Ghassan Kanafani facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ghassan Kanafani
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| غسان كنفاني | |
Graffiti tribute to Kanafani in the Palestinian territories, 2004
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| Born | 8 April 1936 |
| Died | 8 July 1972 (aged 36) Beirut, Lebanon
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| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Alma mater | Damascus University (expelled) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1953–1972 |
| Organization | PFLP |
| Spouse(s) |
Anni Høver
(m. 1961) |
| Children | 2 |
Ghassan Fayiz Kanafani (Arabic: غسان فايز كنفاني; 8 April 1936 – 8 July 1972) was an important Palestinian author and political figure. Many people consider him a leading writer of his time in the Arab world. His books have been translated into more than 17 languages.
Kanafani was born in Acre, in a place called Mandatory Palestine, in 1936. When he was young, his family was forced to leave their home because of the 1948 Palestine war. He later remembered feeling very sad and ashamed when, at age 12, he saw the men in his family give up their weapons and become refugees.
His family settled in Damascus, Syria. There, he finished his schooling. He then became a teacher for Palestinian children living in a refugee camp. He started writing short stories to help his students understand their difficult situation. He began studying Arabic Literature at the University of Damascus in 1952. However, he was asked to leave the university because of his political connections. He later moved to Kuwait and then Beirut, where he became very interested in Marxism, a way of thinking about society and economics.
In 1961, he married Anni Høver, who was from Denmark and worked to help children. They had two children together. Kanafani became an editor and wrote for many Arab magazines and newspapers. His 1963 novel, Men in the Sun, became very famous. In 1967, he joined a political group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and became their spokesperson.
In 1972, Kanafani and his 17-year-old niece, Lamees, were killed in Beirut. A bomb was placed in his car.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ghassan Kanafani was born in Acre in 1936. His family was middle-class and of Kurdish background. His father was a lawyer who was active in the Palestinian nationalist movement. This movement was against the British rule and their policies that allowed many Jewish people to move to the area. Kanafani's father was even put in prison by the British several times when Ghassan was a child. Ghassan went to a French Catholic school in the city of Jaffa for his early education.
In May 1948, fighting from the 1948 Arab–Israeli War reached Acre. Kanafani and his family had to leave their home. They became part of the Palestinian exodus, where many Palestinians were forced to leave their homes. Kanafani later wrote a letter to his own son, remembering the deep shame he felt at age 10. He saw the men in his family give up their weapons and become refugees.
After leaving, they traveled north to Lebanon and finally settled in Damascus, Syria. They were quite poor, so his father started a small law practice. The children also worked part-time to help the family. Kanafani finished his high school education there. In 1952, he received a teaching certificate from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). He first worked as an art teacher for about 1,200 Palestinian children in a refugee camp. It was here that he started writing short stories. He wanted to help his students understand their difficult situation.
Political Involvement
In 1952, Kanafani also started studying Arabic Literature at the University of Damascus. The next year, he met George Habash, who introduced him to politics. Habash had a big influence on Kanafani's early work. In 1955, Kanafani was expelled from the university. This happened because of his political connections to the Movement of Arab Nationalists (MAN). Habash had encouraged him to join this group.
Kanafani moved to Kuwait in 1956 to work as a teacher. He spent a lot of his free time reading Russian literature. The next year, he became an editor for a Jordanian newspaper called Al Ra'i. This newspaper was connected to the MAN group.
In 1960, he moved again, this time to Beirut, following Habash's advice. In Beirut, he started editing al-Hurriya, which was the main newspaper for the MAN. He also became very interested in Marxist ideas about society and politics. In 1961, he married Anni Høver, a Danish educator and activist for children's rights. They had two children.
Kanafani continued to work as an editor for various newspapers. In 1967, he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, he became the editor of the PFLP's weekly magazine, Al Hadaf ("The Goal"). He also helped write a program for the PFLP. This program officially adopted Marxism-Leninism, which meant the group was moving towards a revolutionary Palestinian struggle. Kanafani's political writings and journalism had a big impact on Arab thinking at the time.
Literary Works
Even though Kanafani was a strong political thinker and journalist, he believed that literature was the most important thing that shaped his politics. His writing style is clear and direct. He used modern storytelling methods, like flashbacks and different voices, which was a new approach in Arabic fiction.
In many of his stories, he showed the difficult choices that Palestinians from different backgrounds had to make. Kanafani was the first to use the idea of resistance literature when talking about Palestinian writing. He believed that his students' education should connect to their daily lives. While in Kuwait, he read a lot of Russian literature and socialist ideas. He improved many of his short stories there and even won a prize in Kuwait.
Men in the Sun (1962)
In 1962, his novel, Men in the Sun (Rijal fi-a-shams), was published. It is considered one of the most famous works in modern Arabic fiction. The story is like a symbol for the Palestinian struggles after the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian exodus). It shows the sadness and lack of hope among Palestinians in refugee camps.
The story is about three Palestinians who try to cross the border into Kuwait by hiding in an empty water tank of a truck. The heat inside the tank is extreme. The ending of the story suggests that their silence and inaction led to their tragic end. This has often been seen as a message about the difficulties Palestinians faced in trying to build a new life away from their homeland. A film based on this story, The Dupes, was made in 1972.
All That's Left to You (1966)
All That's Left to You (Ma Tabaqqah Lakum) was published in 1966. It is set in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The story is about a brother and sister, Maryam and Hamid. They became orphans in the 1948 war. Their father died fighting, and their mother was separated from them when they fled from Jaffa. This story won a Lebanese Literary prize.
