1967 – 1994

Literature under Israeli Occupation

This black-and-white photograph shows a group of women during a sit-in and hunger strike at the Church of the Annunciation (al-Bishara Church) in protest of the 1982 Lebanon War. Source: Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, Tawfiq Zayyad Collection

This period saw the entirety of historic Palestine fall under Israeli occupation and control. For the 1948 areas this led to the transformation from a direct military occupation to a more systematic, legalist, and institutional discrimination against Palestinians who became citizens of the state of Israel in 1966. The brutal and violent Israeli military occupation was transferred to the newly occupied areas of Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Palestinians who had been separated for almost twenty years were only briefly reunited before new separationist policies were put in place. In practice, this meant that communication and travel across the country became increasingly difficult, thereby creating semi-isolated Palestinian literary locales. This situation gave rise to terminology such as

“al-dakhil” (“the inside”) and “al-kharij” (“the outside”)
as people tried to bring together Palestinian literary figures in Palestine and those in the diasporas. But it also gave rise to two insides (1948 areas and 1967 areas) and two local literatures that were also struggling to connect to each other.

In their semi-isolated bubbles, each Palestinian literary locale, facilitated by their periodicals, decided to focus on promoting their own version of

al-adab al-mahalli
(“local literature”). This category became ingrained as Palestinian literary scholars who emerged on both sides of the green line devoted their academic work to studying and analyzing this genre. Other terms and genres emerged during this period: “
adab al-sujoun
” (“prison literature”); “
adab al-Intifada
” (“intifada literature”), and “al-adab al-Filastini taht al-ihtilal” (“Palestinian literature under occupation”).

Whether under direct military occupation or not, a number of Palestinian literary figures were imprisoned and expelled during this period. Persecution of Palestinian literary and political figures intensified in the newly occupied areas, especially with the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987. The periodicals emerging from prison were a totally new phenomenon and a testament to the important role prison played in the evolution of Palestinian literature.

Other new phenomena mark this period. In the 1948 areas more independent, nonpartisan, and nationalist-leaning periodicals emerged on the scene. Folk heritage revival centers were also established, and they issued their own periodicals. Periodicals almost entirely devoted to

Palestinian folk heritage
were published in Taybeh and al-Bireh, placing smaller Palestinian towns on the periodical and publishing map. In Gaza, a center devoted to women’s affairs issued an important periodical toward the end of this period.

1948 Areas

Palestinians who fell under Israeli military occupation in 1948 become citizens of the state of Israel, albeit second-class citizens who continued to be persecuted, harassed, imprisoned, oppressed, occupied, and discriminated against in more subtle legal, psychological, systematic, and institutional ways. Because of this oppressive atmosphere, a number of literary figures left the country during the early years of this period. Among them are

Fouzi El Asmar
, who went to the United States and the United Kingdom;
Habib Qahwaji
, who went to Damascus; and
Sabri Jiryis
, who went to Beirut.
Mahmoud Darwish
took advantage of his one year in Moscow to make the decision not to return to Israel, going to Cairo and then to Beirut. Although this brain drain—which includes
Rashid Hussein
, who had left for the United States at the end of the previous period—had an impact on the Palestinian literary scene inside Israel, it also created more concrete links between Palestinians who had been totally isolated under Israeli military occupation and other Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world.

For Palestinians inside Israel, the post–1967 period witnessed a brief moment of reunification for families and friends who had been separated for almost twenty years. These highly charged meetings inspired Emile Habibi’s collection of short stories, Sudasiyyat al-Ayyam al-Sitta (Sextet of the Six Days). Moments of reunion did not last long, as Israel, now controlling all of historic Palestine, transferred and intensified its military occupation to East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Multifaceted and convoluted systems of separation were implemented to divide the Palestinian populations in historic Palestine.

