Refaat Alareer, literature professor in Gaza, was killed by Israeli strike on Dec. 7 Poem ‘If I Must Die’ was read by Scot Brian Cox for the Palestine Festival of Literature in London DUBAI: Actor Brian Cox has recited a poem by Palestinian academic Refaat Alareer, who was killed on Dec. 7 in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike, for the Palestine Festival of Literature in London. Alareer, who was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, first published “If I Must Die” in 2011. He reposted it on Nov. 1 on X, where he has more than 111,000 followers, and pinned it to his profile. The Palestine Festival of Literature in London shared a video on Wednesday of the Scottish actor reading the moving verse. Cox recited: “If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze — and bid no one farewell not even to his flesh not even to himself — sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love If I must die let it bring hope let it be a tale.”