Of Weapons and Words

[PRE-ORDER - ship on 14 Nov 2025]

Launch specials: get two books for NZD$40, three for $50

Of Weapons and Words brings together political commentary and analysis that offers a thought-provoking vision of Palestine and the wider region and responds to the martyred Palestinian writer Basel Al-Araj’s call: “Keep Palestine firmly within your sight."

Read translated essays by Mousa Alsadah, Sari Orabi, and Nidal Khalaf, which were previously published on our Substack, along with new essays selected exclusively for this chapbook by Abdaljawad Omar, Amer Mohsen, Vivian Aqiqi, Abaher El-Sakka, Lena Meari, and Mudar Kassis. The translations are by Shadi Hamada, Mohammed Elabadsa, Alaa Salaymeh, and Rouqaya Alkhateeb.

All proceeds will go directly towards commissioning further work from translators living in and connected to Gaza, Palestine.

From the introduction:

“The hope of this effort is to encourage readers to follow the arc of struggle that spans Gaza and its people; to inspire the reader to emulate the political will to think and act in these times, and to take seriously the urgent task of studying, with discipline and rigour, our own conditions here and everywhere and to subject them to the ruthless critique they deserve. Most importantly, the hope of this project is to instill in ourselves and in our readers the courage to not look away but to look more closely—to temper and sharpen one’s thought such as to cut through every live-streamed and thought-terminating procedure.”

About Al-Rifaq

Al-Rifaq is a Pōneke, Aotearoa New Zealand-based affinity group that has formed in the context of the US-Israeli onslaught against the people of Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East. Our members are Arabic and non-Arabic speakers from the Middle East and elsewhere, and our common ground is unequivocal support for Palestinian and Third World liberation.

Al-Rifaq work focuses on translating and publishing Arabic political commentary, analysis, and revolutionary theory, aiming to bridge the gap between radical political discourses in the Arab world and the solidarity movements of the West, which must, we believe, come to understand Al-Qadhiyyah Al-Falastiniyah (القضية الفلسطينية)—the Palestinian question—on terms that are consistent with that of the Palestinian and Arab masses and their historic mission of liberation.

Book details

Pages 82
Dimensions: 120x190mm
ISBN: 978-0-473-76295-7
Cover designed by Rula Awwad

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