Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

15 September 2024

11 1 minute read

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

Guy Delisle, a famous Canadian cartoonist, used to live in Palestine with his wife and children for a year, capturing what he had seen and heard during this time. In this book, like his other travelogues, Delisle does not seek a comprehensive interpretation of the social, political, and cultural conditions of his host country. His comic Strip is merely a detailed and precise report of personal observations of daily life within the inflamed Palestinian community, which are not usually covered by the media.

The author and the illustrator of the book came from France and because of his wife’s humanitarian mission, he entered a land that even has dissensions in the definition of border, nationality, government, citizen, and so on. Gay Delisle, in the popular style of the Western media, considers Israel as an established government. For this reason, he narrates his daily observations in the same context. Although he observes obvious contradictions in the human life of Palestine, he tries to keep himself neutral by making jokes and superficial comparisons of events.

The value of Delisle ‘s story of his personal observations regarding the complexities within the inflamed Palestinian society is; from Palestinian-Israeli challenges to political and religious conflict within Israel. The story of life in the Gaza Strip, where more than a million people have been imprisoned and have not been allowed to travel for years. The story of the hard life of people who have to end their lives to cross the beautiful alleys of Jerusalem.