Mohammed Ahmed El Soltan

Mohammed Ahmed El Soltan is from Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. He is a jovial man with the leathery hands of a farmer, who interrupts his own story every few seconds to point out the different crops and wild herbs growing in the fields of the agricultural training center where we meet him.

Dear reader, we have a dilemma here. How can we express in words the joie de vivre, the cheerful optimism and impossible good humor with which one after another person recounts tales of destruction, dispossession, and survival?