A group of Palestinian literary scholars emerged during this period who, through their research and book publications, placed Palestinian literature inside Israel firmly on the map as

al-adab al-mahalli
. Among these scholars were Mohammad Hamza Ghanyim, Nabih al-Qasim, Anton Shalhat, Faruq Muwasi, Habib Bolous, and Ibrahim Taha.1 In addition to this group of emerging literary scholars, some of them based in Arabic departments at Israeli universities, literary figures like
Samih al-Qasim
, Salman Natour, and
Hanna Abu Hanna
also published books on literary criticism and literary history. These combined efforts signaled the beginning of a phase of compilation, collection, analysis, periodization, and canonization of Palestinian literary production inside Israel, which sometimes included earlier periods of literary production.

In 1988, al-Qasim published an anthology that covered one thousand years of Palestinian poetry.2 This was not the first time this type of longue durée lens was applied to Palestinian poetic history. In fact, it was

Ishaq Musa al-Husseini
who first took this approach in a 1945 article published during the
British Mandate
period.3 In this article, which was part of a contentious debate on Palestinian literature, al-Husseini went as far back as the tenth century poet Kashajim al-Ramli to begin his periodization of Palestinian poetry. Samih al-Qasim also begins his thousand year history of Palestinian poetry with al-Ramli and includes some of the poets that al-Husseini mentioned in his short article, but he also expands the list to include more literary figures across the ages, including the Ottoman and Mandate periods, and ending with Rashid Hussein in the twentieth century. The anthology features brief biographies of each poet and a sample of their poetry, accompanied by a framing introductory text.

In the meantime,

Hanna Abu Hanna
’s search for Palestinian literary heritage culminated in a number of important publications during this period. Abu Hanna brought to light lost or forgotten sources and collected and edited other scattered sources for publication. A particular focus of his efforts was
pre-Nakba literature
. In 1981, Abu Hanna published a new edition of a text thought to be lost,
Najib Nassar’s
semi-autobiographical novel Riwayat Muflih al-Ghassani (The Novel of Muflih al-Ghassani).4 The novel was written during Nassar’s years in hiding from the Ottoman authorities during World War I. Next, Abu Hanna collected and published the poems of
Abdelrahim Mahmoud
, considered one of the earliest Palestinian
resistance poets
.5 Toward the end of this period, Abu Hanna published two more books on pre-Nakba literature. The first book takes a closer look at the relationship between pioneering literary figures of the
Nahda
and their relationship to the Russian Teachers’ College in Nazareth.6 Many of the graduates of the Russian Teachers’ College became important literary figures in
Mahjar literature
. The second is focused on the early resistance poets of the pre-Nakba period:
Ibrahim Tuqan
, Mahmoud, and
Abu Salma
.7

A few years after al-Qasim’s anthology was published, Abu Hanna released the first volume of Diwan al-shiʿr al-Filastini (The Palestinian Poetry Collection).8 In this collection of pre-modern Palestinian poetry, Abu Hanna delved even deeper into Palestinian poetry before 1800, with a special focus on four Palestinian poets that were already identified by al-Husseini and covered by al-Qasim’s anthology: Kashajim al-Ramli, Ibn al-Qaisarani, Abu Ishaq al-Ghazzi, and al-Qadi al-Fadel.

Abu Hanna’s tireless exploration of Palestinian literary heritage is encapsulated in the title of his 1994 book, Rihlat al-bahth ʿan al-turath (In Search of the Literary Heritage).9 The book captures, through articles and profile pieces, the different stations of Abu Hanna’s search for literary heritage and aims to highlight his efforts in uncovering, preserving, and popularizing different aspects of Palestinian literary history. Abu Hanna dedicated a chapter to al-Husseini, who was his teacher at the Arab College in Jerusalem before the Nakba. In fact, it was al-Husseini’s love for the literary heritage that planted the seeds in Abu Hanna to carry the torch and continue the search. The aim, as Abu Hanna put it, was to explore the past of Palestinian literature to better understand its main features and figures, and to promote and popularize it:

We need to spread awareness of the importance of searching for [our] heritage, restoring it, popularizing it, studying it, and strengthening our connection to it. If a tree loses its roots it stops sprouting leaves and bears no fruit.10

Abu Hanna’s search for heritage also manifested itself in numerous periodical publications, especially in the new literary magazine that emerged during this period, al-Mawakib, which Abu Hanna also edited.

