Tareq Baconi – författare

Hamas has ruled Gaza and the lives of the two million Palestinians who live there since 2006. Hamas Contained, first published in 2018, offers a history of the group, drawing on interviews with organization leaders and their publications. Tareq Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance, culminating in Israeli efforts to contain the movement to the Gaza Strip. Baconi argues that under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been marginalized in favor of military action against Hamas, and by implication, all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. This dynamic—a violent equilibrium between Hamas and Israel and the movement's containment in the Gaza Strip—lasted for sixteen years, until it was decidedly shattered by Hamas's offensive on October 7, 2023. Now with new material that provides an analytical framework and reflection on Hamas's offensive of October 7, 2023, and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza, Hamas Contained is an even more essential guide to understanding Hamas and the brutal violence of Israel's war on Palestinians.

'Moving and generous'Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost'Fire in Every Direction is a marvel'Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This'Luminous, moving, and achingly beautiful'Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King'A deeply inspiring and absorbing read'Mark Gevisser, author of The Pink Line'Spending time with the real people in Fire in Every Direction is a delight'Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary WomanBoth a love story and a coming-of-age tale that spans countries and continents, Fire in Every Direction balances humour and loss, nostalgia and hope, as it takes us from the Middle East to London, and from 1948 to the present. Tareq Baconi crafts a deeply intimate, unforgettable portrait of how a political consciousness - desire and resistance - is passed down through generations.In 1948, Tareq's grandmother would flee Haifa as Zionist militias seized the city. In the late 1970s, she would flee Beirut with her daughter, as the country was in the throes of a civil war. In Amman, the family would eventually obtain the comfort of middle-class life - still, a young Tareq would feel trapped: by cultures of silence, by a sense of not belonging, by his own growing awareness that he is in love with his childhood best friend, Ramzi.After relocating to London, Tareq hopes to put aside his past. Yet as the Iraq War radicalizes young people around the world towards anti-war protest, history comes back to him.Living between the region and London, Tareq fits in neither and feels alienated from both. Queerness is policed back in Amman, just as his Palestinian-ness is abroad. These gradual estrangements escalate, forcing him to grapple with what it means to live in liminal spaces, and rethink the meaning of home.

'In stunning detail . . . Baconi traces a story of personal and communal alienation, longing, and liberation'Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This'Moving and generous'Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost'Outstanding'Raja Shehadeh, author of We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I'Luminous, moving, and achingly beautiful'Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King'I am forever changed after reading this book'Javier Zamora, author of Solito'A deeply inspiring and absorbing read'Mark Gevisser, author of The Pink Line'Spending time with the real people in Fire in Every Direction is a delight'Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary WomanBoth a love story and a coming-of-age tale that spans countries and continents, Fire in Every Direction balances humour and loss, nostalgia and hope, as it takes us from the Middle East to London, and from 1948 to the present. Tareq Baconi crafts a deeply intimate, unforgettable portrait of how a political consciousness - desire and resistance - is passed down through generations.In 1948, Tareq's grandmother would flee Haifa as Zionist militias seized the city. In the late 1970s, she would flee Beirut with her daughter, as the country was in the throes of a civil war. In Amman, the family would eventually obtain the comfort of middle-class life - still, a young Tareq would feel trapped: by cultures of silence, by a sense of not belonging, by his own growing awareness that he is in love with his childhood best friend, Ramzi.After relocating to London, Tareq hopes to put aside his past. Yet as the Iraq War radicalizes young people around the world towards anti-war protest, history comes back to him.Living between the region and London, Tareq fits in neither and feels alienated from both. Queerness is policed back in Amman, just as his Palestinian-ness is abroad. These gradual estrangements escalate, forcing him to grapple with what it means to live in liminal spaces, and rethink the meaning of home.

