WATCH: Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Writing for Palestine скачать в хорошем качестве

WATCH: Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Writing for Palestine

ACCLAIMED PALESTINIAN POET MOSAB ABU TOHA ON LEAVING GAZA, & AVOIDING POETIC SYMBOLISM FOR THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE “Must a Palestinian person be martyred to be heard? Must they be tortured? Beaten? Exiled?” With these questions, our conversation with acclaimed Palestinian and Gazan poet, writer, and essayist begins. Abu Toha was kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces following the October 7th ‘Toufan Al Aqsa’. On November 20th, his name made headlines worldwide after his family and the global literary community called for his release. His words became a testimony, and his poems a lifeline—both for him personally behind bars and for millions of Gazans in Palestine witnessing the escalated genocide perpetrated by the occupation. Nearly a month before his kidnapping, he published an essay in The New Yorker titled ‘The View from My Window in Gaza,’ a vivid, personal account of his life in Gaza post-October 7th. In the viral essay, he writes, “One idea in particular haunts me, and I cannot push it away. Will I, too, become a statistic on the news?” Shortly after he becomes a headline. In this exclusive @CairoScene interview, filmed during Abu Toha’s first public poetry reading in Cairo at @auc_egypt’s Culture Fest, arts and culture editor Farah Desouky talks with Abu Toha about his writing style—short, sharp, and defiant—his journey from Gaza to Cairo, and his desire to reach global platforms with a language that is both accessible and focused on Palestinian struggle and personhood.