Palestine Festival of Literature holds event in Haifa

The Palestine Festival of Literature (Palfest) has been holding a series of events across historic Palestine. On Tuesday, a programme in Haifa was arranged in cooperation with the Arabic Culture Organisation. A large number of writers, intellectuals and young people attended.

Fringe events for Palfest were also organised in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus. The aim is to unite historic Palestinian cities symbolically by overcoming all of the everyday obstacles placed on free movement by the Israeli occupation.

The Director of the Arabic Culture Organisation, Rawda Attallah, inaugurated the ceremony in Haifa and welcomed the guests. “Through our festival we disprove the erroneous claim that Palestine was a land without a people,” she said. “This land has its own nation with its own origins, its own history and its own creativity.”

Ms Attallah pointed out that despite the Nakba of 1948 the people of Palestine are still alive and still creative. “The hands of its sons and daughters give everything which is beautiful and fruitful,” she told the audience. “The fact that we are celebrating literature in all parts of the country means that we are narrating the whole story: a land that once had a nation belongs to that nation and it will remain the land for that nation forever.”

Palfest’s director, Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, said that the festival invites writers from around the world to visit Palestine and experience the life of Palestinians at first hand, meet Palestinian writers and offer their literary works directly to the besieged people. She stressed the importance of holding such a ceremony in a Palestinian city which has been occupied by Israel since 1948, and thanked the volunteers and donors who contributed to the success of the event.

After the opening speeches, a film was shown. “Palfest in Gaza” documented the festival’s event held last year in the besieged territory. The film included scenes showing what life is like in Gaza and contained interviews with writers reflecting on their feelings about the enclave, its people and the siege.

British author China Miéville read extracts from his novel “The Basis”. He is a prominent pro-Palestine activist in justice and solidarity movements in the UK. Another British writer, Ammar Hussain, also read from his own work. The Visiting Lecturer at Southampton University presented his short story “The Tree on the Borders” to an appreciative audience. The event concluded with a musical performance by Akram Abdul-Fattah.

Some of the visitors toured around historical sites in Haifa the following day accompanied by Palestinian historian Jonny Mansour. Before leaving Haifa, Ahdaf Soueif said that she and her team will start planning next year’s Palfest immediately.