Periodicals from the previous period, such as al-Ittihad, al-Jadid,

al-Mirsad
, and
al-Mujtamaʿ
continued into this period. While other Zionist political party Arabic-language periodicals were short-lived and receded in the previous period, only Mapam’s al-Mirsad carried on until 1988. Al-Mujtamaʿ persevered until 1990, while more independent, nonpartisan periodicals appeared in this period, including al-Sharq, al-Aswar, al-Mawakib, al-Naqaʾ, Kanʿan, and Mawaqif, among others.

Al-Ittihad and al-Jadid

Given their longevity across all periods, both

al-Ittihad
and
al-Jadid
warrant a dedicated and in-depth content analysis of their rich and numerous issues. For the purposes of this overview, and given limited access to issues from this period, the focus will be on continuities and new connections. One noteworthy development in the Communist Party periodicals from this period is their newfound acceptance of and openness to individuals who were not party members. The inclusive approach attracted many more pens and literary figures to both al-Ittihad and al-Jadid. This transformation coincided with al-Ittihad becoming a daily newspaper in 1983 and the need to recruit a greater number of contributors.11

The

imprisonment
of literary figures and its coverage in periodicals continued in this period, including the arrests and imprisonments of Fouzi El Asmar and Samih al-Qasim.12 Al-Qasim was arrested inside the editorial offices of al-Ittihad newspaper in 1967 and sent to al-Damoun prison.13 In the early 1970s, after he was released from prison and suspended from his teaching job, al-Qasim became the editor-in-chief of al-Jadid, remaining in this role for ten years.

In 1973,

Tawfiq Zayyad
published a collection of poems that were previously
censored
, entitled
Sujanaʾ al-huriyya
(Prisoners of Freedom). The title poem was written in support of the 1970 hunger strike of political prisoners in Israel’s “big and small prisons” and immediately banned.14 Al-Jadid was quick to publish reviews of Zayyad’s collection; the first appeared in early 1974 and another toward the end of the year.15

Front cover of Tawfiq Zayyad’s collection of prison and censored poetry, featuring the Israeli censor stamp banning publication. The collection was self-published in 1994. Courtesy of the Tawfiq Zayyad Foundation for Culture and Arts in Nazareth.

Zayyad’s phrase is used again in the title of an article published in al-Jadid in the late 1980s, “al-huriyya li sujanaʾ al-huriyya” (“Freedom for the Prisoners of Freedom”), calling for the release of political prisoners from the Ansar 3 prison.16 Earlier in the 1980s, al-Jadid published a cover piece calling for the closure of al-Nafha prison, yet another facility for the administrative detention of Palestinian literary and political figures.17

The literature emerging from and about prison was attracting attention. For example, the opening editorial of a 1980 al-Jadid issue was dedicated to what was called “al-Adab al-wahshi” (“literature of brutality”), referring to writings about Israeli torture of and violence toward Palestinian political prisoners.18 In 1983, the phrase “prison literature” began to appear on the pages of al-Ittihad and al-Jadid. An interview with Zayyad published in al-Ittihad was subtitled “Fi hadith ʿan al-adab wa al-sujoun” (“A Conversation on Literature and Prisons”).19 Eventually, in a 1984 article in al-Jadid, the two terms meet in a piece by Jamal Bannoura entitled “Adab al-sujoun” (“Prison Literature”).20

An interest in the

Palestinian folk literature
and heritage extended into this period. Titles such as “Min adabina al-shʿabi” (“From our Folk Literature”) and “ʿAn al-turath al-thaqafi” (“On the Cultural Heritage”) continued to appear.21 Zayyad was not only a pioneer in promoting prison literature, but he also played an important role in his continued effort to collect and uncover the Palestinian folk heritage, publishing his findings in al-Jadid.22 In this period, studies on the relationship between folk heritage and literature became more frequent.23

The serialization of literary content was also commonplace during this period. A particularly famous example is

Emile Habibi
’s novel al-Mutashaʾil (The Pessoptimist), which appeared in al-Jadid across the issues from 1972. Before that, Habibi had published a number of his short stories, which were later published as part of his short story collection Sudasiyyat al-ayyam al-sitta (Sextet of the Six Days), in the 1968 issues of al-Jadid.

