Global mourning following Israel’s murder of academic Refaat Alareer
Gaza (QNN)- Israel’s military on Thursday killed the well-known academic and writer Refaat Alareer in an airstrike on his sister’s house in Gaza.
Alareer (44 years old) was a renowned Islamic University of Gaza professor. He also co-founded the We Are Not Numbers project, which provides writing workshops for young Gaza Palestinians. His work inspired the young generation in Gaza, Palestine, and across the world. He was murdered alongside several family members by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Thursday.
Since the Israeli army started its brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Alareer remained in his home town Shujayea in northern Gaza, which he had previously described as “the epitome of resurrection that refuses to kneel to Israel’s barbarity”.
The murder came as the occupation state of Israel is conducting further relentless strikes on civilian targets in Gaza under the pretext of fighting the Palestinian resistance. Over 16,000 civilians, half of whom were children, were killed in the Israeli genocide.
Deliberate assassination
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed that Israel’s military probably assassinated Alareer and that the apartment where he and his family were sheltering was surgically bombed.
The human rights group on Friday said that according to corroborated eyewitness and family accounts, the Israeli airstrike “surgically targeted the apartment on the second floor where Rafaat was in a 3-storey building, and not the entire building; indicating the apartment was the target and not possible collateral damage.”
It added that a few days ago, Refaat moved with his wife and children to an UNRWA school in al-Tufah neighborhood in Gaza. “However, a close friend of Refaat’s told Euro-Med Monitor that he had received an anonymous phone call from someone who identified himself as an Israeli officer”. He threatened Refaat that they knew precisely the school where he was located and were about to get to his location with the advancement of Israeli ground troops.
The threat prompted Refaat to move back to his sister’s apartment, believing it was more concealed than an open and overcrowded school.
The group called for an immediate investigation into the murder of Alareer.
Global mourning
Weeks before Israel killed him, Alareer said in a post on X that if he died, the news should become “a tale.”
If I must die, let it be a tale. #FreePalestine #Gaza pic.twitter.com/ODPx3TiH1a
— Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) November 1, 2023
Following the announcement of Alareer’s murder, tributes poured in. Thousands of posts flooded “X”, telling stories about Alareer and sharing inspiring pieces of his legacy.
I've known Refaat Alareer (@itranslate123) since I was 17. He taught me my first English writing course. More than a teacher, he was a mentor, a friend, and he truly cared about his students beyond the classroom. His passion was the English language, but he didn't teach it as a… pic.twitter.com/bseUxnCBNo
— Jehad Abusalim جهاد أبو سليم (@JehadAbusalim) December 7, 2023
Refaat said to me: “Israel wants us to be closed, isolated—to push us to the extreme. It doesn’t want us to be educated. It doesn’t want us to see ourselves as part of a universal struggle against oppression. They don’t want us to be educated or to be educators.”
He was a living… https://t.co/ucBAXStW2E
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 7, 2023
The assassins targeted, went after and killed the voice of Gaza, one of its best academics, a human, my dear and precious friend dr. Refaat al-Ar’eer @itranslate123 @GazaWritesBack pic.twitter.com/qybSJ8EkV7
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) December 7, 2023
Refaat loved life and loved Chicago deep dish pizza. He called Chicago the "Shujaiya of America." That made us proud. Weeks ago I told him that when this was all over we'd share pizza again. A tiny one of the millions of dreams destroyed by his barbaric and merciless murderers. pic.twitter.com/vc1e05Hj4V
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) December 7, 2023
In the video, the Palestinian-American writer, Suzan Abu Al-Hawa, who is banned from appearing on the X platform, mourns the assassination of the Palestinian poet and writer Rifat Alareer, as well as all the massacres happening in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/74ovs4EkmX
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 8, 2023
