In Memory of Professor Refaat Alareer who is featured in the ending, is the release of an astonishing new rap music video ‘Genocide Joe‘ from rap music star and poet laureate Lowkey [a.k.a. Kareem Dennis] featuring Mai Khalil.
Professor Alareer has made significant contributions to literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza. He co-founded ‘We Are Not Numbers’, an organization that pairs experienced authors with young writers in Gaza. This initiative emphasizes the power of storytelling as a form of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. His students adored this extraordinary man.
This article is a tribute republished from Feminine-Perspective-Magazine (FPM) (Sat, 13 Jul 2024 19:33:48 GMT) with express written permission. The article is by Behar Abbasi in Gaza City, Rosa Yamamoto in Tel Aviv and Micheal John in Toronto
He was my friend. Thank you, Lowkey, Behar in Gaza City
Rap Video ‘Genocide Joe’ by Lowkey
LOWKEY – Genocide Joe (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) Featuring Mai Khalil.
In Memory of Professor Refaat Alareer
Dr. Alareer was born in Gaza City in 1979 during the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, which he said had negatively influenced every move and decision he made. He earned a BA in English in 2001 from the Islamic University of Gaza and an MA from University College London in 2007. In 2017, he completed a PhD in English Literature at Universiti Putra Malaysia with a dissertation on John Donne. Source: Wikipedia
Targeted Murder of a revered Professor by American/Israeli Forces
“I had never been able to concentrate properly during a three-hour lecture until I attended one of his.
He taught me creative writing.
He taught me poetry.
He taught me Shakespeare.
He had a profound connection with modern plays and poems and taught them in a funny and interactive way…” More remembrances by Students.
Words Without Borders
“With a heavy heart, I mourn the loss of my great professor and dear friend, poet Dr. Refaat Alareer, who was killed with a number of his family members by an Israeli airstrike on his sister’s home in Gaza on 6 December 2023… For Dr. Refaat, teaching was more than just a job; it was a dynamic and transformative experience for himself and for his students. He wanted us to leave the classroom with a new pair of eyes, and with an exciting idea that we could take home and contemplate for hours and days. He always encouraged us to share our newly developed thoughts with our friends and family, and to make note of their responses and counterarguments.” —Nadya Siyam is a Palestinian writer and academic who studied under the late Refaat Alareer. Read her trubute at Remembering Dr. Refaat Alareer – Words Without Borders
Instagram photo: Professor Refaat Alareer. “He taught us life,” say students.
| Born | 23 September 1979, Shuja’iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip |
|---|---|
| Died | 6 December 2023 (aged 44) at Shuja’iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestinian territories |
| Cause of death | Targeted collaborated American / Israeli airstrike |
On 6 December 2023, Mr. Alareer was targeted and killed with an American bomb dropped in an Israeli / USA airstrike in northern Gaza. Also killed in this targeted airstrike of their home were his brother, a sister, and four of his nephews.
The Euro-Med Monitor released a statement saying that Alareer was apparently deliberately targeted, “surgically bombed out of the entire building”, after weeks of “death threats that [44-year-old Professor] Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.”
Additional targeting killings of the rest of the Professor’s family.
On 26 April 2024, Mr. Alareer’s eldest daughter and his newborn grandchild were also targeted and killed by an American-assisted Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home.
Author of “Genocide Joe” In memory of Refaat Alareer, Lowkey: A Rapper, and fellow Poet Laureate
Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008, with appearances on BBC Radio and at various festivals and concerts including the BBC Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxegen in the buildup to his first solo album Dear Listener, as well as collaborating with other British musicians to form the supergroup Mongrel. He released his second solo album, Soundtrack to the Struggle, independently on in 2011. After a five-year hiatus, Lowkey released a string of singles between 2016 and 2018 to precede the release of his third album, Soundtrack to the Struggle 2, released in 2019. // Lowkey is a vocal opponent of Zionism and is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He characterizes Zionism as colonialism and ethnic cleansing. — Lowkey – Wikipedia
Genocide Joe Lyrics
Between 1776 and 2019 the US carried out over 392 military interventions worldwide killing millions in the process and condemning many millions more to a Life of Agony and despair.
A new world is struggling to be born
a phoenix will rise from
the Embers of empire in Gaza
GenocideJoe you terrorized Souls when your eyes
closed at night how do you
sleep at night how do you GenocideJoe
you better lie low we’re getting quite
close at night we feel you
gather at night we feel youyou are the murderer
you are the terrorist
you are the criminal
a crime so devilish genocide is the aim of starvation is what the
weapon is America’s woke president
speaking like he’s on sedatives H killed
in the car wonder what our eyes seen you
were give it interview slobbering on an
ice cream man squashed by a tank seen
his inside scream GS is not a strip it’s
the world’s biggest crime scene Barefoot
Fighters red triangles on light green
gun fixed on Aron bushel as they watch
his life leave this is for the child to
ask why us why me this is for the
children that I see in my dreams as
night leans body’s freezing a morbid
temperature a stain remains on the faces
of all your Senators no matter where the
blame is aim will you remember the lost
one genocide Joe the Fallen Emperor
genocide Joe you’re terrorized Souls
when your eyes Clos at night how do you
[Music]
sleep at night how do you genocide Joe
you better lie low we’re getting quite
close at night we feel you
Breathe at night we feel you Biden is a
murderer Trump is a murderer whichever
way you look political system circular
sunak is a murderer starmer is a
murderer whichever politician that
indifference is merciless if they
deprive gods of the option of Breaking
Free then to me a jail cells the most
honorable place to be fight like
Vietnamese fight like algerians genocide
streaming you can share the experience
Camp David Oslo Accords a trojan horse
Gods a genocide the Lost go but the
global North they watch from the drones
and they kill them with no remorse
you’ll never know the Hopeless thoughts
as you hold a corpse as night leans
bodies freezing the morid temperature
stain remains on the faces of all your
Senators no matter where the blame is
aim we all remember the lost one
genocide Joe the Fallen Emperor genocide
Joe you terrorized Souls when your eyes
close at night how do you
sleep at night how do you genocide Joe
you better lie low we’re getting quite
close at night we feel you
breathe at night we feel you we know
that it’s very Bleak it’s very dark uh
there’s no way out uh if if there’s no
water there is no way out of
Gaza what what should we do like drown
like commit mass suicide is this what Israel
wants and we’re not going to do that and
I was telling some somebody some friend
the other day that I an academic I
probably the toughest thing I have at at
home is an expo marker but if the Israel is
invade if the part has charged US Open
Door too to Massacre us I’m going to use
soldiers even if that is the last thing
that I would be able to do and this is
the feeling of everybody we are helpless
we have nothing to lose
[Music]
Republished with express permission from Feminine-Perspective Magazine
