The Legacy of Ghassan Kanafani

Opinion analysis by Roa Daher, Staff Writer

July 22nd, 2020

When Ghassan Kanafani, and his niece Lamees Najim, were assassinated by Mossad on July 8, 1972, the world lost the prominent Palestinian writer. He was first Palestinian writer to start writing ‘resistance literature’ about Palestine. While there are some Palestinian writers who are household names, like Mahmoud Darwish and Edward Said, Kanafani’s contributions may have been lesser-known due to his premature death. 

On the 9th of April, 1936, Ghassan Kanafani was born in Akka, Palestine. Exactly 12 years later, the Deir Yassin massacre happened, in which 254 Palestinians were killed by Zionist militant organisations Irgun and Stern, and once he heard, he never celebrated another birthday again. Later that year, during the Nakba, Kanafani and his family escaped Jaffa to Lebanon with hopes of returning to their homeland, but they later settled in Syria alongside other Palestinian refugees. In Damascus, he enrolled for a degree in Arabic Literature while teaching at UNRWA schools. Unfortunately, before he was able to graduate, he was expelled and forced to leave to Kuwait due to his involvement with the Movement of Arab Nationalists (MAN). In 1960, Kanafani made a final move to Beirut, where he spent his final years and launched a career in writing and journalism while becoming more interested in Marxist philosophy and its relation to Palestinian liberation.

In Beirut, Kanafani’s involvement with MAN increased as he took on editing its newspaper Al Hurriya. Throughout his years in Beirut, Kanafani was an editor of the Falastin supplement of the popular Al Muharrir newspaper while also contributing to al-Hawadeth magazine and Al Anwar newspaper under different pseudonyms. His position at Al Muharrir was especially significant because of its status as an Arab Nationalist newspaper in addition to its influential nature and wide reach that gave Kanafani a platform to address nationalist myths and anti-Palestinian sentiment among the Lebanese youth.

He published his famous novel Men in the Sun, in 1963, followed by A World Not Our Own two years later. Both novels were influenced by the time he spent in Kuwait as they concerned with the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland and their ensuing refugee status and accompanying hardships. Additionally, he became a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) that was founded in 1964 with the eponymous aim of liberating Palestine from the illegal and unjust Zionist occupation through an armed struggle.

After the 1967 war, the different branches of MAN separated to create several country-specific Marxist-Leninist organisations; thus, Palestinian politician George Habash created the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) of which Kanafani was a spokesperson and active member. Furthermore, Kanafani halted his successful journalism career in Lebanese media to become the editor of the PFLP magazine Al-Hadaf which was launched by Wadie Haddad. He played an essential role in the success Al-Hadaf as he was able to use Marxist ideas and visual communication to appeal to Arab youth about the Palestinian cause while also casting light on Arab poets like Samih al-Qasim and Tawfiq Zayyad. Kanafani remained the editor of Al-Hadaf until his murder.

48 years after his death, his writings continue to inspire generations of Palestinians to resist the occupation of the israeli settler-colonialist illegitimate state. Kanafani’s literary skills both as a journalist and novelist completely and dramatically transformed Palestinian resistance literature and paved the path for Palestinian poets and writers in the decades following his assassination. As the illegal annexation of Palestinian land that began in 1948 continues with no end in sight, his words in this rare video interview remain relevant and Kanafani’s ability to articulate himself clearly and eloquently is evident. Because he took to art and literature to express himself, his words are immortalised and continue to influence and educate thousands of people about israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. However, in the age of social media and 24-hour news cycles, the news source for millions of people carries a zionist agenda that presents the occupation as a ‘conflict’ and allows room for misinformation, ironically in the age of information.

Instead of being exposed to the works of Ghassan Kanafani or Leila Khaled, many get their information from unreliable social media sources that provide information out of context; one such example was the recent uproar about the illegal annexation of the West Bank, which treated the planned annexation as an isolated incident, rather than a continuation of the campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestine that started in 1948. 

Another such instance occurred more recently when a tweet stated that Palestine was officially removed from Google and Apple maps as of July 15th. Ironically, this information was far from new. In fact, Palestine had not been on either app for years, yet the anger continued. In an age of social media activism and performative actions, the focus of individuals has been shifted away from significant events to symbolic happenings. What does it matter to Palestinians when Palestine is not on navigation apps when Gaza is considered unlivable and tens of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children are killed annually by the IDF? What does it matter when the President of the United States recognises Jerusalem as the capital of israel and demands that the American embassy be moved there? What does it matter when israel has received 142.3 billion dollars in aid, mainly for military assistance, from the United States to date?

The legacy of Ghassan Kanafani, and that of all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the Palestinian cause, must not die. A two-state solution will not do: Palestine will be free from river to sea. The world must not and should not stand silent in the face of the oppression and murder of Palestinians. 

In the words of Elias Khoury:

The Palestinians are knocking, not just with their fists, but with their lives and bullet-riddled bodies and the uprooted trees of their lands. Who would dare to claim that ‘‘the Palestinians are not ‘knocking’’? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to ask, ‘‘Why do you not hear?’’ Or rather, ‘‘Why do you pretend to be deaf when you hear the knocking?’’