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In her young life, state-sanctioned violence is all Shahd Alnaami has ever known. It’s a violence that has only metastasized since 7 October, as she and more than two million of her fellow residents of Gaza have endured Israel’s relentless war of revenge, siege, and collective punishment.
In that time, Shahd’s friends and family have been killed, her beloved libraries and university have been shattered, and the bare minimum needed to sustain life has remained dangerously elusive.
Out of grief and trauma, however, grow not anger and disillusionment but hope and persistence. Shahd shared with us a glimpse of what that means.
She read us one of her essays, reprinted here with her permission:
for Dr. Refaat Alareer Sept. 3, 1979 – Dec. 6, 2023 So many of us still hold our phones, read your poems — not losing hope, but we’re tired of sleeping in fear, tired of being displaced, living in tents, haunted by horrors that linger in our minds. A missile pierced the silence, burning all the tents — including you. I have not forgotten. Nights become nightmares, children cry from the cold, their laughter, once bright, now a distant echo. We yearn to return, free from fear. When will these bloody nights end? When will this tragedy stop? When will our normal lives return, and our distant dreams come true? We keep asking, “Will this pass?” And remember how you used to say, “It shall pass… I keep hoping it shall pass…” Still, we wait for the day peace will dawn, and a new chapter open its bleary eyes.
Shahd — a writer, translator, and student of English literature — also gave us some reading recommendations:
They Called Me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
American War by Omar El Akkad
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
You can order a print or digital copy of her collection of essays here. If you’re interested in supporting Shahd directly, visit this gofundme page.
NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
