Mood Reads | Rifqa
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Rifqa
Mohammed El-Kurd
aja monet
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Each day after school, Mohammed El-Kurd’s grandmother welcomed him at the door of his home with a bouquet of jasmine. Her name was Rifqa—she was older than Israel itself and an icon of Palestinian resilience.
With razor-sharp wit and glistening moral clarity, El-Kurd lays bare the brutality of Israeli settler colonialism. His poems trace Rifqa’s exile from Haifa to his family’s current dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, exposing the cyclical and relentless horror of the Nakba.
El-Kurd’s debut collection definitively shows that the Palestinian struggle is a revolution, until victory.
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Posts about this title from Mood Reads
Mood Reads\ \ Hannah\ \ • Jan 28 2024
🇵🇸 Palestinian Book Recs & TBR
🇵🇸 book recs & TBR #booktok #bookrecommendations #TBR #toberead
11 books
Posts about this book from across Bindery
Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Dec 9 2025
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Short books to read before the end of the year
If you want to finish your reading goal this year (although in my mind, if you read a single book this year, you already won), pick up some of these incredible short reads! #bookrecommendations #shortbooks #nonfiction #poetry
17 books
4
Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Nov 23 2025
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[Welcome to my new Syllabus Series. I was a high school English teacher for over five years (before I burned out and changed careers) and nothing gives me more joy than to help others learn something new. As someone who also reads a large amount of non-fiction, I wanted to create a new series where I pick a singular topic that you might want to learn more about. The first edition will be all about Palestine.\ \ First, I’ll take you through books to read through various genres and the order you should read them in to scaffold and layer your learning. But learning isn’t all about reading, so I’ll also share video resources, shorter articles, and give you a list of people to follow on social media in order to stay up to date well beyond today. Finally, learning means nothing without action, so I will also provide you ways that you can do something with what you’re learning.\ \ This isn’t meant to be overwhelming and is laid out in a way that it’s learning you have time for. Therefore, the list isn’t extensive and manageable. Of course, there’s always more learning to be done.\ \ \ \ Books to read\ \ A collection of books read to read. For the best learning experience, try to read the books in this order.\ \ (*note: this section contains affiliate links)\ \
- Non-fiction“Palestine: A Socialist Introduction” edited by Sumaya Award and brian bean\ \ This is a great place to start if you don’t know or understand the history of Palestine. The book is a collection of essays from all different authors exploring various parts of Palestinian history and present. Of course, this book is also written from a socialist lens, but from that it pulls in calls for action as well. Overall, this is a really helpful and easy to understand text that helps you understand historical context.\ \
- Fiction“Minor Detail” by Adania Shibli\ \ Sticking with understanding Palestinian history as well as how that history carries into the present, I recommend reading this incredible piece of fiction next. This is a super short book (144 pages) that is impressive and haunting. It starts in the summer of 1949 during the Nakba (the mass displacement of Palestinians from Palestine) and follows a young girl who is captured by Israeli soldiers. Years later in the present, we follow a young woman who finds the girl’s story that is considered a “minor detail” in this history. She becomes obsessed with finding out what happened. Check content warnings before reading this book.\ \
- Poetry\ \ " Rifqa” by Mohammed El-Kurd\ \ This is a collection of poetry that looks at Palestinian history, but also addresses the present. It’s both a deeply emotional eulogy and a call to action for the liberation of Palestine.\ \
- Poetry\ \ “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear” by Mosab Abu Toha\ \ This is a really accessible collection of poetry where the author talks about his life living under siege in Gaza. This was published in 2022 and helps paint a picture of what every day life was like for Palestinians. In 2023, Abu Toha was captured and imprisoned by Israeli forces. His newest collection which comes out this November will look at the horror of the last year.\ \
- Non-fiction\
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“The Palestine Laboratory” by Antony Loewenstein\
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This is definitely the most dense book on this which is why it’s at the end of the list. This is an incredible piece of journalism that looks at Israel’s development of occupation-enforcing technologies that they test out in Palestine and then sell to other Western countries to help them enforce their own occupations. It helps showcase the danger of these technologies well beyond Palestine and the dangerous (and deadly) effects it’s had on the rest of the world.\
