Stories make us | Refaat Alareer | TEDxShujaiya

Refaat Alareer’s major concern was that older people’s stories aka the oral history is dying out because due to modern technology we stopped caring about stories. “I am the man I am because of the stories told to me by my mother and grandmother,” he states. As Palestinians under occupation, storytelling transcends the didactic value to an urgent need to owning our narrative, something that gives back power to the people rather than the elite. Stories that people can tell about a land are proofs of their right to that land. Editor of “Gaza Writes Black“, RefaatAlareer teaches Creative Writing and World Literature at the Islamic University, Gaza. Alareer has an MA in Comparative Literature from University of London. After the Israeli aggression of 2008 on Gaza, Alareer expanded his interest to include young Palestinian writers in storytelling as a form of growth, understanding and resistance. Refaat believes in storytelling and its role in building and shaping individuals and communities. “We are what stories have been told to us,“ he says. In Gaza, storytelling, an activity that has been diminishing recently, has always been women’s strategy to exercise power and overcome men’s dominance. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at