Umm Sa'ad (1969)
In Umm Sa'ad (1969), Kanafani's new revolutionary ideas are very clear. He writes about a mother who encourages her son to join the resistance fighters, knowing that he might die.
Return to Haifa (1970)
Return to Haifa (A'id lla Hayfa) (1970) tells the story of a Palestinian couple, Sa'id and Safiyya. They had been living in Ramallah for almost twenty years. After the Six-Day War in 1967, they finally had a chance to visit their old home in Haifa, Israel.
The couple had to leave their five-month-old son behind in their home in Haifa in 1948. They discover that their son has been raised as an Israeli Jew. This part of the story is like the famous Judgement of Solomon. The father searches for the true Palestine through his memories, but finds only changes. The journey back to his home brings back memories of the past. The difference between the Haifa he remembered and the new Israeli Haifa creates a feeling of being out of place.
The novel talks about two important days: April 21, 1948, and June 30, 1967. The first date is when fighting broke out in Haifa, and many Palestinians fled. Sa'id and his wife were taken by British boats to Acre. A Jewish couple, Evrat Kushan and his wife, found their son Khaldun in their home and raised him as a Jew, giving him the new name "Dov."
When Sa'id and Safiyya visit their old home, Kushen's wife greets them, saying she had been expecting them. When Dov returns, he is wearing an IDF uniform and is angry that his birth parents left him. The father realizes that only military action can solve the conflict. He also thinks that Dov might end up fighting his own brother, Khalid. The novel also suggests that Palestinians were wrong to abandon their homes. It also shows some admiration for the determination of Zionists in building their nation.
Assassination
On 8 July 1972, Kanafani was killed in Beirut. This was done by the Mossad, which is Israel's foreign intelligence service. When Kanafani started his car, a bomb connected to the ignition exploded. Both Kanafani and his 17-year-old niece, Lamees Najim, who was with him, were killed.
Israel said the killing was in response to a group's role in the Lod Airport massacre. However, some believe Kanafani's assassination might have been planned much earlier. At the time, Kanafani was the spokesperson for the PFLP, and that group had claimed responsibility for the airport attack. Kanafani had also been seen in photos with the people who carried out the attack.
A newspaper in Lebanon, The Daily Star, wrote about his death: "He was a commando who never fired a gun, whose weapon was a ball-point pen, and his arena the newspaper pages."
When he died, several unfinished novels were found among his papers.
Legacy and Commemoration
To honor Ghassan Kanafani, a collection of Palestinian resistance poems called The Palestinian Wedding was published. He also received the Lotus Prize for Literature in 1975 after his death.
The Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation was created to keep his memory alive. This foundation has started eight kindergartens for children of Palestinian refugees. Kanafani's legacy continues among Palestinians. He is still seen as a leading novelist of his generation and one of the most important Palestinian writers in the Arab world.
Books and Stories
- The Death of Bed Number 12 (1961)
- The Sad Orange Land (1963)
- Men in the Sun (1963)
- The Door (1964)
- A World Not Our Own (1965)
- Literature of Resistance in Occupied Palestine (1966)
- All That's Left to You (1966)
- On Zionist Literature (1967)
- On Men and Rifles (1968)
- Umm Sa'd (1969)
- Return to Haifa (1970)
- The Blind Man and The Deaf Man (1972)
- The Apricots of April (1972)
- The Hat and the Prophet (1973) (unfinished)
- The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine (1974) (a short book)
- A Bridge to Eternity (1978)
- The Stolen Shirt and Other Stories (1982)
- Arabic Short Stories (1983)
- Knight Knight (1996)
New editions of Ghassan Kanafani's complete works (Arabic Edition), published by Rimal Publications (Cyprus) in 2013:
Novels:
- Men in the Sun | رجال في الشمس (ISBN: 9789963610853)
- All That's Left to You | ماتبقى لكم (ISBN: 9789963610945)
- Umm Saad | أم سعد (ISBN: 9789963610938)
- The Lover | العاشق (ISBN: 9789963610860)
- Returning to Haifa | عائد الى حيفا (ISBN: 9789963610914)
- The Other Thing (Who Killed Laila Hayek?) | الشيء الآخر (ISBN: 9789963610884)
Short stories
- Death of Bed No. 12 | موت سرير رقم ١٢ (ISBN: 9789963610822)
- Land of Sad Oranges | ارض البرتقال الحزين (ISBN: 9789963610808)
- A World Not Our Own | عالم ليس لنا (ISBN: 9789963610952)
- Of Men and Rifles | الرجال والبنادق (ISBN: 9789963610877)
- The Stolen Shirt | القميص المسروق (ISBN: 9789963610921)
Plays
- A Bridge to Eternity | جسر إلى الأبد (ISBN: 9789963610815)
- The Door | الباب (ISBN: 9789963610839)
- The Hat and the Prophet | القبعه والنبي (ISBN: 9789963610846)
Studies
- Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine 1948 -1966 | أدب المقاومة في فلسطين المحتلة ١٩٤٨-١٩٦٦ (ISBN: 9789963610907)
- Palestinian Literature of Resistance Under Occupation 1948–1968 | الأدب الفلسطيني المقاوم تحت الإحتلال ١٩٤٨ – ١٩٦٨ (ISBN: 9789963610891)
- In Zionist Literature | في الأدب الصهيوني (ISBN: 9789963610983)
