Be warned! This isn’t infotainment or ‘fake news’ fluff. Sacco writes a deeply personal account of one of the world’s longest running conflicts. I’m not going to draw any comparisons between the contents of Maus and Palestine. Like I said earlier, you will believe what you want to believe. And that’s ok. Living in the U.S. with its strong ties to Israel, your average person (i.e. Me) will usually just get the Israeli sympathetic viewpoint from the media. The author wanted to get the other side of the story, the side that is grossly under-represented (you might even say misrepresented) in the American media. He wanted to see and hear, first hand, the Palestinian story. And what can I say? I say I've heard nothing but the Israeli side most of all my life, that it'd take a whole other trip to Israel, that I'd like to meet Israelis, but that wasn't why I was here...," Sacco responds to two Israeli women who accuse him of being biased and showing only one side of the story. So, he's aware of his biases but rightfully says that the Palestinian perspective is much more needed and rare, especially if you take into consideration that he wrote this comic book for an American (!) audience in the 90s.

Heer, Jeet. 2003. "More about the war: Joe Sacco's comics reveal things about conflicts that the news just can't." National Post (October 9) She would say, "The Gazans have no electricity because they dig up the pipes to use as weapons against the Israelis." And I would say, "Well, according to this book, the Gazans have no electricity because the Israelis cut it off all the time, at random, just to keep them unstable." In the book Sacco references Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes, Heart of Darkness, and Edward Said's Orientalism to draw links between the situation he is witnessing and colonialism. Towards the end of the book, when challenged by an Israeli that he hasn't experienced their point of view, he responds that the Israeli point of view is what he has internalized his whole life, and although another trip would be necessary to fully experience Israel, that was not why he was there. [3] Awards [ edit ] Sacco’s loyalty is to the human beings caught in the middle of the great conflicts, upheavals, and ‘liberal interventions’ of the’90s and’00s – those who influence the least, yet suffer the most. He has given a face and a voice to ‘history’s losers’—as Said called them—and ensured that their lives, stories, and everyday humanity were always front and centre. A quarter of a century on from the first full publication of Palestine, Sacco implores people to refuse to forget the human cost at the core of conflict. About the AuthorThere are so many things in the Middle East that I’m interested in – Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria – but I feel that if I’m to pursue this course, I’ll need to learn Arabic. Drawing on first-hand experiences, extensive research and more than 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews, Sacco has gained access to unusually intimate testimony, giving space to details and perspectives normally excluded by mainstream media coverage. The enthusiasm and frequency with which Sacco is hauled into the homes of those he meets - to listen, take notes and drink endless cups of tea - underlines the desperation of the people he encounters; their hopes are pinned not on political promises but on telling their stories to a stranger who writes comic books.

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the first Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, dominated the headlines from the Middle East. Sacco traveled to the area to witness events firsthand and interview Palestinians affected by Israeli occupation. The collection of his impressions and the stories of the Palestinians he interviewed compose the graphic novel. Will he one day return to Gaza for a third time? Or perhaps he could look at the conflict from Sderot or some other town on the Israeli side. "It depends on what I feel in my gut. There are lots of places in the world where things are pretty bad. When I read about them, though, I have to wait for the story to work on me. With Bosnia, it took a full year for that to happen. But I do feel Palestinians have been misrepresented in the America media over a long time; we've internalised all sorts of things about them.Sameh is a slightly balding Palestinian man in his late thirties. He is from the Jabalia refugee camp and works in Gaza with disabled children. He acts as one of Sacco’s translators. Unlike other translators, he seems to understand the visual component that Sacco wants to capture and goes out of his way to provide Sacco with every opportunity to experience and record it. I wasn’t trying to reconcile the differences between Israelis and Palestinians. I wanted to show some of the small issues related to the occupation. In fact, I don’t think I showed anything spectacular. The people he lives among,’ wrote Edward Said, ‘are history’s losers – banished to the fringes where they seem to be despondently loitering […] With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better.’ Spurgeon, Tom. 2000. "Drawing enemy lines: Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-95". The Comics Journal (227; September): 5-6 In addition to his 1996 American Book Award, and 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, Sacco's Safe Area Goražde brought him a Time magazine "Best Comic of 2000" award, [16] followed by the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel, [17] and 2001 Eagle Award for Best Original Graphic Novel, [18] and 2001 Harvey Award nomination for Best Writer and Best Graphic Album of Original Work.