Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal

Mohammed El-Kurd is the author of Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal and serves as the central figure, narrator, and primary voice throughout the book. El-Kurd’s background as a writer and activist deeply informs the tone and urgency of the text, as does his firsthand experience with occupation, dispossession, and media misrepresentation.

El-Kurd was born and raised in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem on May 15th, 1998. He was featured in the documentary My Neighbourhood (2003) as a child, an experience he recalls in Perfect Victims. El-Kurd moved to the United States as a young adult, earning his BA at Savannah College of Art and Design before pursuing a Master in Fine Arts at Brooklyn College in New York City. El-Kurd became internationally known in 2021 during the wave of forced expulsions facing Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah. His public defense of his family’s home—often through poetry, journalism, and televised interviews—positioned him as a global spokesperson for Palestinian resistance. He is currently the Palestine correspondent for The Nation.

El-Kurd has attracted controversy for his outspoken support of Hamas and for his characterization of