WITNESSING GENOCIDE: A BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE OF THE ISRAELI ASSASSINATION OF DR REFAAT ALAREER, GAZA’S GRAND NARRATOR AND DECOLONIAL INTELLECTUAL

Abstract

Dr Refaat Alareer, a prominent Gazan writer, poet and professor of English literature at the Islamic University in Gaza, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on 6 December 2023, at the peak of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. Prior to his assassination, Refaat was subjected to a vicious smear campaign and barraged with heinous death threats by Zionist digital warriors due to his staunch discursive and digital resistance and strident criticisms of the Israeli state on social media platforms, especially on X. But, against Zionist scare tactics, intimidation and cyber belligerence, Refaat stood his ground both on the ground in Gaza City and in cyberspace, fully aware of the consequences of his unflinching digital activity on social media. Refaat, a man of remarkable literary skill and prowess, was adamant to fulfil his destiny as Gaza’s grand narrator and through his poetry and his teachings to turn his life — and his martyrdom — into the universal tale of Gaza’s sacrifice, struggle, and humanity. As Israel perpetrated its genocide in Gaza, we, two of Refaat’s first students at the IUG, witnessed the killing of our teacher from afar and are writing this tale — the tale of his life and martyrdom — to uphold the truth about Dr Refaat Alareer, Gaza’s global intellectual, grand narrator and digital resistance fighter.