Counter Currents review of IF I MUST DIE
Posted by Counter Currents on February 3, 2025
"How do you tell the story of Refaat Alareer? For the friends of Refaat Alareer—husband, father of six, university professor, writer and mentor to hundreds, assassinated by Israel barely two months into the Gaza genocide—the answer was obvious: by publishing his work in book form. The outcome of those efforts was the Memorial Edition of an anthology of student writing that he edited ten years ago, Gaza Writes Back; and If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose, a collection of Alareer’s work since 2011. The latter instantly sold out, with the initial print run of 7,500 unable to match the more than 20,000 orders placed, an astonishing figure for a work of nonfiction."
Refaat's "final message is worth heeding: 'As Palestinians, no matter what comes of this, we haven’t failed. We did our best. And we didn’t lose our humanity.'”