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Joe Sacco
© Michael Tierney

Footnotes in Gaza


Footnotes in Gaza

Footnotes In Gaza documents Joe Sacco’s investigation into the massacre of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli military in Khan Younis and Rafah in 1956. Over 400 pages and four years in the making, this graphic novel combines art with eyewitness reportage to powerful effect and gives a rare insight into the daily struggle in Gaza, past and present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footnotes in Gaza

How did the Footnotes in Gaza project start?

I came across a United Nations document that talked about massacres that took place in the Gaza Strip during the Suez Crisis in 1956. The document alleged that many Palestinian civilians had been killed in these incidents. It said that the Israelis had claimed that there was resistance and the Palestinians had claimed that there was no resistance, that they were just killed in cold blood basically. I did this book because this story has really not been reported. And I thought, there are people out there who are still alive that must remember this, so why not go speak to them and find out from them what happened. I spent two and half months in Gaza and found these people, I interviewed them and gathered their testimonies. I took a lot of photos for reference and came back and wrote the script, like a scenario. Then I started drawing. It’s a process that has taken many years.

 

Some of the characters in your book do not understand why you are interested in these events which date back 50 years. How do you find Gazans relate to their own history?

Yes I did find a lot of Gazans who questioned what I was doing. Basically, they said “you want to talk about 1956, but look what’s going on now!” They wanted me to go to the border area and see where the homes were being demolished or talk about the ongoing attacks that were happening at the time. And I agree that is also an important part of the story and I did tell some of that in the book. Some people said they had never heard anything about what had happened in 1956. Others asked why I was focussing on the past. It’s hard to look at the past - isolate it and digest it - when you are still suffering yourself right now. Look, when you see how the British talk about the 1940 Battle Of Britain, they can even romanticise it …but if the Germans were still bombing Britain today, they wouldn’t have that attitude, they would be thinking about today. It seems like the history of Palestine since 1948 has been almost like a continuous catastrophe. And each generation has its own problems. I’m just isolating one generation and talking about that.

 

You include testimonies from many Palestinians. Were you also able to find any Israeli soldiers who were present at Khan Younis or Rafah in 1956?

I found one story written by an Israeli soldier about his experiences in 1956, when he came into the town of Khan Younis and saw a lot of dead people and described it as a human slaughterhouse. He’s died since, but I managed to find someone who was in his unit and I talked to him, but that man said he didn’t see anything like that…I talked to Israeli military commanders, brigade commanders, and one man who was on the staff of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general at the time. And I worked with Israeli historians and researchers. But it’s difficult to find soldiers who will talk. I would have been happy to talk to them. But obviously it’s easier to find victims who will talk than perpetrators who will talk.

 

Footnotes in Gaza

Footnotes in Gaza

 

The incessant demolition of Palestinian houses by Israeli bulldozers is an omnipresent threat in your story. How did the Palestinian Authority deal with this situation at the time (2002-2003)?

Since I was there for the book, things have changed – the Israelis no longer control that border, they left Gaza. And Hamas has taken over. But in those days the Palestinian Authority didn’t do a damn thing which is of course part of the reason why it was discredited in the eyes of many Palestinian people. Because supposedly they were negotiating with the Israelis but meanwhile the Israelis were knocking down homes, and the Palestinian Authority wasn’t resisting this at all. That’s why militant groups will take it upon themselves to try to resist. So in some ways it was one demonstration of the absolute ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority.

 

You were in Gaza when Rachel Corrie died (Corrie was an American pacifist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah in 2003) which caused an international media storm. One hour later a Palestinian civilian was killed in Rafah and his death was ignored by the press. In your book you speak about both incidents. Do you think that imbalance is typical of media coverage of the region?

Rachel Corrie’s death was always going to be a big deal, because she was an American and it’s unusual for an American to take such a stand. I don’t want to take anything away from her, and what she did, because it was very significant. It was very significant for the Palestinians who talked a lot about what her death meant and and also about her non-violent resistance to home demolitions. But yes, there was a guy killed an hour later in Rafah, and he’s forgotten. I don’t think there were any press reports about that. I wanted to show that yes an American died but a Palestinian also died. They both had families who suffered. I wanted to show that death is death. Of course the media tends to focus on the death of a Westerner. I think that Rachel Corrie would have approved of the fact that I would equate her death with the death of Palestinian.

 


Rachel, a film by Simone Bitton

 

There is a really beautiful sequence in the book about the sacrifice of a bull during Eid in Kebir. What’s the meaning of that scene for you?

There are several scenes like that in the book. I wanted to show that despite the drama of their everyday lives, Palestinians are deeply attached to their traditions, traditions which allow them to feel like human beings. The sacrifice of the bull is part of their culture which defines their sense of belonging to a community. It’s a very important tradition, it’s not just about killing an animal, it’s also about an entire family sharing a meal together, and distributing some of the meat to the poor. This goes on despite the attacks and the bombing…I think it’s important to put these kinds of moments to the fore. I did not want to portray Palestinians simply as victims.

 

How do you see the current situation in Gaza?

I think Gaza has changed a lot, it has always been a very desperate situation there but the blockade is worse than ever. It was tight when I was there, that was before Hamas took over. When Hamas came in Israel declared Gaza an enemy entity and the EU, the US, Israel and Egypt all seem to be agreeing on this very tight blockade. On the one hand Palestinians have a lot of pressure from outside, and there’s also pressure from within, under Hamas rule. It’s like a pressure cooker…It’s almost like a strange experiment in trying to crack a people. I’m not sure what the reason is for keeping 1.5 million people under those conditions. It is shocking that this is going on, we don’t get much news of what life is like but I can tell you that the people are desperate there.

 

What does the graphic novel bring to journalism?

What I do combines journalism with drawing. I think every medium has its strength, whether it’s documentary film, photo-journalism or writing. I don’t think comics have more strength than other media, but there is a special impact. With a drawing you can always capture the right moment, with a photograph you have to be very lucky to do that. Being able to recreate a precise moment in drawing gives you a lot of power, sometimes you can over-do it because there is so much power in that.

 

Finally, what projects do you have coming up?

I have just finished a 48 page story for an American magazine about African migrants trying to come to Europe. And I went back to where I’m from, Malta, because many of them are landing there. I wanted to see what the Maltese think, what the Africans are going through and I talked to government people about policy. And I’m about to go to India to do a comic about rural poverty. I think soon I’ll step away from journalism for a while – I’m looking for new creative inspirations.

 

 

Footnotes In Gaza – A Graphic Novel by Joe Sacco is published by Metropolitan (US) / Jonathan Cape (UK)





Jean-Sébastien Josset



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