From her bedroom window, a mother, still awake,
watches the dog, its puppies, and the mulberry tree,
while her child, eyes closed, suckles from her breast.
And the drone watches over all.                                                                                 
—Mosab Abu Toha

On June 4, 80 people came together at Revolution Books to support and defend the beloved Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha—and to demand that the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza must stop. It was an evening of appreciation and determination, featuring writers of accomplishment and conscience. 

Mosab Abu Toha has been described as the “essential poet embodying the humanity of Gaza.” He is also a teacher, librarian, and scholar. In May, he was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in journalism (for his articles in The New Yorker).

When the current Israeli genocidal assault began in October 2023, Mosab fled Gaza to the U.S., where he now teaches at Syracuse University. But in April of this year, fearing for his and his family's safety, including the real danger of being abducted and deported, Mosab canceled his U.S. book tour. This was because of threats from the pro-Israeli vigilante organization Betar, which has close ties to the Trump fascists. 

The solidarity program at Revolution Books (RB) was organized by a committee of RB staff and volunteers and writers. It was hosted by Raymond Lotta, Pam Laskin (author and Director Emeritus of The Poetry Outreach Center at City College of New York), and chris snake (poet and artist). In welcoming the audience, Raymond observed that Mosab is unflinching in telling of the horror of the occupation and genocide inflicted by the US and Israel on the people of Gaza...yet refuses to forsake beauty. 

The urgency of the moment was palpable throughout the program. On the one hand: Israel, with the blessings and backing of Trump, escalating its genocidal onslaught: indiscriminate bombings and forced starvation (the people of Gaza suffering the highest rate of hunger-famine in the world). This in the service of a project of systematic ethnic cleansing to erase a people, a territory, and a culture. On the other hand: the Trump fascist regime has been moving ferociously to remake society in its ugly, hateful image: criminalizing dissent, waging its war on academic institutions, and demonizing and deporting ever-larger numbers of immigrants. With Palestinian voices in the cross-hairs. 

We began with a musical prelude featuring Nick (on percussion) and Ramzi (on the traditional-string oud).

Mosab sent a special video message to the event. In it he says, “Our right to freedom of speech is a universal right that every individual, wherever they are, must enjoy… My poems and my work were born under the rubble of our house in Gaza. They were born in the refugee camp which Israel destroyed systematically in front of the eyes of this world, in broad daylight. We need to read our poems and express our opinions about matters that not only concern the Palestinian people but every human individual in this world...and we must do this in broad daylight.”

Some ten writers read from Mosab's work, as well as their own, and commented in their own ways and words on what Mosab means to them, and our shared responsibility to stand up in his defense and other pro-Palestine voices—and against forces of darkness and repression. A video of the entire program is posted at Revolution Books. The participants: Rebecca Chace, Ru Freeman, Barbara Fischkin, David Groff, Laura Hinton, Pam Laskin, Alicia Suskin Ostriker, Dan Sheehan, Amber C. Snider, Andy Zee. 

A Sampling from the Evening

Rebecca Chace, a novelist and professor at Bard College, recounted Zoom sessions she held with teachers at Al-Kuds University in Palestine eight months after October 7. One session took up a poem by W.H. Auden based on the Greek myth of Icarus, a boy who fell from the sky. In the course of the sessions, one of the teachers from Palestine, Malik, shared how his family was stopped in their car by two Israeli soldiers. As the line of cars waited, one of the soldiers in a jeep lifted his machine gun and casually fired at a nearby hillside. A body fell backwards. The many women and children walking on the road fled, but there was nowhere to go.... When Chace  read aloud the last line of Auden's poem to the teachers: “Something amazing, a boy falling from the sky,” Malik responded: “I wish that all the children could remain in the sky.” 

Ru Freeman, a Sri Lankan-American novelist and essayist, told of her struggle with American writers back in 2008 to contribute to an anthology commenting on the horrific attacks in Palestine. Few dared to take part. Indeed, it wasn't until 2015 that the project came to fruition. The lesson and challenge? “We jump off the ledges of our fear because we know a net exists. And the only way we know it does...is to participate in its creation.”

Barbara Fischkin, journalist and author of three books, read from a piece about Hitler's conscious murder of autistic and disabled children. It was history and a metaphorical parallel both to what is being done to the “less-than-human” Palestinian children and what Trump is doing now, demonizing and terrorizing immigrant children; and what his Medicaid cuts will do to the disabled right here and now.

Barry Wallenstein, Emeritus professor at City College of New York and author of 13 collections of poetry, read from several poems, including “Wartime Blues—Blast” that begins:

The war, when we’re lucky, happens outside this room.
Safe inside we suffer the usual:
The persistent headache, the eternal sniffle
The pictures on TV of toddlers out there holding the wheel...

Andy Zee, national spokesperson for Revolution Books and on the Editorial Board of RefuseFascism.org spoke of how fitting it was to be “holding this program at this bookstore about the world, and for a radically different and far-better world.” He talked about how the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has actually forged the “way out of the madness of this world.” And that “people should have the curiosity and integrity to look into it...and don't allow others to slander what's represented by this work without engaging it.” Andy also spoke of the power of art. He pointed to the work and example of the great Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o who recently passed. Ngũgĩ described himself as a “dream-weaver”—to imagine what could be. 

Andy linked the attack on Mosab to the larger fascist crackdown in society—on dissent, critical thinking, on immigrants, the rule of law. And he challenged people to take up the call issued by RefuseFascism to build a movement of nonviolent resistance growing in strength and flooding the streets—creating a governing crisis to drive the Trump fascist regime from power. And he challenged people to come to Washington, DC on June 14 to protest Trump's birthday celebration of the fascist military that he is creating. 

Building the Wall of Support

In May, Revolution Books in NYC and Berkeley initiated a Statement calling on bookstores, publishers, and others in the book world to stand with and defend Mosab Abu Toha and other pro-Palestinian voices and activists under attack—and to hold solidarity programs. This was the first such program, and Berkeley Revolution Books will be holding another on June 11. The Statement has been signed by a broad array of people in the book world and has been covered in LitHub and Publishers Weekly. The wall of support must be built ever-more widely!

Defend and Stand with Mosab Abu Toha, Beloved Palestinian Poet

Palestinian Voices Must Not Be Silenced, Activists Must Not Be Punished, We Who Come Together Say 

The Genocide Must Stop 
In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America