'Life Under Occupation' by Jose Pablo Garcia is a non-fiction graphic novel about the author's trip to Palestine with the group Action Against Hunger and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.

The graphic novel has plenty of serious moments, but the author has lighter ones as well, like when he was initially asked to go on the trip and had to endure a series of meetings. There is also the time, his sketchbook is commandeered by a child. Less humorous are the arduous border crossings into Palestinian territory, and the destroyed houses and livelihoods. The graphic novel presents things pretty factually without taking particular sides, except that of a member of an aid organization trying to help people.

I liked the art. It was a really great style, and the author seems like he's got compassion as well as a sense of humor.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Life under Occupation is a graphic nonfiction book about the hardships and oppression facing Palestinians in the territories. The author, José Pablo García, gives us a story to connect to rather than citing dry facts to show the horrible conditions yet this is only somewhat successful. While the author shows the protagonist interact it is not intimate or deeply felt. This does not make it a bad book. The facts in of themselves speak to the appalling conditions especially the lack of water and this is what made me fall deep into the book and engage with it. It is a political book and I mean this in the best way. I came away knowing more about the consequences of the occupation and the terrible harm done and follow the Middle East conflict more closely than ever.

I absolutely love the artwork! The subject is also super interesting, we normally don't hear the stories of regular folks in Palestine. We only hear about the deaths and attacks. So it is definitely great to hear about the other side, the day-to-day lives of the Palestinians.

The writing style did leave much to be desired. It is very choppy, the story jumps from scene to scene. This meant it was easy for me to get distracted & I never really got in the flow that makes reading so enjoyable. This might have been a 5 star book otherwise.

Garcia smartly stays away from the political and religious aspects of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, instead focusing on human beings. How the ordinary person survives among the daily struggles. In any conflict, the people most affected are those just trying to live their lives, that are just trying to provide a better life for their families. That's where the book really strikes home. These people just want to be left alone to live their lives in peace.

This is very earnest and thoughtful graphic novel written by a Spanish journalist who traveled to Palestine with a humanitarian aid group. Garcia uses the comic format to present this travel narrative through the occupied areas of Palestine. The reader is shown the various ways in which the Palestinian livelihood is thwarted on a daily basis due to the occupation. The poverty and hopelessness of the Palestinian people is displayed next to their ardent attempts to continue to fight for their homeland. For those who are unfamiliar with the Palestinian and Israeli conflict this is a very good beginning. While I would hope that after reading this people would learn more about this issue with more thorough scholarship, I think this is a great look at the resilience of the Palestinians.

Life Under Occupation is the true story of Jose Pablo Garcia’s travels to and through the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Not only was it a great read, but it’s an educational one too. If you’re looking to learn a bit more about what is happening here, or why it’s such a conflicting issue, this is a good first step.
Now, I’m not going to claim that Garcia offered us every minute detail of the trip, and that by reading this you’ll have an academic understanding on what is occurring in Palestine. But it will give you a comprehensive view and understanding of what he personally witnessed, as well as several stories of others, as told directly by them to him.
I do feel that Life Under Occupation spent a little too much time focusing on the travel aspect, instead of putting aside more time to talk to real people with real issues. While I have no problem with the former, the title gave me the impression that we’d be hearing mostly from people actually living under these conditions (as opposed to a person traveling through them). Perhaps a change in title would have prevented this confusion.
On the whole I really enjoyed reading Life Under Occupation. It did a fantastic job of being open and accessible, while also talking about very real and serious subjects. I appreciate all of the effort Jose Pable Garcia went through, at the request of the AECID (Action Against Hunger and the Spanish Agency for International Development). I hope this proves to be the stepping stone Garcia was looking for.

I love that this book was made! More like it need to show the ‘other side’ of what we see in the news or other published media. I work in an elementary school, and I think this book is just too dense to keep my students (pre-k through 5) reading. I would definitely buy it for a middle or high-school.

