Footnotes in Gaza

Well, this was devastating. Joe Sacco’s work is meticulous, well-researched, and beautifully illustrated, meaning it's fantastic at capturing the sense of despair. Set between 2001 and 2003, at the onset of the Iraq War, the book chronicles Sacco’s investigative journey into two massacres in Rafah and Khan Younis, carried out by Israeli forces in 1956. Even in the early 2000s, the people Sacco interviewed were outraged and exhausted by decades of violence and neglect by the global community. Reading this at the end of 2024, with the horrors Palestinians have faced since October 2023, is almost unbearable. The historical atrocities Sacco meticulously recounts feel small in the shadow of the escalated crisis today. I first encountered show more Sacco’s work through Paying the Land, which shed light on injustices faced by Indigenous communities in Canada. That led me to Footnotes in Gaza as part of my effort to better understand Palestine. While this review could focus entirely on Sacco’s work, it’s impossible to separate the material from the context, it’s a brutal reminder that the injustices he documented have only intensified. The first-hand accounts are heart-wrenching and enraging. Sacco doesn’t just deliver history, he demands that we bear witness. I will continue reading everything he publishes, but I wish he had nothing more to document. This book is beyond educational, vital, but it hurts deeply, especially because it’s all true and things have only worsened. show less

Brilliant. At first I thought that Sacco's own presence in the narrative might be distracting. But as the book goes on, it becomes clear that his inclusion is crucial to an understanding of the complexities of Palestine and of this graphic 'novel'. What right does Sacco have to interfere in this conflict? Why should he investigate the past when the future is so troubled? Why should the conflict be turned into art?

Even for readers aware of what is happening in Palestine, it is hard to believe some of the injustices recorded. And they are all the more powerful, given the care Sacco takes to demonstrate the unreliablity of memory: while individual memories cannot be trusted, the documenting of multiple memories provides damning proof of show more atrocities past and present. show less

The first time you crack open Footnotes in Gaza you are taken aback by the powerful imagery. True, it is a graphic novel so it is supposed to be full of black and white squares full of images but keep this in mind, it's nonfiction. It messes with your mind. You associate comics with the Sunday funnies...you know, comedy, light-hearted. So, to see images of war in a comic-strip format is confusing. But, your mind adjusts. From the very first pages you get a sense of what you are in for, "It is the story of footnotes to a sideshow of a forgotten war. The war pitted Egypt against the strange alliance of Britain, France and Israel in 1956" (p 8). Footnotes in Gaza has a strange effect on the reader. More graphic than a dry newspaper show more account, Sacco's illustrations shove the violence and hatred into the forefront. And, yet despite being less graphic than actual photographs, the images linger in your mind... show less

Joe Sacco is not just a pioneer in the field of comics journalism; he’s about the only one standing in it. His previous works on Palestine and Bosnia have won worldwide acclaim, and now he narrows his lens further, onto a single month in the Gaza Strip in 1956. In two towns filled with Palestinian refugees, almost four hundred men and boys were killed by Israeli soldiers searching for enemy combatants. The events in the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis were barely mentioned in international news, and have largely been erased from history. But for the surviving families, the tragedy has fueled decades of violent hated against Israelis. Joe Sacco spent two years in the Gaza Strip investigating events of half a century ago, documenting the show more memories of each individual who was there in painstaking detail.

The visual aspect of this book is critical; because of it we are able to move seamlessly between past and present, and put faces behind the horrible stories being told. Sacco’s art is precise and evocative like it never has been before, bringing history (and a far-away present) to life. While Sacco makes it clear from the outset that his sympathies lie with the Palestinians, he never wavers in his journalistic integrity, cross-examining each witness and questioning each inaccuracy. This is a tremendous and important document of a forgotten footnote of history, one that deserves to be read by all those who care about the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. show less

This is one of the best books I have read. Sacco's art tell the stories of two horrible events from early in the Israel Palestine conflict. His technique is to show the painstakingly difficult path a journalist must follow to do a good job. The graphic format effectively shows more than it tells. There is an almost perfect balance between history and the current situation in Gaza. Some supporters of Israel call the book biased, but Sacco goes to great lengths to show how he gathered his information and how he often omitted details, usually more damning to Israel as unreliable. He paints a sympathetic picture of Palestinians, that is true, but he also points out the misconceptions and propaganda that influence their thoughts.

This is a hard book to review. As I was reading it I was wondering if there can be such a thing as an "objective" book about this conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. What I find most striking about this is the narrative about these two horrendous events in 1956, cast in the shadow of the daily indignities faced by these same people in the present day.
I was reminded of Zinn's 'A Peoples History' reading this book, because it talks about events that just weren't covered in the history books you read in school. I never heard anything negative about the behavior of the Israeli army growing up, only about the horrors perpetrated by PLO terrorists. So in a way this is a gripping book because you feel as though you are show more uncovering something that has been covered up for a long time.
To Sacco's credit, he is upfront about the difficulties in constructing a narrative based upon oral histories. Its easy to see how stories told and retold can begin to take on the form of the told story over 50 years. Its clear that there is some truth in this book, and it is an ugly truth.
I recommend this book. Its not entirely objective, but I dont know if any texts on this topic are. show less

Another Graphic Novel that manages to bring one so close in that one feels one has somehow been there. Like in “This One Summer” (another graphic novel I reviewed), one is brought into intimate connection with the experience of the subject matter. Their are numerous interviewees and their descriptions of the same events vary, but somehow it seems to make the overall feel more vivid. I am left feeling as though I have made a journey, have spent some time in the south Gaza, with all these people. It is a desperate, chaotic place, but human strength and resilience stands out all the more.

The book is quite a unique and remarkable project. I was excited to find out about the concept of “Graphic Journalism” and I wasn’t disappointed show more by Sacco’s tremendous account-recording. In fact there is so much revealed and so much detail to the events that it is hard to pick where to start about the subject. I don’t know whether to go on about the individual atrocities that are revealed to the world, or the hidden history of the oppression of the Palestinians.

It is always described as a two-sided story, with suffering on either side, but is it not, within and without, a case of multiple divide-and-conquer?

Make no mistake. Palestine has been and continues to be brutalized and it has been going on right from the beginnings of the state of Israel and continues apace now. It is shocking and obscene and shameful because we allow it to be watered down in our media, allow it to pop up once-in-awhile as the flavour-of-the-week and be forgotten about in favor of affairs and boob-jobs. show less