Palestine Festival of Literature: Here to stay

What is the role of an intellectual under occupation? This is one of the traditional questions that face writers, artists, and intellectuals who have lived under occupation or have been impacted by it from afar. The answers vary, and some may even raise more questions. Is there space to negotiate the importance of what a committed intellectual sees as the purpose of their existence and their need to continue writing and displaying creativity in all of its forms? Because the best questions are those that stimulate our imagination and provoke more questions, another question arises regarding literature and war: How can an individual surrounded by blood and death write a humanitarian text that is not ideological? Are we not asking for the impossible?

During the 8th Palestine Festival of Literature, the challenges of answering these “traditional” questions were coupled with the combat of Israel’s “pure” racism. This gave a number of international artists and writers the chance to experience (albeit a fraction) of the details of the daily lives of Palestinians living under the occupation. In addition to this, the festival established relationships and communication networks for artistic and cultural creativity and production. It is these links, ultimately, that contribute to breaking the siege imposed on the Palestinians, said Ahdaf Soueif, founding chair of the festival.

The pure racism of democratic Israel is manifested at every moment, day or night, and in every inch of land inhabited by Palestinians. At a time in which Palestinians are unable to return to their homes, doomed to alienation wherever they go, any Jew or anyone claiming to be Jewish is brought in to settle in the homes of the Palestinians.

In addition to this, forced displacement continues, as Israeli racism does not allow for Palestinians to live in Palestine. Even Ramallah, the PA’s headquarters, is threatened with the expansion of settlements. “Area A”, which is under PA rule, provokes a sense of grief, and the details of the land grab shocks even those who are following the events and the Palestinian cause. In an interview with the UN representative in East Jerusalem, who possessed maps and statistics, the writers and artists at the festival were exposed to the magnitude of the catastrophe the occupation is feeding off. Currently, 60 per cent of the West Bank is classified as “Area C”, meaning it is witnessing the harshest effects of continuous occupation. Such effects include forcing inhabitants to leave by failing to provide them with basic needs, failing to issue building permits, and being subject to attacks and assaults from settlers who have the right to possess arms. These settlers are protected while Palestinians who carry weapons are punished and accused of terrorism. Inhabitants in Area C also suffer from difficult access to schools and hospitals because of the Separation Wall, the difficulty of obtaining permits, and the many checkpoints.

Israel’s control over water resources and their diversion of sources to settlements aims to put a permanent end to any agricultural or pastoral activity.

A visit to Hebron or East Jerusalem is enough to tell the story of Israel’s racism in the form of luxurious settlements, high-end services, private roads for settlement use only on which Palestinians are prohibited to walk or drive, swimming pools that take up precious water resources while the olive trees in the Palestinian fields are thirsty, and the clean streets and parks that match their “pure racism”, while rubbish, waste, sanitary towels, and dirty nappies are thrown on the homes of Palestinians. Palestinians are accused of being neglectful and dirty, and if they dare to defend themselves, they are accused of terrorism.

What about Jerusalem? What is left of it? East Jerusalem alone has become the focus of the daily conflict that is leaning towards complete Israeli control. The Palestinians are prohibited from entering East Jerusalem without a special permit. This includes the places of worship during Ramadan and Easter. It is worth noting that there are a limited number of permits and that Palestinians who obtain permits can only use four of the checkpoints along the Separation Wall in an effort on Israel’s part to completely separate Jerusalem from the West Bank and declare it as its capital. This is will eventually occur after the implementation of the Open Spaces Project, the map of which covers all the open spaces in targeted Palestinian neighbourhoods, such as Sheikh Jarrah, under the pretext of “creating a sequence of gardens that will adorn the Old City” and preserve the environment as well as establish information centres in archaeological areas.

In a situation based on racial discrimination, and in light of one of the ugliest and most unjust occupations that systematically deprives individuals of their freedom, dignity, and homeland by seizing land, building settlements, demolishing homes, and forcing those whose homes were demolished to pay the expenses for the demolition, what is the point of literature and art? Palestinian artists and writers have a ready answer for this: literature and art are an integral part of their being, identity, and present and past work; they are a reflection and manifestation of the cause in the form of art, poetry, and stories.

This answer does not come as automatically from international artists and writers unless they are somehow committed to humanitarian issues. Despite the fact that many of them are committed to the Palestinian cause, they still need to get close to the cause and experience the Palestinian reality, if even for a few days. A day in Palestine is equal to a month in other countries, and what comes out of personal relationships is much deeper than theoretical reading. This is what distinguishes the Palestine Festival of Literature and Palestinian literature as a whole in their representation of the tremendous resilience of the Palestinian people and their ability to face hostility and isolation on a daily basis. They provide the world with an example and model for the continuity of survival.

Otherwise, how could the voice of Tawfiq Ziad stay alive? The poet who writes:

As if twenty impossibles we are

In Al-Lid, Ar-Ramleh and the Galilee

Here … on your chests, staying as a wall

Remaining we are

In your throat

Like a piece of glass, like cactus

And in your eyes

A storm of fire

How could the voice of Samih Al-Qasim summarise all the forms of oppression suffered by the people of his country at every moment and vow to remain steadfast in his verses?

You may take the last strip of my land

Feed my youth to prison cells

You may plunder my heritage

You may burn my books, my poems

Or feed my flesh to the dogs.

You may spread a web of terror

On the roofs of my village,

O enemy of the sun

But

I shall not compromise

And to the last pulse in my veins/I shall resist.

Article translated from Al Quds.