To understand Palestine, read its literature
▶ For an occupied people, writing is one of the few ways in which they can share their story
‘Imight have good friends, travel, luxuries,” Egyptian writer and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz told The Paris Review in a 1992 interview. “But without literature my life would be miserable.” Although Mahfouz was correct about writing’s ability to enrich and uplift, it also has a more profound quality – helping people to explore complex issues in a way that resonates universally.
This quality can be seen in Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji’s novel A Mask, the Colour of the Sky, which was awarded the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. It tells the tale of a Palestinian archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah who finds an Israeli ID and takes on the identity of the card’s owner to understand life behind the Israeli security fence.
Khandaqji’s story explores a theme contained in other modern Palestinian works, such as The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. This 2019 novel is set in a Middle East where, much to Israelis’ shock and unease, the Palestinians have suddenly disappeared. Both Azem and Khandaqji’s novels imaginatively explore how two peoples who live in such proximity have different and unequal experiences of justice, freedom and security.
For Palestinians, literature is one of the few means at their disposal of telling their story in an unmediated way. Palestinian public figures are often pressed in interviews with the international media to begin with a rhetorical denunciation of violence before they can make their point. Palestinian writers, however, are freer to shape their own narrative.
Sadly, because of the continuing occupation of Palestine, it is a narrative in which violence and division often play a central role. Khandaqji has been in an Israeli prison since 2004, when he was given three life sentences after being convicted on charges of terrorism for planning a bombing that killed three people in Tel Aviv. That year was one of major turmoil: the long-time Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died, the Second Intifada was raging and Israeli society was in turmoil over plans to evacuate its settlements in Gaza. Twenty years later, it is a tragedy that the situation has, if anything, worsened.
As the world witnesses the continuing war in Gaza, the need for Palestinian voices has rarely been greater. As the Ipaf prize comes with funding for English translation, A Mask, the Colour of the Sky will soon reach a wider audience. The second Palestinian novel on the Ipaf shortlist, Osama Al Eissa’s The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem, will also gain a higher profile. Support is a vital part of literary prizes as well as events such as the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which begins today.
It is fitting that Mahfouz, the only Arab so far to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, will be a focal point at this year’s book fair – one of his most celebrated works, 1961’s The Thief and the Dogs, deals with imprisonment and revenge, two realities that have dominated the Palestinian experience for years. Until a time comes when Palestinians are free to explore other realities, we must listen to what writers like Khandaqji have to say.