Palestine

Journalist Joe Sacco wrote Palestine in 1991 and 1992 as a 9 issue comic book series.  He wrote it after spending two months in the Occupied Territories and it is about the first intifada against the Israeli occupation which he says in the Foreward was running out of steam at the time of his visit. The edition that I have read is the 2015 Fantagraphics Books edition. The original comic book series won the 1996 American Book Award.

Sacco interviewed many Palestinian families but heard the same stories over and over. People were run out of their homes by Israeli policemen or soldiers, were arrested and jailed for offenses that they did not commit, lived in squalor, were not allowed to work, and had their businesses razed among other things. That said, he did present their hatred of Jews. The book opened with a discussion he had with a Palestinian about Jewish American tourist Leon Klinghoffer being thrown over the ledge of a cruise ship in his wheelchair by the PLO. The Palestinian only cared about the international news coverage that he felt the Jews were getting over the murder.

The artwork is a little different from what I am accustomed to seeing.  The author used black line drawings and text in full page and double page spreads as well as an occasional traditional comic book page layout.

Had I read this when he wrote it, it would have been newsworthy for me.  However, I have heard these stories from several different news sources and have read one or two books on the Palestinian/Israeli issue. I am aware that Sacco's book was groundbreaking for it's time, particularly for a graphic novel and therein lies it's value.