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Other media to consume\
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- Mixed media\ \ “Not That Complicated” by US Campaign for Palestinian Rights\ \ An incredible resource that plainly lays out history and common misconceptions about Israel’s occupation of Palestine. This provides a general overview of specific topics that makes everything easy to understand while also providing links and videos to learn more about each subject.\ \
- Infographics Visualising Palestine\ \ If you’re more of a visual learner, this is the resource for you. Again, this project breaks down various subjects into interactive infographics that are constantly updated to not only talk about historical facts, but up-to-date information.\ \
- Article“ We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable.” by Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa\ \ The deliberate targeting and destruction of hospitals over the past year has been a well-documented war crime through first-hand accounts and videos. This is an example. Written by two doctors from the U.S., this is a primary account on what they witnessed in Gaza.\ \
- Documentary"Investigating war crimes in Gaza” by Al Jazeera\ \ Just published on October 3, Al Jazeera has done an extensive investigation into the war crimes perpetrated by Israel in the last year as well as exposing the individuals behind them. Content warning: graphic images of death and violence.\ \ \ Extra credit \ Since I first wrote this syllabus back in 2024, there have been many new incredible pieces of media published on Palestine and the fight for liberation has continued. If you want to continue learning about Palestine, here are some futher texts for you to read.\ \
- Non-fiction book"One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad\ \ If you or someone you know is new to learning about Palestine or is still not understanding the weight of what is happening, I think this is a great book to read. This book grapples with what it means to live in the West and our role in watching a genocide occur before our eyes.\ \
- Non-fiction book" Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal” by Mohammed El-Kurd\ \ After you read El-Kurd’s poetry collection above, pick up his newest book, a denser exploration as to why it is that Palestinians need to prove their humanity to the Western world and who holds the power to shape narratives.\ \
- Report\
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Latest UNRWA report on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and West Bank\
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A detailed report that outlines the latest data since Israel broke the ceasefire and the effects this has had on health, food scarcity, civilian protection, and aid.\
(photo by Adam Rouhana) Who to follow \
When learning about a subject where up-to-date information is key, it’s important to find people who are experts and on the ground to help keep you informed. Here are a few people and organisations I encourage you to follow:\
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- Lets Talk Palestine broadcast channel on Instagram shares news every single day about what is happening in Palestine (as well as Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen). This is what I use to stay the most up-to-date.\ \
- Bisan Owda: One of the few freelance journalists still in Gaza (Israel has murdered and targeted 175 journalists in the past year). Bisan reports and posts from the ground every single day.\ \
- Hind Khoudary: Another journalist who has been reporting from Gaza.\ \
- Adam Rouhana: a photographer currently living in Gaza.\ \
- Mosab Abu Toha: The same poet mentioned above is also consistently active on Instagram, often posting breaking news stories before news publications.\ \
- Leen (@vivafalastinleen) : This Palestinian-American content creator is consistently posting about what is happening in Palestine and encouraging calls to action.\ \
- Naz (@bdsbabe): Naz is consistently posting updates on the BDS movement and creating guides to BDS-friendly brands (learn more about the BDS movement below)\
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Take action \
Mutual aid Mutual aid is an incredibly effective way to utilize community in order to directly impact those who need our help. One way that we can do this is by donating to families currently in Palestine where food, shelter, hygiene, and access to healthcare are hard to come by (and in some cases impossible). Our help can make these things more accessible.\
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Here are some families that I have been in contact with that I would encourage you to donate to:\
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- Mahmoud, Tamer, and Tala who lost their mother and wife earlier this year. Tamer has Autism and navigating this cruel world is especially hard for him.\ \
