Link to last week's reading group post, Jewish settlers stole my house. It’s not my fault they’re Jewish. by Mohammed El-Kurd.
Summary of this book.
The first book for this reading group will be Perfect Victims, by Mohammed El-Kurd. I've pasted the summary below.
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.
This book touches a lot on how Palestinians are constantly expected (especially by Europeans, who invented anti-semitism) to apologize for being Palestinians, and for being victimized by Jewish people.
Comrades who can't afford to buy the book should definitely not go to annas-archive (dot) org and find a digital copy there, since that would be wrong and we are all law-abiding, copyright-respecting citizens.
This week we will be reading the Author's Note at the beginning of the book, as well as Chapter 1 (the sniper’s hands are clean of blood). Let me know if you think we should increase or decrease the pace. I was thinking 1-2 chapters a week depending on how long they are - they vary from around 10 to 20 pages.
Here are some passages I pulled, I’ll add my analysis later when I have time
“raise the ceiling of what is permissible.” I believe this to be our primary job in the discursive war on the Palestinian People. We’ve already seen support for armed resistance rise drastically in the last two years, and while that’s primarily due to the heroic videos posted by Al-Qassam, it is our duty to force the west past the “women and children” to confront the liberation of the entire Palestinian nation
Thank god. While many of the arguments before and after Al-Aqsa Flood have relied on international law, the UN charter, the Geneva Conventions, etc, these arguments have limited utility and shift the debate away from reality and into an arena constructed by the very forces dedicated to Palestinian immiseration. I’m glad to see El-Kurd will not be doing the Finkelstein rules and laws argument
“Our journalists are poets… and our poets write with knives” incredible.
While the Carlo submachine gun is a general symbol of modern Palestinian armed resistance, its specific origin is with Martyr leader Imad Aqel, of Jabaliya. He pioneered the “zero-distance” tactic that has claimed so many settler lives in the last years, eliminating the advantages of technology, surveillance, and long range weaponry. As a result, the Carlo has earned a notoriety among zionist press for its ease of construction, concealment, and deployment.
“ Aqel formed the martyrs brigade wing of Al-Qassam due to harsh security and surveillance: resistance or martyrdom was the only way.
He spent time and effort training the resistance in both Gaza and the West Bank and was referred to as the General of Qassam. One of his operations against zionist army jeeps in Gaza is said to be one of the first recorded resistance attacks. His weapon of choice was the Carlo. Imad engaged and led over 40 operations that killed at least 15 zionist soldiers and injured dozens.”
https://t.me/Palresistmirror/82509
Finally, I’ll leave you with this 2022 article by Musa Al-Sada on the weapon, its history, and its use, titled “The Carlo Emerges From Wounds”
https://medium.com/@resistancenewsnetwork/the-carlo-emerges-from-wounds-ad12d8dc43c7
2025/09/09 08:05:51 UTC+01 ⚫️ Saraya Al-Quds: — They wanted a devastating storm for Gaza... But Al-Quds struck them like a thunderous spear.
Saraya Al-Quds – Military Media — Notes: The graphic portrays a resistance fighter holding the Palestinian-made "Carlo" submachine gun, in reference to the recent operation in Al-Quds.
https://t.me/Palresistmirror/80533
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