Description: "Gaza is the first genocide to be captured in real-time images on devices we hold in our hands. Two days after October 7, the Lebanese comic artist Mazen Kerbaj began drawing in reaction to what was appearing in his phone. This powerful and original book brings together that work. Produced from Berlin, a city where the repression of Palestinian support has been particularly fierce, Mazen's drawings raise fundamental questions about seeing as an act of solidarity when those in power seek to suppress news of what is happening. Haunted by the live-streamed images, we dread seeing more when we open our phones. By representing them in simple cartoons, Mazen allows us to scrutinize and reflect on the horrors we have witnessed. The result is an extraordinary sequence of images and messages that ask us to pause for a moment, to stop, look, mourn, and summon the resolve to head out and join the fight for the living, for life, for justice"-- Provided by publisher.
Review Quotes:
"Mazen Kerbaj's heartbreaking book will stand as a testament to both the power and the pain of witnessing the horrors inflicted on the people of Gaza."
--Joe Sacco
"Kerbaj's takes are quick and shocking, but his message rings clear: The enormity of the crisis is not a reason to give way, but to lean into resistance"
--Publishers Weekly
"Mazen's work is an inversion of a heavily surveilled algorithm that draws the eye and always touches the heart."
--Saul Williams
"It is difficult to find the right way in this chaotic world, but if you take Mazen Kerbaj as your moral compass you won't get lost.
--Bob Ostertag
"An accomplished cartoonist"
--Chicago Reader
"With spare, masterful ink strokes, Mazen Kerbaj is able to distill, from the daily live broadcast of the genocide in Gaza, drawings that confound the ideological shroud that systematically dehumanizes Palestinians. With the acuity of a compass and the prescience of a sage, Kerbaj's illustrated chronicles of witnessing jolt like only poems can."
--Rasha Salti
"Kerbaj captures the horror and desperation of the genocide in Gaza. When words are not enough to describe this atrocity, Gaza in My Phone serves as a witness to a war we're constantly asked to look away from, as a reminder of a disaster we're asked to forget. It's a downright necessary book, uncomplicated for an uncomplicated situation."
--Rabih Alameddine
"For most of us, Kerbaj's book will lacerate our hearts again. For those who stood by Israel and covertly or overtly called for genocide, the book catalogues the war crimes they applauded."
--Middle East Monitor
"A statement in support of the Palestinians and their innate sense of patience and determination, regardless of the circumstances."
--The New Arab
"An impassioned howl to the world refusing to see the truth."
--The Slings & Arrows
"Not for the faint of heart because it is the unadulterated truth of what is happening in Palestine."
--Patheos
"It is a call to be heard, a call to finally be heard. It is a call to continue to draw attention to the genocide."
--Disorient
"Defiant work that everyone needs to read."
--Broken Frontier
"Everyone should get a copy of this book."
--Morning Star
"A crucial intervention . . . it positions urgent care as attention under conditions of war violence, mediated through political cartooning."
--Graphic Medicine