Refaat Alareer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Refaat Alareer
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| رفعت العرعير | |
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| Born | 23 September 1979 Shuja'iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
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| Died | 6 December 2023 (aged 44) Shuja'iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestinian territories
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| Cause of death | Israeli airstrike |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Professor |
| Known for | Activism |
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Notable work
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| Spouse(s) | Nusayba |
| Children | 6 |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Islamic University in Gaza |
Refaat Alareer (Arabic: رفعت العرعير, romanized: Rifaʿat al-ʿAriʿīr; 23 September 1979 – 6 December 2023) was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip.
Alareer was born in Gaza City in 1979 during the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, which he said had negatively influenced every move and decision he made. Alareer earned a BA in English in 2001 from the Islamic University of Gaza and an MA from University College London in 2007. He earned a PhD in English Literature at the Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2017 with a dissertation on John Donne.
He taught literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and co-founded the organization We Are Not Numbers, which matched experienced authors with young writers in Gaza, and promoted the power of storytelling as a means of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.
On 6 December 2023, Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, along with his brother, sister, and four of his nephews, during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. On 26 April 2024, his eldest daughter and his newborn grandchild were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home.
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Early life and education
Refaat Alareer was born 23 September 1979 in Shuja'iyya in Gaza City. Growing up in Gaza, he said, meant "every move I took and every decision I made were influenced (usually negatively) by the Israeli occupation."
Alareer earned a BA in English in 2001 from the Islamic University of Gaza and an MA from University College London in 2007. He earned a Ph.D. in English Literature at the Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2017 with a dissertation entitled "Unframing John Donne's Transgressive Poetry in Light of Bakhtin's Dialogic Theories."
Career
Alareer edited two volumes of Palestinian short stories, Gaza Writes Back (2014) and Gaza Unsilenced (2015). In an interview, he stated: "Gaza Writes Back was an attempt to provide a testimony for future generations." In 2007, Alareer became a professor at Islamic University in Gaza, where he taught world literature and creative writing, with a focus on Shakespeare. This included the work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, which he called beautiful but dangerous. He co-founded the organization We Are Not Numbers, a mentorship program that matches writers in Gaza with authors abroad. The organization promotes the power of storytelling as a means of Palestinian resistance.
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Alareer made media appearances on the BBC, Democracy Now!, and ABC News.
Patrick Kingsley, Jerusalem bureau chief of the The New York Times, wrote that Alareer's critical remarks about Israel drew accusations in Israel as being potentially antisemitic. The New York Times reported that many of Alareer's views reflected his anger at Israel, which was worsened by the killing of his brother in an Israeli airstrike during the 2014 war, and the fact that the Israeli blockade on Gaza had at times prevented him from leaving the Strip to study and teach abroad.
Personal life
Alareer and his wife had six children. His brother, Hamada, as well as his wife Nusayba's grandfather, brother, sister, and three nieces were killed during the 2014 Gaza War by an Israeli bombing campaign. In total, Israel killed more than 30 relatives of Alareer and his wife. During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Alareer wrote an op-ed in The New York Times describing the effects on his children. He was a Gaza Zoo volunteer, which he continued during the 2023 war.
On 26 April 2024, five months after Alareer's death, his eldest daughter Shaimaa, her husband Mohammed Siyam, and their newborn baby were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their home in Gaza City.
Death
Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike at approximately 18:00 on 6 December 2023 in northern Gaza. He had refused to leave northern Gaza at the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. His brother Salah with son Mohammed, and his sister Asmaa with three of her children (Alaa, Yahia, and Mohammed) were also among those killed in the same airstrike.
Tributes
The founder of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu, stated that Israeli soldiers "targeted, went after and killed the voice of Gaza, one of its best academics, a human, my dear and precious friend."
Poet Mosab Abu Toha wrote: "My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family." Najwan Darwish told The Guardian that Alareer had been "an influential voice," adding: "We didn't just lose Alareer, but we lost his poetry; it's all underneath the rubble, all the future poetry he would have written. And all these artists who have been killed … what's happened to their art?"
Palestinian-American professor Sami Al-Arian noted: "He was an amazing poet, an articulate voice for Gazans, and a true bridge to people outside Palestine. His loss will be missed by many inside Palestine and around the world".
REFAAT Initiative
On June 5, 2024, the REFAAT Initiative was launched to honor his memory and continue his legacy.
Works
PhD thesis
