Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings

“Resistance, in its plethora of meanings and images, is what motivated Ghassan Kanafani to write,” Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi write in their introduction to Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings (Pluto Press, 2024). Its publication could not have been more timely as the world witnessed, first-hand, what ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of a people under colonialism looked like and, as a result, how resistance is paramount in the Palestinian people’s lives.

While Kanafani is mostly known for his literary works, his political writings which include studies, analysis and manifestos linked to the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are the focus of this translated anthology. Influenced by his own personal narrative and that of his family’s displacement during the 1948 Nakba, as well as his own observations of life in the refugee camps, Kanafani sought a relatable approach – one that derived its essence from the Palestinians’ own experience. One example the book gives is from an interview in which Kanafani relates, from his teaching experience, the importance of reinforcing connection with one’s roots within the education system.

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The book groups Kanafani’s writings according to themes, also portraying the evolution of his commitment to revolutionary struggle and his Marxist political thought. In all the translated works, the depth and rigour of Kanafani’s analysis is remarkable, as is his awareness of the radical changes Palestinian society needs to make in order for revolution and liberation to be successful.

From reflections on his early life, forays into writing and his own politicisation, to the detailed insights into Palestinian anti-colonial resistance, Kanafani’s writings portray his ability to give as much importance to sentiment as to logic. In an interview which makes part of this anthology, Kanafani is asked about seeing reality from the oppressed people’s perspective. “My concept, however, was not crystallised in a scientific, analytical way, but was [simply and expression of] an emotional state,” he answers.