Book review by Marte Heian-Engdal: “A Gaza life”

Regardless of political viewpoint, few would deny that the situation in the Gaza Strip is an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

Over 36,000 Palestinians killed, tens of thousands injured and destruction that, according to the UN, has not been seen since the Second World War, is the preliminary conclusion.

It is against this background that the widely used Middle East expert Marte Heian-Engdal launches the book “Et Gazaliv”.

As a researcher, she has followed the region for many years. At the same time, she has nurtured close association and friendship with the Palestinian family Al-Rantisi, who have lived in Gaza for generations.

Father Mohammad, mother Khitam and their children, but also older family members and other relatives are among those to whom Heian-Engdal introduces us.

The idea of ​​”Et Gazaliv” is a fairly well-known move from documentary literature.

Namely to connect the close and private with the major political events, along one and the same timeline. And the author loyally follows his own plan throughout the book.

To begin with, it is both interesting and a little moving to get to know the family’s life so thoroughly:

Trials, illness and worries, but also real happiness and everyday joys.

Throughout the generations, the Al-Rantisi family has had a close and committed relationship with the earth and nature around them, even though displacement and illegal Israeli settlements have made it difficult to create continuity in this part of life.

The richness of detail in these depictions of everyday life, village life and cooking can sometimes be quite a lot. But the real problem with the book arises when Marte Heian-Engdal introduces us to the history of the Middle East in parallel, and in particular the events after the state of Israel was formed in 1948.

Here, there are no pauses in the flood of facts.

The ambition that everything should be included – all wars, all occupations, all failed peace agreements – is, in my opinion, misunderstood. Countless books have been written about the Middle East conflict, and there is no reason to repeat the entire syllabus once more.

Why doesn’t the renowned researcher Heian-Engdal instead come up with his own analyzes and his own opinions, instead of repeating conventional knowledge? It appears to me as a great mystery.

It also doesn’t help that the book is poorly developed linguistically.

One thing is that in several places it threatens to kneel under the amount of information, worse is that the author is unable to break with the formal, academic and dosed style that characterizes so much research prose.

She becomes unnecessarily heavy on the feet, and when the narrative continues in the same major for almost 400 pages, it eventually becomes a struggle to get through.

On the whole, Marte Heian-Engdal should have had better editorial help. Then we would also have avoided having to read up to several incomplete and incoherent sentences.

Such an impression of haste does not suit such an ambitious book project.

Although some may benefit from the book as a fresh introduction to history and contemporary times in the Palestinian territories.

The narrative stretches back to the terrorist attacks on 7 October last year, and the Al-Rantisi family’s escape in the months afterwards. Today, the family lives in relative safety in Egypt, while everything they left behind lies in ruins.

It is a tragedy unfolding before our eyes, with regional and global ramifications that we do not yet have an overview of.

The last word has not been said, and the last book has definitely not been written. Marte Heian-Engdal would like to try again!