Daybreak in Gaza
Mahmoud Muna, Matthew Teller (editors)
With Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia
Paperback, 336 pages
9781849250696
Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture
Daybreak in Gaza is therefore an important attempt to preserve a culture under attack and will be an early contribution to a body of literature that will likely be studied for decades to come. — Middle East Eye
A city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land. — Shamsaddin al-Dimashqi, geographer (1256–1327)
This was Gaza. A place of humanity and creativity, rich in culture and industry. A place now pulverised and devastated, its entire population displaced by a seemingly endless onslaught. Today, as its heritage is being destroyed, Gaza's survivors preserve their culture through literature, music, stories and memories. Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture is a record of that heritage, revealing an extraordinary place and people. Vignettes of artists, acrobats, doctors, students, shopkeepers and teachers across the generations offer stories of love, life, loss and survival. They display the wealth of Gaza's cultural landscape and the breadth of its history.
This remarkable book humanises the people dismissed as mere statistics and portrays lives full of joy and meaning. Daybreak in Gaza stands as a mark of resistance to the destruction, and as a testament to the people of Gaza.
About the Editors
Mahmoud Muna is a writer, publisher and bookseller from Jerusalem, Palestine. He runs Jerusalem’s celebrated Educational Bookshop and the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, both centres of the city’s literary scene. Muna is active in many cultural initiatives across Palestine and published the first Arabic edition of Granta magazine.
Matthew Teller is a UK-based writer and broadcaster. He has written on the Middle East for the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial Times and has produced documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World Service. Teller is the author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City, which was a 2022 Telegraph Book of the Year.
Juliette Touma is Director of Communications for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, covering Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Touma travels frequently to Gaza from UNRWA’s headquarters in Amman, Jordan.
Jayyab Abusafia is a London-based journalist from Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza. He was formerly Sky News Arabia’s senior reporter in London and a senior news presenter at Alghad TV.