Mohammed Abu Lebda is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator, and human rights advocate from Rafah in the Gaza Strip. He earned a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Al Azhar University in Gaza. He has published poems and articles in both Arabic and English, including in Democracy in Exile at DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) and various national and regional journals. He has also appeared on Democracy Now. As a literary translator, he has translated over 20 books across fields and genres, including The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Last Man by Maurice Blanchot, and A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard.
Writing and translation are Mohammed's tools, or, one can say, his only weapons, to be the voice of voiceless people. He utilizes translation as a means of resistance and justice in the face of the most unimaginable atrocities, believing that helping others express themselves and deliver their feelings and thoughts is a humanitarian and noble endeavor.
During this ongoing genocide, Mohammed has adapted to offer his skills and talents to the needs of the unfolding catastrophe. He has been working as a medical translator and content writer at the International Medical Corps’s field hospital.
Over the past 13+ months, we have collectively witnessed unprecedented and unfathomable levels of destruction of nearly all public and civic infrastructure, and carnage of far too many civilian lives, in Gaza, Palestine. Amidst these daily massacres of precious lives and land, we have also witnessed Palestinians in Gaza embody the spirit of these lines by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “We have on this earth what makes life worth living.” In this daily resistance, Palestinians have become the impossible incarnate in our eyes.
However, ultimately, we are all kin, their blood bleeds like ours, and their tears blurs our vision and aches our insides alike. Our project, then, was born of a rather simple yearning, a yearning to build a bridge between our worlds and listen to our kin on the ground, in Gaza, in Palestine, in this unimaginable reality. With the hope that such bridges, ultimately, become unshakeable and invincible, leading us into the inevitability of a Free Palestine.
Dear reader, then, what you are holding in your hands is very special. These stories, these coming together of worlds, made possible solely due to the dedication and honest vulnerability of our Palestinian friends (artists), that we were graciously entrusted with. Their extraordinary talents welded into the love and passion of our team, spanning multiple time zones and continents, has produced this magical zine that you hold in your hands.
It is our profound privilege and luck to share this with you, and we hope you will cherish this as deeply and unapologetically as we do.
With Love and Liberation!