This book is a travelogue of an artist hired to see the reality of Palestine. It has hints of greatness, but it only shows us hints. Rather than going in depth on any single bit of information, it skims from one interesting piece of information to another. I would have loved to have seen this as a collection of a half dozen graphic novels each focusing on a different village, sector, or event. I want to hear all the details. This seemed rushed and more of a helicopter tour then a actual visit to a foreign land.

I would absolutely recommend this book to school librarians, as well as public libraries or building a personal library. It is a great start for learning about the Palestinian people and the challenges they face on a daily basis. It has a lot of details and stories that would be great for starting discussions. Thank you Action Against Hunger for setting this in motion and funding it. It was a great idea!

Note: Readers will probably enjoy this book more if they know that the author has few statements that make it clear the the bias of this book favors the people of Palestine. There is a subtle message of disapproval for the Israelis and their treatment of the Palestinians. I don’t mind that, because most books I’ve read have a definite pro-Isreal slant. Buying this book will help build balance into the average library collection.

Life Under Occupation tells the story of the author as he goes from Spain to Palestine to report the situation there.

I really liked the art and the subject was captivating. I could not put it down.
Sadly, I felt like the whole book was poorly constructed. It felt too much like a news report and not like a story.
I do understand that it’s non-fiction and that it was thought as so but I think it could have gained from being a bit easier to read and get into. It would have been perfect if it had.

I wonder when will we realize that we are all humans...Anyway a politically correct but real story of life under the occupation written as a reportage, the fading colors give me the sense of the poverty and loneliness even if when life goes on, but how? I would really like for the world to find a solution to this never ending conflict.

Mi chiedo quando arriveremo a capire che siamo tutti esseri umani. Comunque un reportage scritto in forma di graphic novel e politicamente corretto su come sia la vita reale in uno stato occupato. I colori smorti danno il senso della povertà in cui vivono le persone e della solitudine in cui sono costretti a tirare a campare.. Mi piacerebbe davvero che il mondo trovasse una soluzione a questo conflitto infinito.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

This a very interesting and educational book, since I know almost nothing about the background of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It was especially interesting to see the stories through non-American eyes! (The author is Spanish, and so may have a different perspective on what's happening there than an American would).

Love this subject and was looking forward to seeing this comic book interpreter.

This graphic novel outlines in detail a Spanish cartoonist's NGO-guided trip through Palestine. It's drawn in kind of a Tintin-like cartoon style, and is full of information: specifics on the rules and limitations that govern Palestinian life, procedures for passing border wall checkpoints, sewer systems in Gaza, etc. It was interesting to see the ins and outs of how Palestinians live, and the inconveniences of being under occupation that most people can't imagine without having been there. <br>
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I was a little disappointed, though, that <i>Life Under Occupation</i> was so heavy on logistics and comparatively light on human stories. Obviously you can't delve deeply into the life story of everyone you meet on a trip that took like two weeks, but was a little frustrating to get like 3 pages of panels on "and I met this person from the NGO and this person from the NGO and this person from the NGO" and like 2 boxes about meeting a village headman whose family lived in plastic tents with no water or electricity.

An important story in the form of a graphic novel. great art too.

The author was invited to tour her Jerusalem and write a graphic novel about life there. He didn’t. Instead, he wrote an autobiography about the assignment and what he saw. Too much information and too clinically conveyed for my tastes. The book felt absolutely crammed. The information, writing and drawings felt cluttered. Something more narrative and allegorical might have conveyed the feel better. I had difficulty absorbing the information.

The last panel of the graphic novel has this quote:
“How on Earth do you expect me to cram all that into a graphic novel?”

Not to worry, cramming successful, maybe too successful. The story does feel overstuffed with knowledge, but the illustrations were cartoony, and seemed at odds with the enormous amount of information on the pages, in the panels, sometimes outside of the panels… It is a bit like a textbook, and I could not get a good read on the overall feeling of the book.

*eARC Netgalley*