P

PALESTINE. An award-winning work of comics journalism by artist and journalist

Joe Sacco , Palestine was published serially in nine installments from 1993 to 1995.
Th e installments were collected in one volume published in 2001 and introduced by
the eminent activist-academic Edward Said. Based on interviews and observations
conducted by Sacco during a two-month stay in the winter of 1991–92 in Pales-
tinian territories occupied by Israel, the comic takes readers from the spontaneous
eruption of the First Intifada (uprising) of Palestinians against Israeli military occupa-
tion in1987 to the intifada’s waning days in 1992. Historical interludes also describe
the mass expulsion of Palestinians from what is now Israel-proper by Zionist terrorist
groups in 1948.
Th e narrative begins with Sacco having a discussion with two men in Cairo, one
absorbed in a love aff air, the other absorbed in regional politics. Th e opening intro-
duces us to Sacco’s method, in which his presence—more explicit than in his later
works—is an integral part of the narrative. Nearly everything he portrays is based on
his observations and interactions with others, which inform and are informed by his
impressions, perceptions, and emotions. Th e scene also sets the approach to the subject
matter of the rest of the narrative, which highlights the ways and extent to which the
everyday concerns of Palestinians run up against political realities largely outside of
their control.
Indeed, Palestine is the story of occupation, about the daily indignities suff ered by an
entire population living under the yoke of the brutal military rule of Israel. Sacco does
not hide readers from the confl icts within Palestinian society, such as the class diff eren-
tials in the Gaza Strip between businessmen with large houses and unemployed people
living in refugee camps, where houses have sand for fl oors, or the domestic abuse faced