In our fickle media age we've moved on from the Gaza conflict and are now obsessed with the atrocities in Iraq. However, peace in Gaza is still fragile and temporary, and there is a long way to go before that situation could be considered truly resolved. So I've been reading Izzeldin Abuelaish's 2010 memoir, I Shall Not Hate . Abuelaish came to international attention during the 2008-09 Israeli invasion of Gaza when his house was bombed by Israeli tanks, killing three of his daughters and his niece and injuring a number of other family members. This book tells that story, but puts it in its place in Abuelaish's life and work. It's a moving, tragic and yet hopeful book. The Abuelaish family originates from a village called Houg in southern Palestine. They were wealthy farmers, his grandfather the village muktar. However in 1948 during the first Israeli/Arab war, known to Palestinians as the Nakba or "Catastrophe", they fled their homes and walke
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson