Palestinian Art
“Refugees in the Desert” by Abed Abdi
Learn more about: The work of Abed Abdi and the Palestinian culture in Israel.
This article explores how art, specifically the print contributions of Abed Abdi, shaped the culture of the Palestinian minority in Israel. From 1972 to 1982, Abed Abdi worked as a graphics editor for the Communist Party and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, as well as other language and literary journals. Abdi’s work focused on depictions of refugees, and he utilized “social realism” paired with “political and literary texts dealing with justice and morality” (186). He continued to contribute artwork and illustrations to other books and collections of short stories, such as Salman Natour’s We Have Not Forgotten, that contemplate the treatment of Palestinian people and the collective Palestinian memory. Abdi’s work was eventually recognized in 2008 when he received the Minister of Science, Culture, and Sport Award, cementing the presence of Palestinian art within Israel. This work speaks to the longevity of issues discussed in Baddawi and provides further exploration of examples of Palestinian art.
en-Zvi, Tal. “Wa-Ma Nasayna (We Have Not Forgotten): Palestinian Collective Memory and the Print Work of Abed Abdi.” Israel Studies, vol. 21, no.1, 2016, pp. 183-208, doi:10.2979/israelstudies.21.1.183
Learn more about: Political Cartoons in the Middle East.
Composed by Jytte Klausen of Yale University Press in London, “Seeking the Third Way” dives into a survey done in predominantly Muslim countries in the early 2000s that asked if the residents of these countries had heard of the cartoons that were being created about their conflicts. There have been many political and satirical cartoons created about the Middle East conflicts, and a number of these cartoons were made by the members of these countries. As it turned out, 89% of the Muslims who had been polled were cognizant of the cartoons, understanding that most of them were satirical outbursts about what had been going on in Arabic territories. The people who had been asked in the United States were not as aware of the cartoons because the majority of these cartoons were coming from the Middle East to express the public’s feelings of distress and anxiety about the conflicts that have been going on for a couple of decades.
Klausen, Jytte. “Seeking the Third Way.” The Cartoons that Shook the World, Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 114-130. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1np8b5.9
Naji al-Ali’s cartoon “Sabah al-khayr ya Beirut.” From Mazen Kerbaj’s blog, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ kerbaj/2478452281/.
Learn more about: Naji al-Ali and Palestinian Cartoons.
Naji al-Ali was a Palestinian cartoonist known for political criticisms of the Arab regimes and Israel within his works. Al-Ali was assassinated in 1987 at the age of 50, but he is still known as the greatest Palestinian cartoonist and remains one of the most well-known cartoonists in the Arab world. This chapter of the book, Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East, describes how and why Naji al-Ali became an icon for the Arab secular left through his cartoons. The chapter displays al-Ali’s works and describes their powerful meanings and impacts they had, including his most famous cartoon Handala. The excerpt suggests his cartoons became so powerful and iconic because “as a refugee, Naji al-Ali grew up with refugees, spoke their language, and was able to use this embodied knowledge in his visual creations” (254).
Haugbolle, Sune, and Christiane Gruber, editors. “Naji al-Ali and the Iconography of Arab Secularism.” Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East: Rhetoric of the Image, Indiana University Press, 2013, pp. 231-258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gh950.16
Palestinian Literature
Image retrieved from https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781846319433/
Learn more about: How People Interpret Palestinian Literature.
In “Belonging in Israel/Palestine: Theory and Literature,” Ginsburg analyzes the cultural and academic impacts of Palestinian literature as expressed in Rhetorics of Belonging: Nation, Narration, and Israel/Palestine by Anna Bernard. In this analysis, Edward Said’s Out of Place is used as an argument that “we should read national allegory not as a simple continuity between…the individual and the Palestinian collective but, rather, as a discontinuous correspondence” (157). Ginsburg also compares and contrasts the reception and interpretations of Barhouti’s I Saw Ramallah and Amos Oz’s political pieces. The article illustrates that there have been many attempts to create Palestinian literature that reaches a global standing but most have become “manifestations of the local” instead (160). This provides a unique perspective and places an importance on the accessibility of new forms of Palestinian literature like Baddawi.
Ginsburg, Shai. “Belonging in Israel/Palestine: Theory and Literature.” Novel, vol. 52, no. 1, 2019, pp. 156-160.
Learn more about: The History of Palestinian Literature.
This article explores the origin of Palestinian literature along with the historical, political, and literary influences that have transformed it over the years. The article covers the history of Palestinian literature from the Mandate period through the second half of the twentieth century. The article highlights major themes present in Palestinian literature that the authors used to reconstruct their history and reclaim their identity that was lost in the Palestinian dispossession. The author, Salam Mir, demonstrates the challenges and accomplishments of Palestinian writers and their inspirations and impacts on their understanding of their cultural history. The article displays how different kinds of Palestinian literature, from autobiographies to fiction works, create a narrative of Palestinian resistance at the center of the Palestinian struggle.
Mir, Salam. “Palestinian Literature: Occupation and Exile.” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 2, 2013, pp. 110–129, doi: 10.13169/arabstudquar.35.2.0110
Image retrieved from https://palestinehistory7.weebly.com/religions–official-languages.html
Learn more about: Palestinian Poetry.
Jacqueline Ismael constructed this piece to show the connection between the psyche and reality of the conflicts of Palestine. These poems are displayed as a demonstration of how the people in Palestine feel about the conflict with Israel, and they write poetry to share their voices. This essay goes more in depth of the alienation of Palestinian poetry as far as progressions towards a revolution is concerned. It speaks about how the poetry that was written separates those authors from the rest of the cause of the conflict.
Ismael, Jacqueline S. “The Alienation of Palestine in Palestinian Poetry.” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 1, 1981, pp. 43–55. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41857559.
Samantha Simon, Elizabeth Masi, Winston Allen ’19