Of course they don’t mean to kill us, even when they drop 2,000-pound bombs on us.
Aged just 26, Sondos Sabra has survived two years of the genocide which has claimed the lives of at least 63,000 Gazans, forcibly displaced almost 2 million people, and seen huge areas of the Strip reduced to rubble — including homes, hospitals, universities and arts centres.
Sondos’ diaries are a stark record of the brutality of Israel’s genocide: the bombardment, displacement and mass murder of civilians, including members of Sabra’s own family. They are also filled with love, enduring humour, and stories of everyday resilience — from the neighbour who fashions an ashtray from the shrapnel of an American-made bomb, to the enduring bonds of friendship, family and a deep connection to the land.
They don’t want to see me as anything but a number, a voiceless creature. And when they declared, ‘No water, no food, no electricity,’ it was as if they were also whispering, ‘No memory, no humanity.’ But they have failed. I think, I write, and I remember. I remember that I remember, and I will not have that memory erased.
The event will be accompanied by video from the Gazan filmmaker Hossam Abo Shamallah and followed by a Q&A with local Palestinians, academics and activists.
Part of Index on Censorship’s Banned Books Week.
Important information
Tickets:
From: £12.00
Running time:
1 hr 30 minutes
Sensory notice & content warnings
Content information will become available for this production soon.
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Sondos Sabra is a regular contributor to New Statesman Magazine. Her work has appeared onstage at the Barbican Centre, London and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Her diaries are published in Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide, available from Comma Press. She remains in Gaza city, continuing to write.
Comma Press is a not-for-profit publisher based in Manchester, with strong family ties to Gaza. Comma has published books include The Book of Gaza, The Drone Eats With Me, The Sea Cloak, Don’t Look Left and Voices of Resistance. All of Comma Press’s share of ticket sales will go towards Sondos Sabra’s education fund — helping to secure her place at Lancaster University as soon as it becomes possible for students to travel from Gaza to the UK.