'A book filled with love, from and for his own family, for the region, Palestine and queer culture'Guardian'Luminous, moving, and achingly beautiful'Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow KingTareq's grandmother fled Haifa in 1948, as Zionist militias seized the city. In the late 1970s she escaped civil war in Beirut with her daughter. The family eventually settled in Amman, but a young Tareq still felt trapped: by cultures of silence, by a sense of not belonging, by a growing awareness that he was in love with his childhood best friend.Both a coming-of-age tale and a love story, Fire in Every Direction is an astounding memoir of loss and estrangement, family inheritance and the awakening of political consciousness. 'I love this book'Judith Butler, author of Who's Afraid of Gender?'A powerful memoir of queer and Palestinian reckoning'Sarah Schulman, author of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

A stunning, soul-stirring, philosophical, and political treatise on what liberation for Palestine and our world will look like in the twenty-first century.'At once searing, loving and rousing, this is an acrobatic feat of political leadership from a generational talent'Naomi Klein Palestine is a litmus test - the repercussions of which will go beyond the Middle East, extending outward across the world, argues writer Tareq Baconi. There are only two possible outcomes to the ongoing apartheid and genocide: justice or annihilation.Drawing from Baconi's extensive academic and organizing work with Palestinian and international activists, and from decades of long-standing principles, What Now distils three strategic priorities for a free Palestine to guide activists and allies: refuse the prospect of a divided homeland, resuscitate the revolutionary politics of the Palestinian commitment to freedom and justice, and decompose Zionism.Imagining a Free Palestine is not the same as turning back the clock to pre-1948, Baconi writes, but a new struggle for a just future in the aftermath of Zionism-not by fighting Jewish presence in Palestine, but by ending Jewish political exclusivity. A free Palestine would heal the wounds left in the wake of the second world war, by challenging and upturning the colonial and genocidal mindsets that continue to animate Western thought-the ramifications of justice would therefore extend far beyond the shores of Palestine.Praise for Tareq Baconi's Fire in Every Direction:'In stunning detail - both physical and emotional - Baconi traces a story of personal and communal alienation, longing, and liberation'Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This'Moving and generous'Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost'Luminous, moving, and achingly beautiful'Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

Hamas has ruled Gaza and the lives of the two million Palestinians who live there since 2006. Hamas Contained, first published in 2018, offers a history of the group, drawing on interviews with organization leaders and their publications. Tareq Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance, culminating in Israeli efforts to contain the movement to the Gaza Strip. Baconi argues that under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been marginalized in favor of military action against Hamas, and by implication, all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. This dynamic—a violent equilibrium between Hamas and Israel and the movement's containment in the Gaza Strip—lasted for sixteen years, until it was decidedly shattered by Hamas's offensive on October 7, 2023. Now with new material that provides an analytical framework and reflection on Hamas's offensive of October 7, 2023, and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza, Hamas Contained is an even more essential guide to understanding Hamas and the brutal violence of Israel's war on Palestinians.

LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 ';I am forever changed after reading this book.' Javier Zamora, author of Solito From the renowned Palestinian scholar, a memoir of political and queer awakening, of impossible love amidst generations of displacement, and what it means to return home.Both a love story and a coming-of-age tale that spans countries and continents, Fire in Every Direction balances humor and loss, nostalgia and hope, as it takes us from the Middle East to London, and from 1948 to the present. Tareq Baconi crafts a deeply intimate, unforgettable portrait of how a political consciousnessdesire and resistanceis passed down through generations. In 1948, Tareq's grandmother, Eva, would flee Haifa as Zionist militias seized the city. In the late 1970s, she would flee Beirut with her daughter, Rima, as the country was in the throes of a civil war. In Amman, the family would eventually obtain the comfort of middle class lifestill, a young Tareq would feel trapped: by cultures of silence, by a sense of not belonging, by his own growing awareness that he is in love with his childhood best friend, Ramzi. After relocating to London for college, Tareq hopes to put aside his past, and begins to work through an understanding of self as a queer man. Yet as the Iraq War radicalizes young people around the world towards anti-war protest, history comes back to him: hushed whispers overheard, stories of his mother's years as an activist in Beirut and her return to Palestine during a moment of calm. Living between the region and London, Tareq fits in neither and feels alienated from both. Queerness is policed back in Amman, just as his Palestinian-ness is abroad. These gradual estrangements escalate, forcing him to grapple with what it means to live in liminal spaces, and rethink the meaning of home. Eventually, tracing the journey of his family before him, Tareq returns to Palestine. This is an account of finding oneself through histories of dispossession and reclaiming what has been silenced.