16 May 2025
The testimony of Palestinian press cartoonist Safaa Odah
Amid the horror and chaos that are the daily lot of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Safaa Odah, a Palestinian press cartoonist, has sent us her testimony. She expresses the despair of an entire population abandoned to its fate by the international community, which for too long has failed to ensure respect for international law, or even to claim any respect for it.
“I don’t even know what to say. Should I tell you that we survive death every single minute? Or should I tell you that we are starving, and food has run out a long time ago? I just hope the world keeps listening, because our voices are all we have left.
Safaa Odah recently published a book of her cartoons depicting the daily life of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, in collaboration with the Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh.
Cartooning for Peace is calling for Safaa’s words and cartoons, echoing her wishes, to be read and seen by as many people as possible.
– Discover her book, published in March 2025: Safaa and the Tent: Diary of a cartoonist from Gaza –
16 July 2024
Gaza : Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah’s cry for help
Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah writes to us from the Gaza Strip to implore our help. Displaced by the war with her sister several times, she lives in a tent “in a place not suitable for life” and reports the climate of total insecurity in which she lives, in addition to the constant bombardments. Her words reflect the appalling tragedy suffered by Palestinian civilians. As Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, pointed out, “nothing can justify the abhorrent 7 October terror attacks by Hamas. And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Safaa Odah evokes the scarcity and pollution of water, the absence of electricity, cleanliness, food, medical services and medicines, and conditions that deteriorate daily under suffocating heat. She has to travel long distances to access the Internet and connect with the world by sharing her cartoons, which bear powerful witness to the daily tragedy experienced by civilians.
“We are innocent people who do not want this war and we only want to live safe place, in peace.” Now she can’t draw anymore, which kills hope and inspiration.
Every effort must be made to protect journalists and media professionals wherever they may be in Gaza, where more than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of one of the deadliest conflicts for the press. Cartooning for Peace calls for the support and protection of Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah, alongside her fellow journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stresses the need to protect Gaza’s reporters : those who wish to do so must be evacuated, and the territory’s gates must be opened to the international media.
On July 11, 2024, over 70 international media and civil society organizations published an open letter coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), recalling the heavy toll paid by Palestinian journalists and calling on the Israeli authorities to allow foreign media “immediate and independent access” to the besieged Gaza Strip after nine months of war.
