Banging on the Walls of the Tank is a collection of essays by Professor Haidar Eid written from his experiences in Gaza post-2007 siege and in South Africa now. The selected works were previously published from 2009 to 2024 and showcase his individual Palestinian experience.

If you are interested in reading a first person account that you may not have been exposed to before (these essays were originally posted in non-Western media like Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye), this is a sobering and informative approach. Professor Eid is an associate professor of postcolonial and postmodern literature at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, and you can see his skills at work in his straightforward prose and incisiveness. Each essay itself is actually quite short considering the impact. Some familiarity with apartheid South Africa and its dismantle will be useful to appreciate the connections made in these essays.

The genocide in Gaza did not begin in October 2023, but the sudden interest from the Western media can make it seem so. While there have been positive increases in awareness and coverage from the West since then, it is not a substitute for actual Palestinian voices. This collection provides terrifying glimpses into the suffering leveled on Gaza in 2009, 2012, 2014, 2018-2019 (the Great March of Return), 2021 (Wedha Street Massacre), and October 7, 2023 to present. It's hard to conceptualize the nearly two decades of fear and torment one person and his family have endured, but reading the contemporaneous accounts sheds some light. I hope Professor Eid continues to write and share his experiences.

Thank you, Literary Press Group of Canada/Between the Lines, for the arc!

My sincere apologies. I clicked "read it now" before I realized this title isn't available in Kindle format, which is the ereader I'm giving this title a 5 because that's what I expect I would have givem it. It seems like exactly the sort of book we need right now.