Perfect Victims, Mohammed ElKurd
Perfect Victims, Mohammed ElKurd
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

Perfect Victims
and the Politics of Appeal

Author: Mohammed El-Kurd

Narrator: Mohammed El-Kurd

Unabridged: 4 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/13/2025


Synopsis

"Mohammed El-Kurd has written a new Discourse on Colonialism for the twenty-first century." —Robin D. G. Kelley

Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal—an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.

Palestine is a microcosm of the world: on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.

Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.

How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple demand: dignity for the Palestinian.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Zach on February 10, 2025

I'll sound like a broken record, but I don't think we are yet capable of understanding the psychiatric/psychological impact on carrying out our lives in the middle of a genocide. There's the relentless images coming out of Gaza of lifeless bodies, unrecognizable piles of remains, utter destruction,......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on June 02, 2025

This is a devastating, unmissable book. I’m normally inclined to push through challenging books- read them quickly over a day or two and let them consume me- but I found myself routinely unable to continue reading. Everyday returning for small portions, but always reading a certain line or phrase or......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on April 02, 2025

Thoughtful, powerful, and direct writing about resisting anti-Palestinian racism. Mohammed El-Kurd focuses on dismantling respectability politics and highlighting the ways pro-Palestinian organizers, activists, and advocates shouldn’t have to be conciliatory or demure in their fight for justice. Rea......more

Goodreads review by Sunny on May 24, 2025

Everyone go buy or borrow this book and read it RIGHT NOW!!!!......more

Goodreads review by anna on February 16, 2025

this book asks you time and time again to check your bias, while also describing the difficulties palestinians face on daily basis (that is, on top of being victims of an active genocide). by difficulties i mean the "do you condemn hamas?" and the "do you want to throw israelis in the sea?", and the......more