MY STORY IS THAT OF PALESTINE

750,000 Palestinians are said to have been detained in Israeli prisons since 1967. This figure is at least what the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics claims. For the month of December 2020 alone, 4,400 Palestinians are reported to have been incarcerated, many of whom were under administrative detention. These are extrajudicial imprisonments that primarily target those who concern Israel, those whom the State believes could potentially pose threats to its security and future. Preventive imprisonments, one might say! Just in case... A situation that opens the door to the worst administrative and judicial abuses.

Arbitrarily held, these prisoners have no right to defense, are unaware of the charges against them, and are serving a sentence that has not been pronounced, without any idea of when it will end. Enough to kill the hope that allows survival in prison.

Mohammad Sabaaneh is a Palestinian caricaturist and illustrator, a member of "Cartoon Movement" and "Cartoonists Rights Network International." The recipient of numerous international awards, he has focused on Palestinians under administrative detention. The result is a troubling graphic novel where the silences are filled with anguish, fear, and despair. Just like the spaces between the panels.

This moving graphic novel, "I Will Not Leave, My Story Is That of Palestine," is essential. Essential because it tackles a subject almost too difficult to grasp for those who, like me, live in the comfort of our societies where everything is accessible. Essential also for its almost poetic treatment. By approaching this reality in this way, Mohammad Sabaaneh makes it more impactful, more human, more authentic, as if he, too, were trying to mentally escape from a prison that crushes the bodies and souls of its inmates. As if all of Palestine were indeed a vast jail, sometimes with bars, sometimes without, filled with prisoners of becoming.

Like Andy Dufresne in the excellent "Shawshank Redemption," who mentally escaped from his penitentiary by illegally broadcasting an excerpt from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" in the prison yard, to remind other inmates and himself that there is a life beyond the walls, and that a soul can resist the carceral monster, the narrator of the graphic novel soars beyond the prison walls with the help of a bird that tells him about life on the outside. Life and resistance.

A winning strategy that allows him to integrate the stories of other victims of this relentless repression and to overcome the difficult obstacle of solitary confinement where he never meets anyone, except for these anonymous, interchangeable, almost mute guards who all look alike.

With its dynamic layout, the sobriety of its narrative, its dark and expressive style, and its skillful use of black and white, Mohammad Sabaaneh delivers a powerful graphic novel that fascinated and captivated me. A graphic novel that remained in my memory long after its conclusion. A graphic novel that stands proudly alongside the finest achievements of the genre, such as those of Joe Sacco, for example.

You cannot overlook this dark yet hopeful narrative.

Mohammad Sabaaneh, "I Will Not Leave. My Story Is That of Palestine," Alifbata.