On the Zero Line

On the Zero Line is a collection of essays and poems written in the immediate aftermath of Israel's invasion of Gaza in October, 2023. Given how the situation has worsened, from the increasing severity of famine in Gaza to the scores of civilians shot dead while seeking food at distribution points, one might say these entries are "outdated," and in a sense they are; an anthology of writing from Gaza written in late 2025 would look different to this one. In another sense, however, the entries included here are not altered by a change in Gaza's situation, because they are concerned with questions and themes that extend far into the past, and far into the future.
This anthology was compiled in the original Arabic by Tariq Asrawi of Tibaq Publishing, based in the Occupied "West Bank" in Palestine. At this current moment, he is unable to account for the whereabouts of all the authors included in the anthology. The very existence of this anthology is an act of cultural persistence and a rejection of cultural hegemony. In the wake of a catastrophe designed not only to destroy lives but also to erase the cultural landscape of a people, to publish these voices is to resist. When libraries are shelled, and literary institutions all over Europe reveal themselves as determined to repress any mention of Palestine, the act of putting ink to paper asserts that Palestinian thought and literature cannot be obliterated. By translating and publishing this collection, we hope to support a fundamental element of Palestinian self-determination: the preservation and continuation of its cultural infrastructure.