Beside the Sickle Moon

Beside the Sickle Moon is an original work of fiction based on Israel's occupation of Palestine. Set in the year 2065, the story tells a first person narrative through Laeth Awad, a Palestinian who lives above his convenience store experiencing days pass through smoke clouds with his cousin Aylul. One night upon returning to their village from Ramallah they encounter an Israeli checkpoint within the buffer zone that hadn't been there before. It isn't long until the two stumble upon Israel's plans to construct a luxury hotel for incoming settlers, Ma'al Luz. Demolition crews and military personnel are due to fulfill this contract in the months to come and with them as overseer is the infamous Meir Cohen, a Mossad operative who played a key role in the fall of Gaza. Aylul believes from their father, a Hamas militant who died in the battle for Jericho, that only the threat of annihilation breeds the best of human action. They use their contacts to connect with Ibn Walid, leader of the now destitute organization that hides in tunnels throughout the country. A deal is struck but first they must prove themselves by stealing from thieves. Aylul double-crosses Ibn Walid in favor of the far more powerful Fatah, who grant them strength to defend their village from occupation. With these resources at hand Aylul forms Al Mubarizun, a group crowning themselves Palestine's final resistance. Laeth doubts the existence of a future, lost in philosophical ambivalence as he follows his cousin into the depths of guerrilla warfare. He questions the futility of resistance when all former allies have normalized relations with Israel. And what of the innocents on the other side of the Wall who had no say in where they were born? Though a minority of the population, he is not alone in this sentiment. Palestinian youth begin to empathize with this logic enough to create a new social movement, the Forgotten Ones. Coining the derogatory term that their critics slung, the grassroots NGO advocates for a peaceful transition to Israel's one-state conquest where most Palestinians hear whimpers of surrender.