Palestine: The Special Edition by Joe Sacco
Written between 1993 and 1995, and compiled as a complete set in 2001, this 285 page adult non-fiction graphic novel is not really something I can review, even if I knew how. As we have passed 100 days of the escalation in Gaza, on top of the ongoing horrors of Israeli occupation, I am hoping to broaden my literary awareness to include not just children’s fiction and non-fiction about Palestine, but also adult works by those living it, those moved by it, and those reporting on it.
This particular “special edition” has a forward by Edward Said, and an introduction by the author and illustrator. Once I started the actual story, I’ll be honest it took a few attempts to hook me, with the starting being in Cairo and being a little aggressive with alcohol and talk of women, but once I decided to just keep going, the book finds a bit of a rhythm. It shows the author himself shaping his own opinion as he interviews, and sees, and reports on the events around him. It is non-fiction, it is written by a journalist, at some points he acknowledges his bias, but the overall picture presented, is heart wrenching. That the humiliation and torment and occupation of a people has been so well known and documented and ignored, in light of current events, and even in isolation, is devastating. The exhaustion the writer feels just witnessing it, is palpable, and the complete ignorance of Israeli, former IDF soldiers none-the-less is stark.
The book is both a reflection of the time with internal political factions playing roles differently than they do in todays conflict. There are also views about Iraq and Saddam Hussein, which might surprise readers today. But the power of this book is what hasn’t changed, the torture, the imprisonment of children, checkpoints, illegal settlements, humiliation, restrictions from working, from moving, from being treated as equal.
I’m glad I read it, and spent time among the the ink filled pages. I am certain that many of the stories, particularly the ones from inside the prisons will stay with me and haunt me as I read headlines and scroll endlessly through the statistics occurring in real time. How can we be so blind, for so long, how can a people endure so much and keep fighting, how does any of this make sense?
