Alareer Book Club for Solidarity with Palestine - September

Islington PSC invites you to the next session of our Alareer bookclub series in collaboration with Housmans Bookshop, focused on reading about the collective resistance, struggles, and liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people.

Housmans Bookshop, one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the UK, specialises in books on feminism, anarchism, anti-racism, anti-fascism, LGBTQIA+ politics, socialism, and nonviolence. They stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and are a beloved, crucial part of Islington’s cultural fabric.

The pick for September's session is Perfect Victims by Mohammed El-Kurd.

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Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.Palestine is a microcosm of the world: on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple demand: dignity for the Palestinian.

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Joining us will be Ella who was a volunteer with EAPPI in the Jordan Valley and can share her experience in international solidarity work in Palestine. You can find EAPPI’s English speaking blog here: https://www.eyewitnessblogs.com

You can purchase the book in store and online at Housmans Bookshop for £12.99

We invite you to register for the event on 7th September 2025, from 3 PM to 5 PM. As space is limited, we kindly request you to sign up only if you are certain you can attend.

Money raised from ticket sales will go directly to the Sameer Project, supporting displaced Palestinian families in Gaza.

If you require a concession due to low income or unemployment, please email us at [email protected], and we can register you for free—no questions asked.

Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on December 6, 2023. In response to the threat of zionists storming his home, Alareer said "I'm an academic, the toughest thing I have at home is an Expo marker. But if the Israelis invade ... I'm going to use that marker to throw it at the Israeli soldiers, even if that is the last thing that I would be able to do." We pay homage to Alareer and strive to carry on his mission of using storytelling as resistance.

Host or Publisher Islington PSC