Published 18 September 202418 September 2024 · Solidarity For Dao Van, and Yousef Dawas André Dao Speech delivered at the National Library of Australia on 12 September 2024, at the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards: The genesis of Anam came just over twenty years ago, when I was fifteen and stumbled across an Amnesty International newsletter with a photo of my grandfather on the cover. Reading that newsletter, I discovered that Amnesty had adopted my grandfather, Dao Van, as a prisoner of conscience. At the time of the newsletter, my grandfather had been in prison without charge or trial for four years. It was another six years before he was released. In some ways the campaign to free my grandfather was a failure. My family must have despaired at the powerlessness of their words to Amnesty, to the Red Cross. Over the last year I’ve been thinking a lot about the inadequacy of words. In February I was asked to write a tribute to a young Gazan. In the six months since I’ve been unable to do it: what formulation of words could be enough? But as I thought about what I wanted to say tonight, I realised that the words about my grandfather in the Amnesty International newsletter had not entirely failed. They were carried from house to house, from continent to continent, photocopied and passed on, until they found me. I realised then that this is what solidarity looks like: to speak, to write, in the face of despair and powerlessness. So, in the spirit of solidarity, let me tell you a little about Yousef Dawas. Yousef was a writer. He wrote articles for the Palestine Chronicle, and for the We Are Not Numbers website. He said that he dreamed not of visiting Paris or the Maldives, but other cities in Palestine. He ate chocolate during Israeli airstrikes to deal with the anxiety. He was studying to become a psychoanalyst. He mourned the loss of his family orchard, the trees bearing olives, oranges, clementines, loquat, guavas, lemons and pomegranates, burned by the Israeli Defence Force. On 14 October last year, Yousef and his family were killed by an Israeli missile strike on their home in Beit Lahia. In Yousef’s memory — but also in remembrance of my grandfather, and in honour of my parents, refugees across three continents — and in a spirit of hope without optimism, I call for the Australian government to create a humanitarian visa for Palestinians. I also call for Australia to fulfill its international obligations by withdrawing all support, direct and indirect, for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory — starting with an arms embargo. Congratulations once again to all the shortlisted authors, across all categories. Let us continue to build together this house we call Australian literature — and may the door to that house always be open. Image: Dao Van in 1954 (supplied) André Dao André Dao is an author and researcher from Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. His debut novel, Anam, won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. He was awarded the 2024 Pascall Prize for Cultural Criticism for essays published in The Saturday Paper, Meanjin and Liminal. He is the co-founder of Behind the Wire, the award-winning oral history project documenting the stories of the adults and children who have been detained by the Australian government after seeking asylum in Australia, and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Laureate Program in Global Corporations and International Law at Melbourne Law School. More by André Dao › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 21 August 202427 August 2024 · open letter Rejecting racism towards Palestinian visa applicants Migration Scholars against Australian Border Racism towards Palestinians We unequivocally condemn the racism that Australian political leaders and authorities have shown towards Palestinians, particularly to Palestinian visa applicants from Gaza since October 2023. Australian political leaders and authorities have failed dismally to provide Palestinians with meaningful access to asylum and safety. 5 August 202412 August 2024 · open letter We stand against discipline of Deakin encampment Deakin Palestine Solidarity Group We, the undersigned Deakin University staff and students, oppose Deakin’s disciplinary measures against students for participation in the Deakin Gaza Solidarity Encampment. We affirm our support for freedom of speech and the right to protest on campus.