A Gazan Narrative of Misery and Hope

These memoirs take us through the life of a refugee and fighter from the generation of the Nakba in Gaza's refugee camps and the diaspora, on an extraordinary, event-filled journey. The author narrates through a combination of direct personal experience and description of public life, highlighting the transformations that Gazan society went through during critical stages, the most significant of which are: daily life in the al-Shatiʿ camp in the 1950s, after the first wave of refugees from the Nakba; the Gaza Strip under Egyptian military rule during the Nasser era; the beginning of the Israeli occupation [in 1967] and the chronicles of day-to-day resistance, about which some details are revealed here for the first time; and the Great [First] Intifada of 1987. These memoirs also shed light on the author's action-packed life first inside the camp, then as a student and militant in Cairo and Bulgaria, and finally after his return to Palestine and his role in the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.