Out of Gaza
Katharina Galor
Potomac Books (2025)
ISBN: 978-1640126510
Reviewed by Paul Knobloch for Reader Views (10/2025)
In 2024, after the events of October 7, I decided to dedicate all of my writing to covering the conflict in Gaza. I have seen so much denial and obfuscation in the media when it comes to the reporting on this tragedy that I have to say I was impressed when this Israeli author acknowledged the complexity of the situation and had the courage to come out and state, right in the preface, that she was plagued by one central question: “How of all peoples can Israelis treat another people the way they treat Palestinians?”
For any Jewish or Israeli writer to step out –especially at this moment in history – and risk one’s personal relationships, put oneself in danger of rampant tribal ostracizing from family and media, and display this sort of intellectual honesty right from the get-go, well, it’s impressive, and the rest of the book did not disappoint.
Katharina Galor’s brilliant new book Out of Gaza, paints an informed and compassionate picture of one woman’s struggle to survive the horrors of apartheid and lay claim to her own agency, often while doing double duty fighting against the strictures and prejudices inherent against women in her own Muslim culture. Galor immediately acknowledges that while their peoples, Jews and especially Palestinian Muslims, share a similar history of oppression, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and intolerance, she is not currently in the same dire situation that her Palestinian friend, Dima, finds herself.
How, she asks, can someone flying around the globe and going to dinner parties with respected friends and colleagues understand the horrors facing a Palestinian refugee in the aftermath of the Third Intifada? Nevertheless, Galor manages to do precisely that by being an honest and compassionate friend, and a trustworthy narrator capable of relating Dima’s punishing personal ordeal as well as that of the Palestinian and Jewish peoples.
Dima, born in Amman in 1993, was the daughter of two Palestinian refugees who lost their home in the Nakba, the massive ethnic cleansing that chased thousands of Palestinians from their rightful homes. What she endures after this is hard to read about. Both she and her future husband, Amir, are subjected to endless nightmares in their attempt to get to Belgium, get married, and start a life together. Dima’s existence gets a real shake-up at around the time of the Third Intifada, in 2014. As Israeli bombs fall, refugees are huddled into cramped refugee camps. We come to learn of Dima’s family supported Fatah and tried to steer clear of Hamas, which is always a threat that looms as large as the IDF. As we come to see during Amir’s brutal time in the hands of his Hamas captors, they can be every bit as nefarious a threat to the average Palestinian.
The injustices Dima faces on a daily basis are harrowing. Galor does a good job of relaying the horrors of war and the indignities suffered regularly by Palestinians. But even more importantly, she explores, with nuance and insight, how Dima also has to contend with her family and the rigid strictures of conservative Islamic culture. Her marriage to Amir, complicated and delayed by stays in prison and endless bureaucratic hassles, is made even worse by her family’s intransigence.
Seeing an intelligent young woman – one who has already had to give up her most cherished educational dreams – have her life complicated even more by the almost impossible demands of her relatives is exasperating. It really gives the reader an idea of just what a pressure cooker Dima is living in, and her strength and resilience are to be commended.
Reading about Amir’s absurd hassles with red tape and Dima’s harrowing voyage to Belgium, brokered by dodgy characters that she and Amir must deal with constantly, one is stunned that they manage to survive. Galor does an excellent job conveying all this because her work is rooted in compassion and a sincere desire to know and understand the other. What this fine piece of writing reminds us of is that beyond all the “isms” and “ologies” and repressive dogmas lies the reality: if we are to live together with one another, we must come to respect the human dignity of every person on this planet. Out of Gaza: A Tale of Love, Exile, and Friendship by Katharina Galor book is a much-needed reminder of that timeless and unassailable truth.