Eco123 Revista da Economia e Ecologia
12/09/2026 – 18/09/2026 By Uwe Heitkamp
Edition 36.2026
Imagine you’re throwing a party and have invited friends and acquaintances round to your house: during the party, a bomb goes off, the house catches fire and suddenly everything around you is ablaze…
Imagine you’re on holiday in the mountains, planning a few hikes through the mountain forests: during one of these hikes a forest fire breaks out somewhere, the forest is ablaze, and you have nowhere to go…
Imagine you’re taking part in a demonstration because it’s your right to do so. You’re demanding a better quality of life in your town: suddenly the police arrive and arrest you and many of your friends, and you’re taken to an interrogation room and questioned there. The police officer accuses you of taking part in an unauthorised demonstration. He asks you questions you don’t want to answer. A second police officer enters the room and starts beating you. You’re shouted at, tied to a chair, and the first police officer keeps asking you the same question over and over again. Who are the organisers, the people behind the demonstration? Every unanswered question is met with a blow. But that’s not all. At some point during the interrogation, a black plastic bag is pulled over your head…
The book I have just read was written by 29-year-old Hamza Abu Howidy. It is not a novel, but a work of non-fiction, and was published by Fischer-Verlag in Frankfurt. It is written in German (with the collaboration of journalist Judith Poppe from the daily newspaper “taz”) and should be translated into English and other languages as soon as possible. This 238-page book deserves a wider, international readership. The book’s title is “Muscheln am Strand(…)”. What is it all about? What sort of memories are these of a devastated country?
Hamza, the protagonist, recounts his life story. Not yet 30 years of age, this young writer has so much more to tell us about than many other people do at the end of their long lives. Hamza Abu Howidy tells us about growing up in Gaza at the start of the twenty-first century, about his family, particularly his father, who teaches him life’s great lessons whilst they gather shells together, but also about the bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas, right on his doorstep in Gaza City, and how deeply life there is marked by terror and corruption.
Years later, even before 7 October 2023, he protested against Hamas alongside many friends and was arrested; he was tortured and forced to flee. Today, he is one of the most important political voices from the Palestinian exile community, yet he refuses to be co-opted by either the pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian sides. Hamza currently lives somewhere in Europe as a tolerated political refugee.
A key sentence appears on page 139 of the book, which reads: “I couldn’t tell them that I’d spoken to the Israelis, that I could certainly understand their security concerns, that I believed in coexistence – yes, in peace.” The book offers the reader a perspective on the dilemma of this conflict, which has been raging for ages: “…without taking the first step, without eliminating Hamas, there was no room for any vision I had of Palestinians and Israelis living together…” Not an easy read. More books like this, please. It’s well worth reading.
