by Joe Sacco; Metropolitan Books
I grew up in Vancouver, Canada and went to Catholic
Schools, so my education growing up has been decidedly biassed towards the
State of Israel. My high school history teacher depicted Israelis as "bad
ass jew underdogs" struggling against an Arab world that hated them while
the Western media has done its best to characterize every Muslim as a
terrorist. (And come to think of it, I once overheard my High School principle
go on a Religion Class screed about how Islam is a religion of war and hate
that Christianity couldn't coexist with... so yeah.) But reality is much more
complex and the Palestinians have a story too, are people too. Footnotes In
Gaza chronicles a pair of historical war atrocities committed by the Israel
Defence Forces in the Gaza strip. Specifically the comic looks at two incidents
in 1956, one in Khan Younis and one in Rafah, where occupying IDF soldiers
executed and brutalized Palestinian civilians. These stories are told with
journalistic rigour, relying on eyewitness accounts and official documents, and
portrayed with a cartoonists eye to detail. This search is backdropped by
modern day Gaza as Joe Sacco and his guides hunt for information, which portrays
the pretty horrifying story of Palestinian life: of Israeli occupation,
encroachment, demolition, and death. Footnotes In Gaza is a stark look at the
Israel/Palestine situation and gives a voice to the often-neglected Palestinian
perspective. It is food for thought and the kind of comics journalism we all
should read.
Word count: 248
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