Alareer Book Club for Solidarity with Palestine

Islington PSC is thrilled to announce the launch of a monthly book club in collaboration with Maqam Books and Housmans Bookshop, focused on reading about the collective resistance, struggles, and liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people.

Maqam Books, established in January 2023, provides a home for Arabic-language books, filling the gap created by the lack of Arabic literature in the UK. Housmans Bookshop, one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the UK, specialises in books on feminism, anarchism, anti-racism, anti-fascism, LGBTQIA+ politics, socialism, and nonviolence. Both institutions stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and are beloved, crucial parts of Islington’s cultural fabric.

We are launching the book club with No One Knows Their Blood Type by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Hazem Jamjoum. This extraordinary novel of Palestine shifts the narrative focus from the battlefield of history to how women live their daily lives within the colonial context of their embodied experiences. We are also honoured to have Hazem Jamjoum joining us to facilitate discussions on the book, alongside Mohammad Masoud of Maqam Books.

You can purchase the book in store and online at Housmans Bookshop for £16.99.

We invite you to register for the event on 22nd February 2025, from 3 PM to 5 PM. As space is limited, we kindly request you to sign up only if you are certain you can attend.

Money raised from ticket sales will go directly to the Sameer Project, supporting displaced Palestinian families in Gaza.

If you require a concession due to low income or unemployment, please email us at [email protected], and we can register you for free—no questions asked.

Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on December 6, 2023. In response to the threat of zionists storming his home, Alareer said "I'm an academic, the toughest thing I have at home is an Expo marker. But if the Israelis invade ... I'm going to use that marker to throw it at the Israeli soldiers, even if that is the last thing that I would be able to do." We pay homage to Alareer and strive to carry on his mission of using storytelling as resistance.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London, United Kingdom