Welcome To Hell: From The West Bank To Gaza by Mohammad Sabaaneh

As someone who believes in the need for a Palestine free of occupation and genocide, it feels weird to say that nothing in this graphic memoir persuaded me further along towards that cause. The Israeli occupation is horrifyingly cruel, and the abuse the Palestinians continue to endure unthinkable. If, for whatever reason, you don’t already believe this and need further testimony, then this book will hopefully help open your eyes to an incontrovertible truth.

But nothing that Mohammad Sabaaneh chronicles in this book is particularly new to me. I honestly felt like a chorister getting slowly more numb at being preached to about things I already know. It doesn’t help that I don’t respond well to graphic violence. I don’t need to watch depictions of violence in order to empathize and want to agitate for change: on the contrary, being exposed to secondhand violence makes me retreat. Seeing cruelty done to others — especially if it’s not something I can step in and stop immediately — inflicts a psychological wound that I need time to recover from. If you’re like me, then this book probably isn’t essential reading for you either.

That said, bearing witness to the trauma of what the author and his fellow Palestinians went through is also important work. If you can do that, then by all means read this. Welcome To Hell is affecting and bleak and illuminates in greater detail the specific suffering of the Palestinian people. It’s also very much an agonized cri de coeur of someone who’s had to endure unimaginable and unnecessary pain at the hands of the deeply sadistic.

Interestingly, what this graphic memoir did persuade me of was the need for prison reform outright. The longer that people and societies around the world accept inhumane conditions and brutal treatment for alleged criminals, the longer that the cruel will get away with evil behavior to their captive populations. The author correctly describes Gaza as one large open air prison, and shows exactly, if not necessarily deliberately, why changing the mindsets of people regarding incarceration is an important step in getting society to recognize everyone’s humanity. No one should be treated the way that the Palestinians in this book are, no matter what they’re said to have done.

The proto-Cubist art reinforces the surreal brutality of the author’s experiences, tho I appreciated less the disjointed nature of the narrative. This is the second book of the Palestine Will Be Free series. Hopefully, the promise of the series’ name will be fulfilled before many more of these volumes need to be lived through.

Welcome To Hell: From The West Bank To Gaza by Mohammad Sabaaneh was published June 16 2026 by Street Noise Books and is available from all good booksellers, including