Reading RoundupThey Make a Wasteland and Call It Peace – Appraising how the past fifteen months have devastated Gaza and altered the political contours of the world, Saree Makdisi argues that the ceasefire is merely a palliative solution that does not address the underlying structural violences through which Israel continues to occupy Palestine. A Palestinian Tomorrow – Randa Jarrar shares a new poem celebrating the future that is Palestine: “not the day after the war but a day after / the day after the war, / —that day— / the men will sleep for the first time.” Gaza Ceasefire Deal: Respite but No End to Colonial Occupation – In this roundtable, Basil Farraj, Shatha Abdulsamad, Diana Buttu, and Talal Ahmad Abu Rokbeh examine different ramifications of the ceasefire deal, from an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza and the shifting grounds of Israel’s carceral system to the enduring Israeli military presence and the fecklessness of international law. Against All Odds: Conceiving under Genocide – Roba Almadhoun, an obstetrician in Gaza, shares the stories of her patients who became pregnant and gave birth over the past fifteen months. Freed Palestinian Women Speak on Torture in Israeli Prisons – Rasha Jalal profiles a number of the women prisoners released in the ceasefire deal, revealing a harrowing portrait of the Israeli carceral state and the punitive violence it enacts on Palestinian women. Jenin is ‘Only the Beginning’: Israel Moves its War on Palestinians to the West Bank – Qassam Muaddi reports on the intensification of Israel’s assaults on Jenin and across the West Bank as an attempt by Netanyahuto mollify his far-right ministers and the settler movement writ large. Mustafa Barghouti on Israel’s “Defeat” in Gaza, Saudi Normalization, and the War on the West Bank – Sharif Abdeel Kouddous and Jeremy Scahill speak to Mustafa Barghouti about how Israel is politically escalating even as the ceasefire continues, at least nominally, to hold. After This Carnage in Gaza, Don't Expect Gratitude for Ceasefire – Mohammed R. Mhawish writes about his dazed sense of exhaustion as he, along with the rest of Gaza, try to pick up the pieces of their lives in what he sees as a temporary respite in the violence. Our Farm in the North: One Small Part of a Great Catastrophe – Salsabeel AbuLoghod describes how her family’s farm was looted by Israeli soldiers, and envisions the work it will take to make the land grow again. Goodbye, War – A new poem from Gazan poet and teacher Doha Kahlout marking the occasion of the ceasefire: “My beloved Gaza, we will return with nothing, and from you we will possess you.”
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