Kanafani’s hometown of Occupied Yafa The Xavierite
Ghassan Kanafani was born on April 9, 1936, in the Palestinian coastal city of Yafa. Kanafani was only 12-years-old when the 1948 Palestine catastrophe (Nakba), took place and he and his family were forced into exile.
Kanafani’s family sought refuge in nearby Lebanon before settling in Damascus, Syria.
While working at a printing press office in Damascus to support himself and his family, Kanafani found his love and passion for writing.
As he grew older, he became more politically aware and was convinced by Palestinian revolutionary, George Habash, to begin writing for a newspaper called Al-Rai, which means opinion in Arabic.
Kanafani also penned many books, one called “Return to Haifa” was particularly popular as it follows a Palestinian couple who return to their home in the Palestinian city Haifa in search of their infant son they left behind when fleeing.
Much to their dismay, they find their home under Israeli occupation and their son, who was raised by an Israeli-Jewish family, was serving in the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Kanafani quickly became a popular figure in the Palestinian cause and his writings were famous all across the Arab world.
His niece, Lamees Njeim, who was very close to him, begged him to go back to writing poems and stories rather than revolutionary works.
Kanafani answered her and said, “Go back to writing stories? I write well because I believe in a cause, in principles. The day I leave these principles, my stories will become empty. If I were to leave behind my principles, you yourself would not respect me.”
Unfortunately, as fate would have it, Kanafani was targeted and killed by the Israeli Mossad as a way to permanently censor his powerful voice. Once he started his car to go shopping with his niece, a bomb inside it went off, leading to their martyrdom in Beirut, Lebanon on July 8, 1972.
As Israel continues its bombing campaign in Lebanon for the second week, we must remember their history and track record. It was never about hostages, Hamas, or Hezbollah. It was never about “counter-terrorism.”
Israel doesn’t need a reason to carry out assassination attacks and mass murder innocent civilians.
Israel is the only entity in the world that can simultaneously bomb two countries and still claim to be the victim.
As far as I’m concerned, the only terrorist in the Middle East is Israel.
Israel’s claim of being the “only democracy in the Middle East” is absolute garbage and far from the truth. If they were truly a “democracy” they would not infringe on freedom of speech and actively murder journalists and writers.
Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed over 170 journalists in Gaza, including Al Jazeera journalists and cameramen Ismail Al-Ghoul, Rami Reefi, and Samer Abu Daqqa, as well as five journalists in Lebanon. And lest we forget, Israel deliberately murdered Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the Jenin Refugee Camp on May 11, 2022 while she was reporting the news.
When you watch the news and see headlines of attacks against Israel, just remember that it’s out of self defense and resistance to a genocidal entity.
In a famous 1970 interview before his martyrdom, Kanafani said, “the Palestinian people prefer to die standing than to lose [their] case…we are a small, brave nation who are going to fight till the last drop of blood, to put justice for ourselves after the world failed in giving it to us.”
The Palestinian and Lebanese people deserve to live in dignity and freedom without persecution and indiscriminate murder by the Israeli occupation.
Glory to our martyrs.
Free Palestine and free Lebanon.
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