- The Tareq family including Amani who is suffering from multiple medical conditions and needs urgent care\ \
- Mohammed’s family including his wife and three kids as they struggle to survive in Khan Younis\ \
- Rozana’s family including her husband and three-year-old son (Ziad) who used to live in Gaza City and now have no home or clean food and water which is making Ziad’s health deteriorate.\ \
\ Here are organizations on the ground to donate to:\ \ - The Sameer Project: Led by Palestinians, the project hosts multiple campaigns to help families across gaza with medical supplies, food, tents, and other necessities. You can also support their Medical Campaign specifically as they work directly with hospitals.\ \ - North Water Aid: Salah Shabat is raising funds to provide displaced families in the north of Gaza with clean drinking water.\ \ - Amal for Palestine: Organization thats been providing meals in the north of Gaza since 2021.\ \ - Gaza Soup Kitchen: Family-run organization that helps provide meals to displaced families.\ \ - Sulala Animal Rescue: Father and son team who help rescue and rehabilitate stray animals.\ \ \ \ Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions If you’re not financially able to support, here’s a great way to make a huge impact (in my opinion, this is what will make the most impact systemically). The BDS movement is a movement to pressure companies, organisations, and governments that support Israel by withholding money. The ask is that you do not spend money at these organisations and/or pressure organisations. This type of organizing has been proven to be effective in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. To double-check that you’re not supporting companies who support genocide, I highly recommend downloading the Boycat app.\ \ Pressure politicians If you live in a country that is currently funding Israel and/or supporting them through complicity or silence, it’s pertinent that we continue to pressure them. If you live in the United States, you can use 5calls.org to get started (note: not all the information in the script is up-to-date), but could be a good template.\ \ Protest If you are able, protesting helps make our voices louder. It’s a tool meant to disrupt and force those in charge to take action. Here’s the most up-to-date list of world-wide protests that I was able to find.\ \ Educate Use whatever platform you have (whether that be on social media or in-person) to speak up about Palestine and continue to educate others. Share resources, share stories, share news. The more we can make people not turn away from Palestine, the more we can collectively come together to enact change. We need to make sure that everyone in the world doesn’t have the excuse that they didn’t know. We are all complicit.\ \
- *\ \ As I mentioned earlier, learning is an ongoing practice. If you would like more resources, don’t hesitate to reach out. And if you have any resources to add to this list, please add them to the comments below.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/UHWce0QZX9fFJTyy604i/)
7 books
Children of Diaspora\ \ Rae the Reviewer\ \ • Jun 11 2025
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READ it or UNHAUL it | tackling my overconsumption with 500+ books
Book collecting and book reading are two different hobbies but with over 500 books, it's starting to feel out of hand. I've read about 60% of my physical TBR and I want to get through more of them so today we're starting with my poetry collection.
I was inspired by these Read it or Unhaul it videos by Emmie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB2J8Zy4aXI and Hal Jones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPtu2Z9j2YQ
Check me out on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raethereviewer/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@raethereviewer Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/raethereviewer Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/20898931-rae-the-reviewer My Website: https://raethereviewer.com/ and services (sensitivity reading, freelance writing, copywriting, case studies) https://raethereviewer.com/services/ Bookshop Affiliate: https://bookshop.org/shop/raethereviewer
The Haitian Readathon on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the\_haitian\_readathon/ Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading\_challenges/1197fc5d-dc8f-4c3e-a3ca-9937a83edf58
Tags: to be read, physical tbr, read it or unhaul it, books, reader, bookstagram, booktube, booktok, influencer, diverse books, poetry, novel in verse, black reader, book recommendations, reading recommendations, book nerd
00:00 Intro 02:56 Books I've bought 11:11 Collections I was sent and have read 11:51 Collections I was sent and haven't read 14:10 The game plan
34 books
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Mood Reads\ \ Hannah\ \ • Jan 28 2024
🇵🇸 Palestinian Book Recs & TBR
🇵🇸 book recs & TBR #booktok #bookrecommendations #TBR #toberead
11 books