No matter how heavy a rock you’ve been hunkering under, chances are you’ve at least heard the words ‘Gaza Strip’, ‘West Bank’, and ‘Israeli settlements’ thrown around at some point during the last forty-odd years. But chances also are that you’ve been rendered pretty blasé about the Palestinian struggle after seemingly endless cycles of violence, retribution, and failed agreements.

Joe Sacco, a Maltese journalist, spent two months in the Occupied Territories in 1991-92 during the first intifada (resistance against Israeli occupation), and then committed his experience with Palestinian life to a series of vivid comic-style artworks. (Incidentally, Australia has its own Sacco connection – he lived here until the age of 12.) In Palestine, the compilation of Joe’s works, he shares tea with family after family of Palestinians struggling to survive under strict and often violent living conditions. 

Joe’s illustrations are amazingly animated and detailed, and contain so much movement that they can take hours to completely absorb. The cartoon style contrasts the stark realities of the stories, resulting in a thoroughly engrossing window into what life was like during that period in Palestine. Tea session after tea session with mournful families does become draining and a mite repetitive after a while, but does give an impression of what the rhythm of Sacco’s life must have been like – story after story of woe, anger, and aggression. 

 But it’s not all tanks and bloodied limbs, and Palestine is injected with rich veins of self-aware humour. If things get too heavy in the Territories, writes Sacco, he can always skip out and be dancing it down in a Tel Aviv nightclub before the hour’s out – it’s that easy and guilt-free for a visitor. He’s well aware of the artificial nature of his presence among the Palestinians, and never tries to make the easy grab for moral high ground. 

Sacco’s work is the spoonful of honey after the medicine you know is good for you – and may very well be the antidote to other-side-of-the-world Middle East apathy.