CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Resistance is History, Resistance is Life

Image Source: Cover art for the book “Before the Flood: A Gaza Family Memoir” by Ramzy Baroud

Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, which has been the most reliable English language news source regarding the conflict in Palestine since before October 2, 2023 and even more so since that date, writes history from the heart. His stories of families (including his own) and their lives as refugees, freedom fighters, doctors and more remind the reader that the political history of a people is ultimately the history of people. In the case of a people under fire, under occupation and under constant pressure to deny their culture and therefore their lives by colonial powers convinced that their oppression and repression will defeat those they oppress, Baroud’s words are in themselves weapons of the struggle. His most recent book, titled Before the Flood: A Gaza Family Memoir Across Three Generations of Colonial Invasion, Occupation, and War in Palestine, continues this tradition.

Baroud’s description of the first days and weeks of the genocide brings everything back: the horror, the anger, the frustration and hopelessness. One can feel the fear and despair, the disbelief followed by a nagging voice in your head reminding you that this has always been the Zionists true vision and Washington’s secret hope—decimate the Palestinian population, destroy the idea of a free Palestine and move on to the business of making the land that is Palestine into a colonialist utopia. Then, the reader........

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