Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

Joe Sacco is not just a pioneer in the field of comics journalism; he’s about the only one standing in it. His previous works on Palestine and Bosnia have won worldwide acclaim, and now he narrows his lens further, onto a single month in the Gaza Strip in 1956. In two towns filled with Palestinian refugees, almost four hundred men and boys were killed by Israeli soldiers searching for enemy combatants. The events in the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis were barely mentioned in international news, and have largely been erased from history. But for the surviving families, the tragedy has fueled decades of violent hated against Israelis. Joe Sacco spent two years in the Gaza Strip investigating events of half a century ago, documenting the memories of each individual who was there in painstaking detail.

The visual aspect of this book is critical; because of it we are able to move seamlessly between past and present, and put faces behind the horrible stories being told. Sacco’s art is precise and evocative like it never has been before, bringing history (and a far-away present) to life. While Sacco makes it clear from the outset that his sympathies lie with the Palestinians, he never wavers in his journalistic integrity, cross-examining each witness and questioning each inaccuracy. This is a tremendous and important document of a forgotten footnote of history, one that deserves to be read by all those who care about the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Recommended by Sara D.