Prof Eid, a South African-Palestinian author and academic, detailed the grim realities of Gaza, including the blockade since 2007, Israeli attacks, and the ongoing genocide committed by the Israeli state.
His book is a collection of essays examining political alternatives, opportunities for resistance, and prospects for a just peace after more than a century of dispossession.
The event, hosted at the South End Museum in collaboration with the Department of Languages and Literatures, the Palestinian Solidarity Organisation (PSO), and supported by the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CRiSHET) at Nelson Mandela University, served as a platform to discuss how literature and the arts can act as catalysts for change.
Tasneen Fredericks, Trustee at South End Museum; Professor Andre Keet, DVC Engagement and Transformation, Prof Marius Crous, Director of the School Language Media & Communication, Kate Jennings, Palestinian Solidarity Organisation member, Prof Haidar Eid, Dr Paulette Coetzee, Languages & Literature, Dr Zakhile Somlata, Head of Department Languages & Literature and Enver Motala, Palestinian Solidarity Organisation member.
“Museums such as ours serve to amplify marginalised voices, ensuring that erased histories are remembered, silenced voices are heard, and that injustice is not forgotten. Books, such as Banging on the Walls of the Tank, carry that same torch of memory and testimony, challenging us to see, listen, and more importantly – to act,” said Ryan Pillay, board member of the Museum.
The book draws on themes of Palestinian resistance, suffering, resilience, and takes inspiration from Hassan Kanafani’s novel Men in the Sun. The act of “banging on the walls” symbolises the need to make noise, resist in the face of oppression, and ensure the world hears your suffering.
Prof Eid’s work builds on the legacy of prominent Palestinian intellectuals like Ghassan Kanafani, Edward Said, Mahmoud Darwish, and others. His personal journey is intertwined with his activism, as he fled Gaza in 2023, leaving behind his family and the remains of Al-Aqsa University, which was destroyed.
With over 70,000 people reportedly killed since this period, and thousands more missing in Gaza, a region with a population of only 2.3 million, Prof Eid described the situation as comparable to the Holocaust, referring to it as the “Gazan Holocaust.”
He relayed personal accounts of his own experience, including how he became partially deaf after shielding his two daughters from the deafening sounds of explosions. He also described how he had to send $250 to his brother for just nine eggs, a reflection of the man-made famine that has been recognised by the United Nations.
Prof Eid argued that the international community has failed in its responsibility to end the genocide, citing South Africa’s continued trade relations with Israel, contrasted with a country like Colombia, which has banned all coal exports to Israel in August 2024.
He also called on civilians to boycott Israeli products and support organisations like BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), emphasising that the personal is political and the political is personal.
Rejecting the proposed two-state solution as inadequate, Prof Eid argued that it would only allow Israel to control most of Palestine, further fragmenting it. Instead, he called for a secular one-state solution where Palestinians would be allowed to return to their homes and live with equal rights.
Banging on the Walls of the Tank: Dispatches from Gaza is a follow up from Prof Eid’s Decolonising The Palestinian Mind, which was also launched at the South End Museum in 2024.
The book launch was preceded by a seminar, where Prof Eid discussed the pedagogy of the oppressed and resistance literature, reciting messages from his former students who have been killed in the genocide.
“For us Palestinians, resistance is existence and existence is resistance, and my worst fear is genocide being normalised,” said Prof Eid.