Palestine: A Nation Occupied

By Joe Sacco, Fantagraphics Books, 1994, 144 pp. List: $14.95, AET: $10.95.

Reviewed by Stephen Sosebee

I was skeptical when I first heard about a comic book called Palestine. How could lighthearted fiction for kids deal seriously with a subject as complex and misunderstood as the intifada and Israeli occupation? So it was a pleasant surprise to read a comprehensive, enlightening and accurate non-fictional work that does not belittle the subject despite the comic form.

Palestine: A Nation Occupied by Joe Sacco, although written before the Oslo accords, is as relevant and accurate as any of the many academic books on the subject published over the past seven years. With keen eye and sharp pen, Sacco goes through the all-purpose West Bank/Gaza experience. Because of its fresh and interesting approach, Palestine can go a long way in educating younger readers about a complex issue to which they might otherwise never be exposed.

Palestine came about when Sacco did a two-month "intifada experience" in 1991-1992. Playing journalist, he explored the various facets of the occupation, which he explains with wit, clever drawings and personal insight. Though Palestine represents Sacco's experience, it also is that of many foreigners who have witnessed the intifada first-hand. Most other intifada veterans will identify with the hospitality of humble refugees, the chance encounters and the political debates.

Throughout the eight-part series, Sacco accurately depicts nearly all aspects of the Israeli occupation and the uprising. In "Public & Private Wounds," Sacco describes an intifada hospital visit, seeing injured Arab children eagerly presented by local activists for any foreigner interested in the human toll of the Palestinian struggle. Arab doctors tell of Israeli soldiers entering hospitals, beating patients and generally fueling the flames of revolt. These were common occurrences when Israeli leaders thought force and might would smash the national will of an entire people.

In "Hebron," Sacco is touring the Ibrahimi mosque when a group of settlers begin to harass his elderly Arab guide. Little did Sacco realize that the same mosque would be bloodied less than two years later when one of these settlers massacred innocent Muslim worshippers during Ramadan prayers.

While Sacco is a witty story teller, he is also a fine artist. Armed Hebron settlers are depicted as messianic criminals with dark circles under their eyes. This is not just a caricature—many Kiryat Arba settlers really do look like that. The despair and rage on many of the refugee camp residents' faces say more about their plight than the written words. Yet the strength of this work is not only in the comprehensive manner in which he writes and draws the occupation and intifada, but in the stories of common Palestinians. Sacco succeeds in humanizing people who too often are depicted abroad as fanatical terrorists.

In the tale of an Arab Christian family forced to cut down their main source of livelihood—their olive trees—because settlers complain of stone-throwing, Sacco underscores the deeper basic difference that the land has for the new settlers/occupiers and for those who can trace their direct roots in Palestine back for generations. "I felt I was killing my son when I cut them down," the old farmer tells Sacco. For the soldiers and settlers, the olive tree is a security hazard, an obstacle in their effort to build new roads and settlements. For the Arabs, it is part of their soul, their identity.

"Moderate Physical Pressure" is completely devoted to the Palestinian prison experience. Torture, politics and collaborators are addressed in an accurate and moving manner. The issue ends with a tortured political prisoner being released onto a Jerusalem street full of cheerful Israelis going about their daily lives, completely oblivious to the prison and the dirty deeds going on inside it. It is a moral blindness and contradiction that has devastated rational thinking Palestinians for generations.

While Sacco is sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, he does not ignore their weaknesses and the contradictions of their own society. In issue five, he addresses the inequality imposed on Palestinian women, both from their own perspective and as they are viewed through Western eyes. In "Hijab," Sacco addresses the traditional dress of Muslim women, including the views of female Palestinian activists and everyday women. The inequality of women is not a comfortable issue, but Sacco lets the Palestinian woman activists who are seeking both liberation from the occupation and equality within their own society speak for themselves. "People figure, 'If we lose Palestine, why worry about women?'" says an activist, explaining the difficulty in addressing social issues in the midst of a revolt against foreign military occupation.

Palestine is a comprehensive work not only on the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also about the Palestinians themselves. The attraction of Palestine for the reader is not just that it is informative, cleverly presented and a quick read, but that it presents aspects of the Palestinian people that often are overlooked or ignored by those seeking a deeper understanding of the issue. Sacco's Palestine is a serious and successful introduction to the Palestinian people and to the pain and suffering imposed upon them by the Israeli military occupation.

Stephen Sosebee is a free-lance journalist who divides his time between the U.S. and Israel/Palestine.