Gaza – Translated by Safa
While many countries around the world are preoccupied with discussing the future of Gaza, often without including Palestinian voices, writers from within the Strip speak urgently about the need to protect memory, preserve culture, and maintain Palestinian ownership of their land.
In interviews conducted by the PEN America Freedom to Write Center with four Palestinian writers in Gaza, and translated by the Safa news agency, these writers affirmed their responsibility for telling their own story.
During these interviews, a recurring issue emerged: the need to protect Palestinian culture according to their own vision.
The writers argue that the prevailing international discourse is often detached from the Palestinian reality, portraying Gaza as a space that can be redeveloped or redesigned.
In contrast, writers Nahil Mahna, Maysoun Kahil, Ali Abu Yassin and Nasser Rabah stressed that what Gaza really needs is to restore and protect its cultural heritage.
Novelist and playwright Nahil Muhanna said: “Gaza is not an empty piece of land that can be redesigned. It is a land inhabited by stories, faces, and history.”
Mahna, a novelist from Gaza City whose works reflect the resilience and hope of the Palestinians, has been featured in a number of literary anthologies, including Palestine Everywhere (2025) and Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide (2025).
She survived in October 2023 when her home was bombed by a tank shell, which caused her serious injuries that nearly killed her.
Reconstruction: Who decides the shape of the future?
Muhanna, Kahil, Rabah, and Abu Yassin believe that reconstruction is not just a building process, but rather it concerns who decides what will remain and what will be erased, and who has the right to shape the future of Gaza.
They emphasize that only the people of Gaza have this right.
Mahna says: “We do not write for decoration or documentation only, but to prevent the erasure of the human being behind the maps and political plans.”
As for the poet Nasser Rabah, author of “Gaza… The Poem Has Spoken Its Word,” which was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best poetry books of 2025, he believes that writers in Gaza represent the conscience of society and its conscious voice.
Mahna says: “Writers in Gaza are the conscience of society and the voice of its awareness, an awareness that thinks in terms of the logic of the group, not just the individual.”
A report by PEN America, titled “All Lost: Cultural Destruction in Gaza,” documented the catastrophic impact of the Israeli military campaign on cultural life and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, where centuries-old cultural sites were severely damaged or completely destroyed.
Why are theaters built and not resorts?
Writer and journalist Maysoun Kahil, known for her advocacy of independent journalism, says that violence and displacement have not stopped despite the ceasefire declared in October 2025, which did not actually end the attacks or the war.
She explains, “The role of the intellectual is not to observe the scene from afar, but to question the concepts that are presented under glittering titles such as development, replanning, and modernization.”
She adds that Gaza is not an empty space that can be redrawn, but rather an accumulated history of relationships, memories, symbols, and ownership.
For these writers, the loss of historic buildings means not just ruins, but a deep wound to memory and identity.
Kahil says: “It is a break in the narrative, a gap in memory, and an attempt to sever the connection between man and his land.”
Continuous destruction
Actor and playwright Ali Abu Yassin points out that the destruction continues daily. After the ceasefire was announced, hundreds of Palestinians were killed and thousands were injured, according to media reports.
He says: “Gaza is still under siege, and the crossing that was said to have been opened is nothing but misleading news. Only about fifty people a day are allowed to enter or leave, and they are subjected to various forms of humiliation and mistreatment.”
Abu Yassin lives in the Al-Shati camp and works as the director of the Ishtar Theater. He has written and directed a number of plays and contributed to supporting young writers psychologically through the theater during times of war.
He adds, “The destruction of theaters feels like a part of the soul is being torn away, like our very humanity is being destroyed.”
Abu Yassin had previously experienced the loss of the Al-Mishal Cultural Center, which he co-founded, after it was destroyed in an Israeli bombing in 2018.
Who will tell our story?
Amid this devastation and ongoing struggle for survival, Palestinians also face another question: Who tells their story?
Muhanna says that writers and artists see their role in protecting meaning from being confiscated at a time when external forces are trying to shape the future of Gaza without its people.
Abu Yassin also believes that playwrights contribute to strengthening people’s sense of belonging and resilience by raising awareness of the threats facing the Palestinian cause.
Kahil, however, asserts that the destruction of culture is inseparable from the destruction of memory, saying: “Every text that is written, every painting that is drawn, and every testimony that is recorded is an attempt to say that memory has not been completely destroyed.”
Writing as a means of survival
During the war, writers and artists were not merely witnesses to events; they continued to create even within the tents. They wrote books, staged plays, and preserved the cultural life of their community.
The poet Rabah says: “I was careful not to let the language slip into shouting or slogans, but rather I tried to preserve the nobility of the Palestinian spirit, which should not appear broken despite everything.”
The way forward
The writers emphasize that rebuilding Gaza cannot be reduced to building materials or urban plans alone, but must preserve the cultural foundations that have kept the community alive.
When asked about the type of support they needed, they stressed the need for support that respects and amplifies their voices, such as supporting young writers, rebuilding cultural institutions, and providing platforms for publishing their work.
Muhanna concludes by saying: “Culture in Gaza is not a luxury, but a means of resisting erasure and preserving the collective memory for future generations.”
The writers agree that any Gaza reconstruction project that ignores the voices of Palestinians could lead to the erasure of their history and identity, stressing that the future of Gaza must be determined by its people, especially its writers and intellectuals.Gaza intellectuals
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