“Born of Fire”: New Writing from and about Gaza

Tuesday, December 13th

featuring Dorgham Abusalim (author), Jehad Abusalim (NYU & American Friends Service Committee) & Jennifer Bing (AFSC) in conversation with Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP)

Listen to this conversation as a podcast

A new anthology, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, features personal narratives and political essays from Palestinians in Gaza “imagining the future of Gaza beyond the cruelties of occupation and Apartheid.” This webinar featured two of the anthology’s editors – FMEP Fellow Jehad Abusalim and AFSC’s Jennifer Bing – as well as one of the contributing authors, Dorgham Abusalim, who will discuss the importance and impact of amplifying voices from Gaza. We focused on the valuable conversations that the book and its publication have created as a counter to Israel’s ongoing siege and the general marginalization of Gaza and explore how the exercise of imagining a different future can challenge the present realities. Haymarket Books, the publisher, says: “As political discourse shifts toward futurism as a means of reimagining a better way of living, beyond the violence and limitations of colonialism, Light in Gaza is an urgent and powerful intervention into an important political moment.”

Bios

Dorgham Abusalim is a communications and media professional, working at the intersection of journalism, international affairs, and communications. He holds a master of international affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. 

Jehad Abusalim is a 2022 Palestinian non-resident Fellow at FMEP, the Education and Policy Coordinator of the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee, and is completing his PhD in the History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies joint program at New York University. He tweets @JehadAbusalim.

Jennifer Bing directs the American Friends Service Committee’s  Palestine Activism Program in Chicago and works with her colleagues Palestine and Israel. She has worked at AFSC since 1989, serving in various capacities in its programs organizing hundreds of speaking tours, conferences, workshops, advocacy campaigns, and educational programs about Palestine and the Middle East. She tweets @JBing215.

Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD, is the Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. She tweets @saminkin.

Resources:  

Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire → https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1861-light-in-gaza

You can follow our speakers here: 

• Jehad Abusalim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JehadAbusalim, @JehadAbusalim.
• Jennifer Bing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBing215, @JBing215
• Dorgham Abusalim: https://twitter.com/dorghamabusalim?lang=bg, @dorghamabusalim
• Sarah Anne Minkin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saminkin @saminkin 

AFSC: https://www.afsc.org/program/chicago-middle-east-program

To hear more from Jehad about Gaza, check out this FMEP podcast he participated in:  https://fmep.org/resource/treated-as-subhuman-deprived-of-rights-and-dignity-gazans-need-to-heal-be-heard-and-be-free/

Main site for info on the anthology: https://gazaunlocked.org/anthology

Where one can read reviews: https://gazaunlocked.org/anthology/reviews

Review of speaking tour by Yousef Aljamal wrote about his speaking tour here: https://politicstoday.org/how-i-saw-the-light-in-gaza-during-my-united-states-trip/

AFSC is running a campaign to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which you can learn more about here: https://www.afsc.org/action/end-blockade-gaza