Mojtaba

“On the first day of the war, a friend of mine texted me: ‘What is happening in Gaza?’ I replied: ‘The proper question is not what is happening, but what has been happening, all this time—for more than 75 years.’ We live in a war film, and the director, who is also the producer and the star, does not want it to end. The Hollywood studio behind the film keeps feeding the script with new scenes, keeps adding millions of dollars to the budget. Early screen tests have proven it’s going to be a blockbuster, but only if they keep filming. And never stop.”
― Atef Abu Saif, Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide

“Memories of war are strangely positive, because to have them you must have survived.”
― Atef Abu Saif, Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide

“The challenges facing Palestinians are harder than anything we could have imagined; the moment the challenge isn’t just ‘how to survive today’, a whole world of future suffering will open up to us. I remembered my early thought, when I was in the north, that the real war starts when the military operations end. It’s true, both politically and at the level of human drama. When the guns are shut down, the pain and despair of ordinary people will come to the surface. It will be that moment of realisation: both of the loss they’ve suffered and the new conditions they have to live with. In this sense, thinking of tomorrow is more difficult than thinking of today.”
― Atef Abu Saif, Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide

“The Palestinian logic is that in war we should all sleep in different places, so that if one part of the family is killed, another part lives.”
― Atef Abu Saif, Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide