note by Chapter
****Chapter 1:****
****Setting: 1991-1992****
Page 1 “Cairo” Egypt (loud, traffic)
Page 4 “Blind dates” (pun on dates) Sacco takes the bus to Palestine; tea “seriously sugared” “hospitality measure by the lump” - “his country?” Sacco immediately announces his sympathy for the Palestinian people
Page 11 “Return” Holy City - Jerusalem with American Jew named Dave
Page 16 “Eye of the Beholder” - Israeli females in the army; young Israelis in the army are hot
Page 18 Silwan all-Arab village that has been taken over by settlers; also a protest against settlements; “Peace Now” seems a sham — no real interest to grant Palestinian autonomy except by the Palestinians (20)
Page 21 Valley of Kidron (pun “kid”)— Palestinian kids are hostile — extort money from Sacco
****Characters:****
Joe Sacco - tourist/journalist
Hotel receptionists
Sharif - Egyptian Muslim in love with a married European woman
Taha - more practical; realistic (calculates that Sharif spent 600% of wage)
Dave — American Jew working kibbutz
****Contextual Notes:****
Page 2 - Anwar Sadat - president of Egypt from 19 - 19 made peace with Israel; assassinated in
Menacham Begin
Camp David
First Intifada 1987-1993 Palestinian revolt (Arabic = shaking off/uprising)
Page 6 Klinghoffer (American Jew shot on cruise in Port Said by Palestinian Liberation Front)
Page 7 Various acts of terrorism (Munich Olympics and airline hijacking)
Page 8 Achille Lauro
Page 9 Mass incarceration of Palestinian men
Page 12 Lord Balfour’s declaration = British commitment to a homeland in Palestine for the Jews — > 10 to 1 Palestinians to Jewish people
Page14 Law of Return - any Jew from anywhere can return and get Israeli citizenship
Page 15 1948 Israel declares independence; Palestinians are forcibly removed from their homes —> “There is no sign that we ever lived there.”
****Authorial choices:****
First person perspective: I — Joe Sacco comic journalist’s POV — more subjective than objective as in the traditional journalistic mode of documenting events
Caricature
Diagonal speech bubbles; askew
Irregular panels (page 3 looks like an irregular peace sign with a tank at the Bottom’ years ’73, ’67, ’56 indicate that the conflict has been going on for many years)
Page 4 Motif of hospitality in tea and food — throughout book counters stereotype of terrorist and shows the humanity and generosity of Palestinian people and the warmth of their culture
Page 5 inset Palestinian people look downtrodden
Page 10 high angle and low angle in insert (Sacco seems smug about “being good at this”)
Cross hatch style (Palestinians in background have lines on their faces)
Page12 Biblical allusion Joshua 1:3 Promised land
Page 12 Chiasmus: “A land without a people for a people without a land” (Zionist slogan)
Page 14 Dave repeats “I am home” three times
****Vignettes**** within each chapter: Cairo, Blind Dates, Return, Eye of the Beholder, Valley of Kidron
****Connections with “Human Acts”:****
Intifada (Uprising) - resistance against oppression
Difference is that the conflict is external: between two different groups fighting for same land whereas “Human Acts” is about the citizens of Gwangju protesting martial law and resisting the dictatorial rule of Chun Doo Hwan
****Chapter 2****
****Setting:****
Pages 27 -28 Taxi to Nablus
Page 37 Hebron Armed Settlers vs Palestinians
Page 41 Balata Biggest Refuge Camp (“mud” page 42)
****Characters:****
Old PalestinianTour guide vs young, obnoxious Jewish settlers
Saburo = Japanese photographer
Jabril - Palestinian host of Sacco and Saburo in Balata refugee camp
****Contextual Notes:****
Page 30 Injuries and Intifada; they think Sacco is Japanese; takes photos of all the injured in the hospital
Page 34 Fourth Geneva Convention
Page 34: the shebab
Page 39 cenotaphs
Page 42 Theodor Herzl formulated modern Zionism in late 1800s; David Ben Gurion — Israel’s first Prime Minister (“a decisive blow must be struck, resulting in the destruction of homes and the explosion of the population” and “Palestinian Arabs have only one role left — to flee”
Golda Meir another Israeli Prime minister in 19 __ “They [the Palestinians] did not exist”; History of 1948; IDF (Israeli Defense Force)
Page 46 Misrepresentation of Palestinians by Hollywood film “Delta Force”
Page 47 UNRWA school
Page 49 Fateh — Arafat’s division of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)
Page 50 Hamas Islamic fundamentalist group mentioned
****Authorial choices:****
Page 28 Juxtaposition Army guards and night club in New City (heavy vs light)
Page 29 Heavy graphic weight “Public and private wounds”
Page 31 Low angle shot in the hospital
Page 31 and 33 symbolism - keffiyeh in photos (suffering and perseverance of identity)
Page 34 “Carry on Doctor” throw a stone versus gun shots (excessive force); statistics 1987-88 400 Palestinians killed and 20,000 injured
Page 35 Contrast Israeli soldiers in dark cross hatch and Palestinians in white
Page 37 Another low angle shot make young armed (Uzis) settlers look menacing
Page 38 Quick tour (Sacco and guide) repeated images and overlapping speech bubbles show this fast pace
Page 40 medium close up of tour guide (People are people; Only God is great)
Page 41 -50 shift to Narrative prose interspersed with illustrations (splash panel page 46)
Page 43 - ID card (Mahmoud Darwish poem) Green (intifada) vs orange card (no intifada)
Page 46 Oum Koulsoum famous Egyptian singer; “Remind Me” song symbolic of sorrow, separation and loss
Page 49 humor “hot tubbing experience with Ariel Sharon,” Black Panthers, “kosher” irony
and low angle shot = signifies danger
****Vignettes**** within chapter: Taxi, Public and Private wounds (Nablus), Carry On Doctor, Hebron, Remind Me (style of narration notably change)
****Connections with “Human Acts”:****
Page 44 stories of abuse by Israeli soldiers and CURFEW (repeated p.50 5 pm); torture of Jabril p. 46; p, 47 Nablus prison
Page 48 No history or geography taught that mentions Palestine = censorship
****Chapter 3****
****Setting****
Page 53 protest in East Jerusalem over expulsion orders: A Thousand Words (reference to a photo)
****Characters****
Saleh — Palestinian journalist - numb, jaded and tired of same show
Sami - guide/driver
Khaled “Brother for a day” (page 74 — real conversations about difference between East and West)
****Contextual Notes****
Page 63 Illegal settlements: “Israel has expropriated 2/3rds of the West Bank for its own use” Prime Minister Shamir; incentives for Israeli settlers
****Authorial Choices****
Page 54 repetition of “someone’s gotta pay” false charges of 12 Palestinians; list of charges intersects middle of panel (Protesters on top; IDF on bottom heavily armed)
Page 60-61 both literal damage and injustice and symbolism - cutting down all the olive trees Page 61 - 62 SYMBOL OF IDENTITY: Olive trees = “The olive trees are the same as our sons”
Motif of tea which is Palestinian hospitality and endurance despite the pain and misery of their existence
Page 69 Metaphor of the Bucket (also on page 59) 1,250 Palestinian houses demolished;
Idiom “a drop in the bucket,” represents the attempt to capture and convey the immense, overwhelming scale of Palestinian suffering (both collective and individual experiences of hardship) through journalism. The sheer volume of pain and loss is so vast that any single story is just a tiny fraction of the total, filling an endless bucket that can never be fully accounted for.
Page 71 Close up shots of pain and misery on the faces of the victims’ families
Page 72 -73 Emotional anguish on Khaled’s face is palpable — stress over dilemma
****Vignettes within each chapter:****
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
Page 54 and Page 58 awareness of act of journalism/writing/documentation like the Epilogue (“who/what/why/inverted pyramid lead paragraph”) but graphic novel is more cynical and less emotional (two woman speaking in newsroom ‘blah blah blah”) and “there’s nothing here” of Sacco’s photos
Page 59 “But we want faces, we want pain” - like Dong Ho — puts a face on the tragedy but again in a far more business-like, crass manner: “89 shekels each for a car, a driver-driver-translator and assorted brutalities” — “one-stop village just east of the green line that’s a veritable gold mine of Palestinian misery” — tone is harsh and mocking quite different to the mournful subtlety of “Human Acts”
Page 55-56 Police brutality (also on page 61 beat the boy for no reason in his own house)
Page 59 Censorship Israel Patrol breaks cameras and confiscates film
Page 64 -65 Also brutality of settlers harassing and threatening Palestinians (which is different to Human Acts)
Page 67 Irony (like Taeguki flag) of Palestinians having to report incidents of violence to settlers who destroyed their homes (like the US south and the KKK)
Page 69 THE MOTHER (husband is dead, son is in jail; lost everything)
Page 70 Tragedy of brother and cousin shot by settlers and due to curfew could not be taken to the hospital
Page 71 Photo of two dead youths — like Dong Ho “too heavy” Saburo repeats and doesn’t speak — “faces” = bear witness (“even for a vulture like me” — like the professor in Human Acts)
Many Palestinian men are jailed and the curfews are restrictive — similar to oppressive, authoritarian force of Chun Doo Hwan and the Israelis
Page 77 Saburo has more humanity than Sacco who is very honest yet crude and heartless about his need of conflict to fuel his job and future fame : “peace won’t pay the rent” — baby’s head is enlarged from the tear gas (similar to agent orange damage)
****Chapter 4****
****Setting****
Ansar III - another jail (Ketziot) holding 6,000 inmates
Page 88 “Ansar is our university”
Page 93 Jabril’s home (from Chapter 2)
****Characters****
Yusef (p. 92 arrested multiple times), Mohammed and Iyyad interviewees of inmates - each a middle aged professional (doctors, teachers, lawyers and journalists) held in administrative detention (six months held without trial and then one more year and a half indefinitely without ever being charged of a crime): “You fall into a trap of trying to figure out what you did wrong”
Page 97 Tough Palestinian woman
****Contextual Notes****
Page 80 Abu Jihad assassinated; protest
Page 91 Guards “start to relax and act as humans”; “we want to counteract the policy of recruiting Israelis to be Palestinian haters” “it serves the ideological purpose of exposing Israelis to conditions where they don’t see Palestinians as humans … dressed like animals …”
Page 94 Shin Bet Israel’s Internal Security Organ
****Authorial choices****
Page 85 “We felt like animals” (simile); page 86 literal cages
Page 94 reference to “1984” Winston Smith
Page 95 The Landau Report is a sham: Irony “Israel is Middle East’s only democracy”
Page 96 Comedic interlude/comic relief— Palestinian Joke (panels change - small and regular) CIA, KGB, Shin Bet capture a white rabbit 10 minutes, 5 minutes, Shin Bet gone for a long time beating a donkey to confess to being a rabbit (like an accusation of terrorism)
Page 100 Middle panel juxtaposition of Israeli guards and Palestinian mourners
Page 99 (out of order between 105-106) Akkkawi family in black — graphic weight = mourning
Page 113 Juxtaposition with clam of Israel at the expense of torture of Palestinians
****Vignettes within chapter:****
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
Page 83 Abuse and torture of innocent people; activists punished more harshly
THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE PRISONER with interviews (AND PARTS OF THE FACTORY GIRL — Page 97 -98 woman in coffin and Al Shabab torture)
“lumps of meat” - human rights’ abuses — “moderate pressure Part 1 and 2 — ironic
Page 94 More torture “The door he closes and the world cannot see”
Page 100 Funeral for a martyr: Mustafa Akkawi died of a heart attack while being tortured
Page 102 - 103 Ghassan’s story of torture taken in the middle of the night
Page 105 -112 Ghassan’s wrongful conviction and torture (judge is complicit — no evidence)
****Chapter 5****
****Setting****
Page 117 Ramallah
Page 126 Chicago (taxi ride) woman has five children moves back to Palestine (no electricity for a week)
****Characters****
Page 129 Bassem and Shafeek —attacked by settlers
Page 135 Rita and Muna — women’s rights advocates
****Contextual Notes****
Page 122 What is Jane’s (in relation to arsenal?)
Page 130 Iraq war; Saddam Hussein drop missiles on Israel
Page 133 - 13 Women: Palestinian Federation of Women’s Action Committees; change meets resistance due to tradition — status of women “Islam offers avenues by which women can press for their rights”
Page 136 Algerian Revolution - Woman fought alongside men and after independence from France went back to traditional roles (so no social gain with the national gain: “If we lose Palestine, why worry about women?”
Page 137 -140 Hijab; conference in 1990 gives women choice but some say Hamas requires it (PLO secular; Hamas “extremist Islamic group”) In Gaza women wear the hijab but agree it should be a choice
****Authorial Choices****
Jagged speech bubble, short, choppy phrases mirror the chaos
Page 119 Splash panel “It’s the West Bank Swan Lake” dark humor
Page 121 Sacco’s fear emanata sweat drops and repetition of “It’s good for the comic”
Page 123 -124 panels are askew; contrast in opposite directions Palestinian protesters and Israeli jeeps/army (Army is bad for business/economy — no one shops — easier to buy from Israelis — sad irony)
Page 125 repeats simile “like a leaf” - Sacco shaking in fear and Israeli gun points down
Page 126 “Jews own everything is America” - media bias
Page 127 emanata of fear of women and motion lines of Israeli gun being wielded
Page 128 half panel is the aggression of the soldier - medium close up - “this” repeated = gun
Page 129 metafiction “I‘m a journalist, a professional. I need more details …” Blank pad bottom panel — “But this is second hand info”
Page 130 List of deaths - victims of conflict: Palestinians and Settlers in Hebron (’79-’83)
Page 131 Motif of hospitality — tea and food are constant (Israelis also send in people posing as journalists and then arrest Palestinians — afraid to talk freely
Page 132 Intertextuality: newspaper clipping of violence in Hebron; Jerusalem Post biased story told from perspective of settlers and IDF confirms their version of the incident
Page 133 Strong emotions on people’s faces
Page 136 Halos around heads of enlightened women (see other panels with this feature - 66,67, 97, 140, 141 also called nimbus, aureole in painting of saints; shows honor, reverence; holiness
137 Hijab symbol (like Persepolis) Palestinian identity; conference in 1990 gives women choice
Page 141 Humor “Still one of the boys” - sexist joke; laughing about a third wife to get tea and lunch
****Vignettes**** within chapter:
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
Page 117 Palestinians obey imposed curfew - part of fabric of daily lives
Page 137-140 Interviews with women representing the political spectrum and different perspectives about wearing the hijab - polyvocal in a way about issues of gender and gender inequality (in both texts women are more vulnerable to abuse based on their gender though “Palestine” has a religious dimension whereas as “Human Acts” is political and economic)
****Chapter 6****
****Setting****
Page 145 Gaza - Refugeeland (Jabalia Refugee camp)
Page 150 ROOMS Nuseirat refugee camp, Block 2 “If you think this is bad,[Balata in West Bank] you should see Gaza.”
Page 159 Lawyer’s room/office (new vignette) about religious laws and how to prosecute them
Page 164 Black coffee vignette- Ammar’s uncle’s house
****Characters****
Page 151 Larry — American who teaches English in Gaza Town
Page 154 Ibrahim - stories of violent resistance (question of fighting force with force and killing collaborators
Page 157 Ammar and his plight
****Contextual Notes****
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees
Page 174: Hanan Ashrawi, Assad, Saddam Hussein, George Habash, Arafat, Abu Jihad
Page 176 Edward Said: Orientalism - Professor at Columbia (The Question of Palestine
****Authorial Choices****
Page 146 Tone is cynical “free tour” “but you’ll want your refugee camp to be an intimate thing” “when you want them to stop, let them know”
Page 147 Entire page is splash panel of refugee camp to show harsh conditions and misery
Page 148 Juxtaposition (one vs many) bearing witness; graphic weight of Sacco, safe behind glass of van; subtle suggestion of voyeurism, three panels: children, Gazan men and Israeli soldiers with Sacco on the left in all panels looking out
Page 149 Tone is again jaded; progress is made with educating deaf children but there is an underlying sense of tragedy and hopelessness (word that boy lips reads is “fuq”); IFD tower looms large overhead; controlling everything in the camp “watches unblinkingly”
Page 150 LOGOS “And I did Gaza by numbers” — statistics of suffering
Page 151 Unique angles (low angle and knees down in bottom panel - “no floors, just sand”)
Page 152 ROOMS motif “The cold, the men, the tea. … That’s the essence of Palestinian Room”
Page 152 Anaphora “The soldiers closed down the school, the soldiers imposed a curfew, the soldiers clubbed me o the head, the soldiers took me away …”
Page 153 Logos: “in ’89, for example, of 3,779 live-round casualties,1506 were children under 15”
Page 156 last panel Contrast (in the rain)
Page 158 Metafictional element of Sacco being directly appealed to help a sick woman — the helpless and hopelessness of Palestinians in Gaza speaks louder than words in last two panels: “Ahlan wa Sahlan” welcome in Arabic (almost like welcome to my world)
Page 159 Law (new chapter/vignette) - Family honor — shows the complexities of the culture
Page 160 Second panel— graphic violence against woman 00 killed for adultery (notice halos and font change with informative panels inserted - almost like voice over narration)
Page 162 Logos: George Habesh and the Shah; UN Resolutions 242 and 338.
Page 163 Ominous foreshadowing of two men (hooded uniformed men-Hamas?)
Large panel bottom “these guys are in charge” - the weather is also ominous throughout
Page 165 Logos/historical context of Nakbah in 1948— note the difference in font with speech and information; simile “Jews are like a dog that has gotten hold of some meat”
Page 166 -167 “Sons of Curfew” - taught to distinguish where they are from & where they live
Page 167 Issues of representation: Arabs on donkeys — “We Palestians love education”
Page 168 Tomatoes vignette symbolize unjust system for Palestinian exports & access (water)
Page 172 and 174 motif (halos) deception of Carmel tomatoes
Page 175 Two large wordless panels (one on the bottom shows feet again in sand = hardship)
Page 176 Despite having little, “I pay” = Palestinian hospitality (I underlined: Ammar insists)
Page 177 “Edward Said”
****Vignettes within chapter:****
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
Page 161 Also depicts graphic violence for children accused of throwing stones “…faces pressed onto hot plates … ink tubes from ball point pens are inserted into their penises”
Page 161 -162 “What good does it do, your coming here to write about these things?” Panel 2 again strong awareness of Sacco as a subject in this text (also p. 164 with eating food of refugees)— contrast with Han Kang in Epilogue and Dong Ho’s brother who asked her to write so as not to desecrate his memory.
Pathetic fallacy — both texts use weather to comment on mood (HA mournful; P is ominous)
Page 165 Excessive force of Israeli military and five guns of Palestinians when invaded
****Chapter 7****
****Setting****
Page 181 Another refugee camp: Jabalia — awful conditions — no space, no roofs
****Characters****
Sameh - studied on Cairo and taught philosophy in Yemen; works with children with disabilities
Firas - 15 year old boy in PFLP — joined at 13 years old
Rifat - 17 years old - shot in back and stomach
****Contextual Notes****
Pages 191- 1: December 8,1987 First Intifada - mourning four men killed by Israel
****Authorial Choices****
Page 181 Hail coming through roof; collective punishment- Israelis turn off electricity to the camp’s 65,000 people
Page 184 Witnessing — Interviews with people and photos taken
Page 186 - Five families living together in 10x10 meter dwelling — 35 people total; 7 to a room — traces of former homes bulldozed by Israel can still be seen
Page 187 Motif Palestinian hospitality:“but I always got the bed, the only warm place in the house” — also see page 189 — draw the line at underwear
Page 188 Keffiyeh symbol of Palestinian identity/resistance (Last panel: both heads illuminated)
CHECK WHITED OUT SPEECH BUBBLES ON PAGES 193-194
Page 195 Symbolism of throwing stones (like Old Testament though ironic David and the giant Goliath) “It’s not important if we go to prison or not. This is a prison for us.” (Halos)
Page 200 Close up of extreme brutality; panel 6 is left blank- powerful image of excessive force
Page 204 Many injured — especially the young
Page 208 Perspectives: Sacco sees it as adventure; Sameh is stressed and worried about risk
Page 212 3x5 all small dark panels = fear of being caught outside past curfew with contraband video
****Vignettes within chapter:**** The Boys (Parts 1-4), Handicapped (p.206) — corruption and limitations, Rewind (p.208) fear of IDF soldiers while watching video is ever present reality
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
Pages 192-194 Palestinian people demonstrate; Hatem Sissi (IDF surprised but heavily armed)
Page 196 - 197 Firas recruited at 13 years old to PFLP
Page 198-200 Protesters beaten by IDF even in the hospital; extreme brutality of Israeli soldiers
Page 201 “This is the childhood” — both texts show loss of innocence due to political conflict
****Chapter 8****
****Setting****
Jabalia refugee camp
****Characters****
****Contextual Notes****
****Authorial Choices****
Page 217 splash page of Jabalia camp
****Vignettes within chapter: Pilgrimage****
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
****Chapter 9****
****Setting****
****Characters****
****Contextual Notes****
****Authorial Choices****
****Vignettes within chapter: Pilgrimage****
****Connections with “Human Acts”****
****Political Factions****
****PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)****
****Fateh****
****Hamas****
****Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)****
Comparison with Human Act
Notes for Comparative Analysis
Placing ****Han Kang’s**** Human Acts (about the Gwangju Uprising and massacre in South Korea, 1980) alongside ****Joe Sacco’s**** Palestine (about life under Israeli occupation during the First Intifada) reveals profound commonalities in how literature and comics journalism can bear witness to political violence.
1. ****Central Concern with State sanctioned violence and Systemic Dehumanization****
Works investigate what happens to human beings—both body and spirit—when subjected to state-sanctioned violence and oppressive, authoritarian systems.
Human Acts: Explicitly focuses on how the state reduces dissenting citizens to mere bodies to be controlled, tortured, and disposed of. The title itself points to what constitutes a “human” act amidst inhumanity.
Palestine: Shows the daily humiliations, violence, and bureaucratic control (checkpoints, curfews, arrests, home demolitions) that strip Palestinians of agency and dignity, treating them as a demographic threat rather than individuals.
****2. The Trauma of the Collective Body vs. the Individual Body****
Both dissect the relationship between the collective and the individual in suffering.
Human Acts: Moves through a chorus of voices—victim, friend, mother, editor, soldier—to show how the massacre’s trauma radiates outward and lingers for decades. The decaying body of Dong-ho becomes a symbol for the wounded body politic.
Palestine: Sacco immerses himself in the collective daily experience of occupied Palestinians, while constantly focusing on individual stories, faces, and specific losses. The collective trauma is built from these intimate, personal fragments.
****3. Form as a Mirror of Fragmentation and Trauma****
The formal structures of both works reflect the fractured, non-linear nature of traumatic memory.
Human Acts: Uses a polyphonic, multi-perspective narrative that jumps in time. This fragmentation mimics how trauma is recalled—in flashes, repetitions, and from different angles.
Palestine: Uses the comics medium to juxtapose images and text, timelines, and anecdotes. The layout is often dense and chaotic, visually representing the overcrowded, tense, and unstable reality of occupation.
****4. The Burden and Ethics of Witnessing (Objectivity in the face of suffering and violence)****
A core theme in both is the question of how to witness, record, and transmit stories of suffering.
Human Acts: Has chapters dedicated to the survivor’s guilt of the friend (Jin-su), the tortured factory girl’s struggle to testify, and the writer’s own confrontation with the past’s ghosts. It asks: What is the cost and responsibility of remembering?
Palestine: Sacco places himself as a visible, sometimes awkward, outsider in the narrative. He grapples with his role as a journalist—is he exploiting pain for a story? Is his presence a burden? The work is fundamentally about the act of witnessing itself. Also consider Saburo’s role as a photographer and character foil to Sacco.
****5. Focus on the “Ordinary” and Bodily Realities of Violence through imagery****
They avoid abstract political rhetoric, grounding their narratives in visceral, physical detail.
Human Acts: Graphic descriptions of corpse decomposition, the physicality of torture, and the labor of handling the dead make the horror inescapably concrete.
Palestine: Sacco’s drawings focus on the textures of daily life: crowded rooms, the rubble of demolished homes, the weary expressions in queues at checkpoints, the bodily intimacy of violence and mourning.
****6. Historical Amnesia vs. Testimony****
Both works are acts of resistance against official forgetting, erasure and narrative control.
Human Acts: Was written when the Gwangju Uprising was still a suppressed and contested history in South Korea. Kang’s novel is a literary monument against state-sponsored amnesia.
Palestine: Sacco’s work brought the daily realities of the occupation, often marginalized in Western media, to a broad audience in a deeply humanized format. It insists on recording what powerful institutions would rather obscure.
****7. The Ambiguity and Perpetuation of Suffering****
Neither offers a clean resolution or redemptive arc. Both show how cycles of violence traumatize all involved and deform societies with generational trauma.
Human Acts: Shows how the trauma poisons future generations and even the perpetrators though this perspective is not explored.
Palestine: Depicts a seemingly endless cycle of resistance, repression, and despair, with no clear end in sight. The suffering is ongoing and systemic. Here too the soldiers are featured but their point of view is not the main focus.
****Key Difference in Approach:****
Human Acts is a ****lyrical, poetic novel**** using metaphorical language and interiority to explore psychological and philosophical dimensions.
Palestine is a work of ****immersive comics journalism**** (or “graphic journalism”), using reportage, satire, and illustrative realism to document external realities and political contexts.
Human Acts and Palestine are powerful, ethically engaged works that use innovative narrative forms to document state violence, honor the humanity of its victims, and force the reader into the position of a witness, challenging them to confront the realities of historical and ongoing trauma in order end cycles of violence and avoid repeating the mistakes of history.