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| Mosab Abu Toha: Forest of Noise (Knopf 2024)/ Pulitzer Prize/ OPC/ American Book Award/ National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist/ Founder of the Edward Said Public Library |
"My wife and I just spoke with our families in Gaza. Most of them told us they’ll be sleeping tonight on mattresses and blankets completely soaked with rainwater.
More than half of our relatives are children, some under the age of five.
And yes, tonight they will sleep on wet mattresses and blankets, in a tent on the street.
I know that sharing this won’t change anything for them, not tonight, and not even next year.
How do I know?
Because babies have burned in tents, been beheaded, and been buried beneath the rubble, and not a single person stepped in to save their lives.
So how am I supposed to expect that anyone will save the life of a child who may die from the cold?
Can a camera capture the cold the way it captures flames?
Anyway, the only reason I’m writing this is because they told me these things, and I feel it is my duty to share them with you.
It is a responsibility.
A responsibility for them to speak as they suffer,
a responsibility for me to carry their story,
and a responsibility, ah, what a responsibility, for you to take action.
Yes, it is your money that is killing us and funding our murderers and oppressors.
It is your governments that are protecting our slaughterers."