"I wish children didn't die. I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends. Then they would return home safe, and when their parents would ask them “Where were you?” They would say “We were “playing in the clouds” Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian author and leader of PFLP.

Six years after his assassination, a collection of his stories entitled “Ghassan Kanafani’s Children” was published in Beirut. Most of its heroes are children, and it is directed to young people. It was accompanied by paintings by the Syrian artist Burhan al-Din Karkutli. Karkutli, who was born in Damascus and lived in Germany, moved in his paintings between Syria, Morocco, Mexico, and Palestine, and many of his works depicted popular Damascene life and the Palestinian cause, inspiring many artists even today.

The text reads,

“YOU WERE FRANTIC AND FOOLISH, YOU KEPT NO TRACK OF TIME, YOU RAN YOUR DELICATE BODY INTO ITS NATURAL END, YOU BURNED ALL YOUR CANDLES TO STUMPS, YOU ARE TIRED AND HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LAY DOWN, YOU HAVE EARNED THIS REPERCUSSION, THIS REWARD, THIS RECKONING, YOU FINALLY  NEED TO KNOW

HOW TO DECAY GRACEFULLY

Winter Gaza 2022