Cartoonists Band Together for Palestine

One of the book’s lines says, ​“Comics have no walls nor borders.” How are comics bringing attention to Palestine?

Yazan al-Saadi: Creatives throughout the world were reacting to the genocide in two ways: They were paralyzed, a feeling of being insignificant with something calamitous happening. Or, they were trying to do something, but in their silos. So we thought, here is an opportunity to bring multiple people together, which I think is very political in this environment, to be collective rather than self-interested.

Another line reads, ​“While we are under no illusion that art can stop bombs from falling on children … artists still have a role to play.” What is that role?

Yazan al-Saadi: The point is to try. The point is to do. All I care about is that people are reacting. By remaining silent or not engaging, that’s a failure of creativity, of humanity, of imagination. I’ll give a completely wild, but relevant example: Andor, the Star Wars show, makes important points about antifascism, genocide and resistance. People link it with Gaza, because you can’t ignore it. The show is supposedly so disconnected and fantastical, but the truth is there. That’s powerful; that’s what art brings to the table. It’s a tool; it’s a weapon.

How can art help us envision a more caring future for humanity?

Yazan al-Saadi: Fascism, dictatorship or totalitarianism tries to remove the imagination, so you can’t see the horizon. Those in power want us to narrow our thoughts. Art allows us to reimagine our futures, rather than just accept evil. When comic artists in the past saw the Holocaust, they fought back by calling it a holocaust and writing about it. Artists who saw apartheid South Africa called it an apartheid and engaged with it. This anthology is in the wider spirit of comic-making that is inherently political. It’s important to record it. Especially now, because the genocide is still ongoing. I was just reading today, over 135 people killed in the past 24 hours. The amount of killing is astronomical.

How does art help you process that we are watching this genocide in real time?

Yazan al-Saadi: It’s traumatizing. I can tell you, as a Syrian Canadian, that Syria is going through an interesting stage now, after the fall of a totalitarian system. It is important for people to realize the extent that totalitarianism, power and control have on the psychology of a person in terms of their anxieties and futures. It’s that elimination of possibilities, that control of creativity. 

I’m in Beirut, Lebanon. I’ve seen atrocities from over here. We went through an expansion of the war, so there’s a lot to take in. I come from a generation that has seen what sanctions have done to Iraq, where over 500,000 children starved to death. I’ve seen Palestine over and over again. I’ve seen Libya. I’ve seen so much, and there’s still Haiti, Congo and Sudan. This is the norm. The difference now is that we can’t say we don’t know, information is instantaneous. We can’t look away anymore. We have to act.