like The Strokes. I tried listening to them back in 2017 and couldn’t connect. Maybe I was too young. But in 2019, I heard Bad Decisions, and it got stuck in my head for weeks. It was catchy, a little nostalgic, and a little sad. That song made me curious about what was coming next, so I waited for the album. And that morning, for some reason, I decided to give it a try. The opening track, The Adults Are Talking, cracked me open. That opening riff, Julian’s voice… an...