Literature of the Palestinian Struggle

Hello, everybody. My name is Hamza Nawa.

And this is my final project for this class.

This is about the literature surrounding the Palestinian Struggle.

Over the last few weeks, we have learned all about different human rights abuses,

wrongful imprisonment, torture, dehumanization, racial discrimination,

et cetera.

For my final project, I wanted to focus on the human rights abuses in Palestine.

The literature presented herein encapsulates the

Palestinian Struggle through creative expression,

touching on topics such as occupation, dehumanization, imprisonment,

and diaspora.

And you may be asking yourself, why did I choose? Palestine

Palestinians have experienced nearly every human

rights abuse for the last 75 years

and the systemic oppression only becomes worse with each passing day.

Majority of the world's human rights groups categorize

the treatment of Palestinians by Israel as apartheid

as the longest struggle for Human, his human rights in modern history.

I believe the Palestinian Struggle is the most worthy topic for my final project.

Now, before we get into the literature itself,

there is some historical context that is good to

know so that you can appreciate the literature.

Now, the entire history of the Palestinian struggle is a full course in its own right

and well beyond the scope of this project.

So I will attempt to summarize the parts

that are pertinent to the literature in this per

presentation.

A great resource for the history of the Struggle

is the question of Palestine by Edward Saed.

Sayed is unequivocally one of the most established historians of the 20th century.

And I highly recommend this book for anyone

wanting to learn more about the Palestinian struggle.

Let us begin with the founding of the Israeli state.

Now, the founding of Israel begins

many years before Israel was

formerly

an independent nation.

Zionist settlers began moving to the Ottoman province of Palestine in around 18 88.

These were mostly Russian Jews that were fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire

after the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War One,

Palestine was made into a British mandate.

A quote from

Zed

tells us the most important thing to know about this British mandate government

throughout the British mandate.

Palestine was denied any measure of self-government.

In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour declaration

an open letter to the Zionist leaders in Britain expressing support

for the establishment of an exclusive Jewish nation in Palestine.

In the late thirties,

Palestinian Arabs revolted against British rule and the influx of Zionists.

The revolt was put down by the British and in 1939 they published the white paper

which proposed an independent Palestinian state within 10 years

over the next 10 years,

British control over Palestine would become increasingly untenable.

So the United Nations proposed a partition plan in 1947

that would divide Palestine into two separate states, Jewish and an Arab state.

With Jerusalem being under international administration.

The plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arabs who felt

it was unfair given that they were the vast majority of the population of Palestine

following the expiration of the British mandate,

Jewish leaders unilaterally declared the establishment of

the State of Israel on May 14th 1948

following the Israeli Declaration of Independence was an event known as the Nakba.

Nakba. In Arabic means the catastrophe.

The

was a pit

pivotal moment in Palestinian history that marked the systematic

Uprooting of the indigenous Palestinians population from their homeland.

Sayed emphasizes that the

NBA was not a mere result of a conflict between two equal sides

rather it was a deliberate and calculated

process of ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces.

The forced displacement of Palestinians resulted in

the creation of a massive refugee population,

many of whom still live in precarious conditions to this day.

The

ECB not only represents a loss of land and property but also the loss of identity,

culture and the right to self-determination for Palestinians.

Zed

criticizes the Zionist narrative that portrayed the establishment

of Israel as a peaceful and just process.

It conceals the violent expulsion of Palestinians

and the destruction of their villages.

The

is not just an on an event that consigned to

the past but an ongoing process of dispossession and marginalization.

Recognizing the historical injustice of the NPA

is crucial for achieving a just and lasting peace in the region.

Tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors have been escalating

for years due to various factors including territorial disputes.

The Palestinian refugee issue and the closure of the Strait of Tehran by Egypt

which blocked Israeli access to the Red Sea.

On June 5th, 1967

Israel launched a preemptive preemptive strike against Egyptian airfields

destroying a significant portion of Egypt's air force.

This strike was followed by a series of attacks on Jordanian and Syrian airfields.

The Arab countries were unable to recover from

the Israeli attack due to incompetent leadership and inferior

firepower.

This ineffective counterattack was halted on the

sixth day giving the conflict its name.

Israel used this opportunity to annex the West Bank,

the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1979 following the Camp David Accords.

The Accords also provided a framework for Gaza and

the West Bank to become an independent Palestinian state.

And that's the Palestine we know today.

However,

the negotiations at Camp David were largely ineffective.

Why? Because Israel still occupies most of the West Bank.

Palestinians in the West Bank are reliant on employment by Israelis and

are at risk of having their homes stolen at any time.

Veins

are effectively imprisoned as Israel controls the

entirety of the border and constant airstrikes

by the Id F prevent them from organizing any sort of democratic leadership,

violent groups such as Hamas have taken advantage of this power vacuum to grow in.

Palestine

Israel uses these groups to justify further attacks on Gaza

which creates a vicious cycle which continues to this day.

Now that we've gone over the historical context.

Let's get into

the literature, which is the primary focus of this project.

Starting with poetry, poetry is an important part of Arab culture.

So it is no shock that there is a great deal of poetry that has come out of Palestine,

detailing the constant violation of human rights under Israeli occupation.

The most famous of all Palestinian poets is Mahmoud

Darvish

who began his climb to fame with his poem, Identity Card.

The poem is that reaches assertion of

his Arab identity while living under occupation

and touches on devotion to soil,

which is a common theme of his poetry

and of the Palestinian Liberation Movement in general.

Here is a recording of the

reciting his poem

in around 1970 with an English translation.

This is a very beautiful poem.

And my favorite part of this poem

is towards the end where de

says I do not hate people nor do I encroach.

He then likens his anger to hunger,

which is a natural emotion

that he can't control.

Meaning that his anger from this military occupation

is a natural reaction

for a human

that is under occupation.

So he is saying to his Israeli occupiers,

I don't hate you,

but this anger is just a natural reaction

to the circumstances that you have put me in.

Now, let's talk about works of fiction, stories that have come out of Palestine.

There have been several works of fiction that have been written

by Palestinians to show the world what they have been through

here. I will go through two examples but there are plenty more.

The first one is I saw Ramallah,

which was

published in 1997

and chronicles the author

Muri Bar

Houthis return to his hometown of Ramallah after

a 30 year exile due to Israeli occupation.

The second story

which was originally published in 1962

Men in the Sun is a short novella about three Palestinian refugees

crossing the desert in search of work during the Kuwait oil boom.

Now, in his book,

Barghouti portrays the collective suffering loss

and resilience of the Palestinian people.

This narrative sheds light on the human rights

violations endured by Palestinians in the West Bank

displacement restrictions on movement,

home demolitions and the loss of land and livelihoods.

He also emphasizes

the importance of preserving Palestinian memory

and cultural heritage in the face of occupation

and attempts to erase or marginalized Palestinian narratives.

Now, Men in the Sun mega

is a very important novel novella

uh

for Palestinian literature.

Men in the Sun explores the experiences of

Palestinian refugees and their struggle for dignity.

The story itself is a metaphor for the story of Palestine.

It touches on teams themes of masculinity, gender and exile

Cane

Fanni also delves into brothers, themes such as displacement,

identity. And the yearning for a homeland

uses his novel to highlight a frustration with

the Palestinian people's powerlessness in the face of oppression

and the international community's inaction.

Now there are several films that have been

made about Palestine and the Palestinian struggle.

But the film that I wanted to highlight is Farha

because it is the most recent of all of these films

released in 2021. Farha is a film detailing the story of the 1948 Nakba

through the eyes of a young Palestinian village girl,

Netflix received much criticism from Israeli nationalists

upon the release of this film

because it portrays Israelis as the aggressors.

Specifically,

there's a scene in the movie which shows Israeli

soldiers murdering an innocent family in cold blood.

Now,

this film was based on true events as the girl in the

story grew up to tell them to the people around her.

On the other hand, the film was acclaimed by activists worldwide

because it was not afraid to show the world the

true gravity of the events as they unfolded in 1948.

That is the end of my presentation.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you all have a wonderful summer

Literature of the Palestinian Struggle

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