The Mirror of Memory

Eman Alhaj Ali is a Palestinian freelance journalist, writer, translator, and storyteller—born in Gaza, shaped by exile, and scarred by the genocide that began in 2023. She is not just a witness, but a survivor. Forced to flee Gaza alone to pursue her postgraduate studies, she left behind her family, her home, and a piece of her soul.

Her voice carries across borders, with her words appearing in The New Arab, The Electronic Intifada, Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and more. She is a proud member of We Are Not Numbers, and her stories have found life in anthologies like We Were Seeds. 

But this zine—this one—is her most intimate offering.

Inside this zine, you will find fragments of what Eman lived through over 20 months of relentless genocide. Her writing is a mirror of memory: personal reflections on forced displacement, starvation, fear, and the slow unraveling of life under siege. She shares the pain etched into her family’s story—and the stories of others, Palestinians whose lives were shattered and whose voices she vowed to carry.

There are also poems. Some speak to the horror, others to the sea—a symbol of memory, loss, and the unreachable. They mark the years that changed her forever.

While her ancestors came from Jaffa, Eman was born and raised in Gaza. Gaza is her home, her identity, her heartbeat. She has lived through two Nakbas: one when her family was forced to flee their home under the weight of evacuation orders; the other when she herself was torn from her homeland, forced into exile in Ireland. Now, her body lives in Europe, but her spirit remains tethered to Gaza.

This zine is not just a collection of stories. It is a wound still bleeding, a testimony, a cry, a resistance. It is what happens when writing becomes survival.

Read closely.

ZinesforFalastin is an entirely volunteer-driven mutual aid project with two central goals:

1. centering & amplifying indigenous Palestinian voices – captured via our zines

2. distributing zines towards fundraising for the artists’ & their families – 100% of the proceeds go to the artists.

The project was born of a rather simple yearning, a yearning to build a bridge between worlds. That of our kin in Gaza, Palestine, and the rest of us. A conduit – so their words become our primary sense organ over any and all discourses and reflections on the realities of dreams and survival through this genocide. With the hope that such bridges, ultimately, become unshakeable and invincible, leading us into the inevitability of a Free Palestine. 

Follow our project on Instagram: @zinesforfalastin ; or email us with any questions or suggestions for collaborations: zinesforfalastin@gmail.com