Khaled Juma, a poet from the Gaza Strip and culture editor for WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, has written more than 30 books, including poetry, children's literature and plays. A Sept. 18 book-signing event in Ramallah celebrated “In the War, Far from the War,” Juma's latest collection of poems, the first he has produced while living in the West Bank. The collection revolves around his experience in the summer 2014 war with Israel from a distance. Juma had lived in Gaza during the previous Israeli wars on Gaza, in 2008-2009 and 2012.
Juma is only one of a notable group of writers and intellectuals who have left the Gaza Strip in recent years, heading for Europe, Turkey, Egypt and the West Bank, given the lack of horizons in Gaza to develop their talent and other obstacles.
“I moved to Ramallah in 2013 by sheer chance after I got permission to go to the West Bank,” Juma told Al-Monitor. His main reason for moving to Ramallah was to spend more time writing. “It took me two years to write album lyrics for artist Reem Talhami and composer Said Murad due to power cuts and interrupted Skype meetings,” he said.
Juma stressed, however, that not a day goes by when he doesn't think or write about Gaza. “I keep in my refrigerator a kilo and a half of Gazan coffee,” he said.
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