Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha fled Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and Israel's subsequent bombing of Gaza. He graduated with an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University in 2023 and now lives in Syracuse. Credit: Courtesy of Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha has made it his mission to document the life of Palestinians like him through his poetry. 

Abu Toha, who graduated from Syracuse University’s creative writing program in 2023, lived in Gaza for nearly all of the first 31 years of his life. When the latest conflict in Gaza began Oct. 7, 2023, Abu Toha fled with some of his family. He was detained by the Israel Defense Forces but later released. 

He used his experience to write poems for his latest book, “Forest of Noise.” Abu Toha wrote about half of the poems in the book before the war began and the other half after the war began. 

Abu Toha will read poems from “Forest of Noise” on Saturday at ArtRage Gallery, located at 505 Hawley Ave. The reading will take place at 6:30 p.m. 

The reading is part of a series of events hosted by the Syracuse Peace Council about Palestine. The Peace Council is also hosting Baha Hilo, a Palestinian activist whose work has been focused on educating people on the realities of Palestinian life, on Tuesday. That event will take place Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Each event is free. 

“What I’m doing is sharing my poetry and talking to people,” Abu Toha said. “… If they couldn’t go to Gaza, I’m trying to bring Gaza to them through my work, my speeches, and my Q and A.”

Abu Toha now lives in Syracuse with his wife Maram and his three children. They relocated to Syracuse in June 2024. 

As Abu Toha described his book, which he’s currently on tour promoting, he honed in on what the poems mean.

“These poems are about survival,” Abu Toha said. 

“Not survival,” he corrected himself. “Attempt at survival, because you do not survive. You try to survive. There is nothing that’s called survival.” 

Despite coming to the United States, Abu Toha still longs for Gaza before the war. Many of his family and friends live there and cannot leave, he said. 

He has used poetry to keep himself connected to his homeland, to remind himself of both the beauty and the bleak. Abu Toha began writing poetry to document what he saw and to process the emotions, he said. 

He shares a communal reality with other Palestinians, he said. He survived displacement, airstrikes and abuse by IDF soldiers, he said. 

“It’s important for (people in Syracuse) to learn where these people are coming from, what kind of trauma and what kind of life experiences they were having before they came here,” Abu Toha said. 

Abu Toha hopes his poems help Palestinians who have died live on through the stories he tells. 

“Every single victim in Gaza is me, every victim child is my child,” he said. 

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Yolanda Stewart was raised in the Bronx, New York City. Before choosing a career path in journalism she found a voice in writing plays, short stories, and a myriad of other creative outlets. She is a 2022...