TEHRAN -- With an introduction by Edward Said, non-fiction graphic novel ‘Palestine’ written and drawn by Joe Sacco is about his experiences in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in December 1991 and January 1992.
Sacco’s portrayal of the situation emphasizes the history and plight of the Palestinian people, as a group and as individuals, IBNA wrote. The complete graphic novel was published by Fantagraphics Books in 200. The book collects nine issues of Sacco’s Palestine comic book, published by Fantagraphics from 1993 to 1995.
The work takes place over a two-month period in late 1991/early 1992, with occasional flashbacks to the expulsion of the Arabs, the beginning of the Intifada, the Persian Gulf War and other events in the more immediate past. Sacco spent this time meeting with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the narrative focuses on the minute details of everyday life in these areas.
In ‘Palestine’ Sacco positions himself knowingly as the westerner going to the Middle East to confront a reality unfamiliar to his American audience. Sacco does not delude himself that as a “neutral” observer he can remain invisible and have no effect on the events around him, instead accepting his role and concentrating on his personal experience of the situation.
Though his goal is to document events and interview Palestinians he is affected by the reality of the occupied territories and cannot help but participate in, and comment on, demonstrations, funerals, roadblocks and encounters with soldiers. Towards the end he becomes even more active as he shares food and lodgings with the Palestinians he interviews and even breaks curfew with them while in the Gaza Strip.
In the book, Sacco references Joseph Conrad’s ‘Under Western Eyes’, ‘Heart of Darkness’, and Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ to draw links between the situation he is witnessing and colonialism.
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books ‘Palestine’ (1996) and ‘Footnotes in Gaza’ (2009), on Israeli–Palestinian relations; and ‘Safe Area Goražde’ (2000) and ‘The Fixer’ (2003) on the Bosnian War. In 2020, Sacco released ‘Paying the Land’ published by Henry Holt and Company.