Title page of Emile Habibi’s famous novel, The Pessoptimist, which was serialized in al-Jadid. The first part of the novel was published in al-Jadid 1972, issue 2. Courtesy of the Bamberg University Library (Germany).

A new addition to the contributors of al-Jadid was the artist Abed Abdi, who became prolific in this period, producing illustrations and cover designs for periodicals and literary publications. In his podcast interview,

Abdi
spoke about his involvement with al-Ittihad and al-Jadid, as well as his collaborations with writers such as Deeb Abdi, Salman Natour, Emile Habibi, and Samih al-Qasim.

Political events also shaped the literary content of al-Jadid. These include the 1973 Egypt-Israel war; Land Day in 1976, when six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed and dozens wounded by the Israeli police and army; the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the massacres of

Sabra and Shatila
in 1982; and the First Intifada, which erupted in 1987. Although the entirety of historic Palestine was now under Israeli control, it was not easy for writers and editors to collaborate across segregationist divides. The intifada, as a mass grassroots uprising of the Palestinian people, was a rallying topic that was covered by Palestinian periodicals in the 1948 areas and those in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Reportage pieces and literary content from and about the intifada appeared on the pages of al-Jadid in 1989. Poetry was dedicated to the martyrs of the intifada and reflections on an emerging new genre, intifada literature, were published.24 Serialized studies on “

Qasaʾid al-intifada
” (“Intifada poetry”) and the relationship between the intifada and poetry were also published in 1989.25

In honor of the young martyrs of the First Intifada, al-Jadid published a series of short poems by Nayef Salim in 1989, issue 5. Poems are dedicated specifically to martyrs who lost their lives in the first waves of the intifada in December 1987, including their age, location, and date of death in the poem title. Courtesy of the Bamberg University Library (Germany).

Al-Jadid featured literary content from

diaspora
Palestinians, albeit in limited capacity.
Muin Bseiso’s
work was included in a 1988 issue, marking the fourth anniversary of his death.26 Poetry by
Mahmoud Darwish
, then living between Tunis and Paris,
Ahmad Dahbour
, and
Izz al-Din al-Manasra
was also published.27

Another link to the Palestinian diaspora was through reprinting or covering literary news. For example, al-Jadid reprinted an interview with poet and editor

Salem Jubran
from the Palestinian Paris-based magazine
al-Yawm al-Sabiʿ
in a 1988 issue.28 Events such as the 1984 Paris conference on Palestinian literature, organized by the Palestinian literary scholar Rita Awad together with the Tunis-based Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization, were covered by al-Jadid.29

Al-Sharq

Two new literary magazines emerged in the 1970s: al-Sharq and al-Aswar. Originally the literary supplement of the semiofficial Israeli newspaper al-Anbaʾ, al-Sharq made its first appearance in 1970 and was edited by Mahmoud Abbasi. The periodical attracted many Palestinian and Arab-Jewish writers, as well as some Palestinian writers from across the newly occupied territories. In some instances, it collaborated with al-Jadid in hosting several symposiums on narrative prose.30

Cover page and table of contents from al-Sharq 1980, issue 3 featuring Palestinian and Arab Jewish editors and writers.

According to Mahmoud Ghanayim, al-Sharq’s literary content and production quality did not fall below those of al-Jadid.31 However, al-Sharq was not able to maintain this caliber beyond the 1970s, especially its ability to attract writers from across the ideological divides and those outside the Communist fold. At that time, al-Sharq was filling a vacuum left by Communist periodicals, which were not yet open to nonmember contributors. When al-Ittihad became a daily in 1983 and the contribution policies were relaxed, many al-Sharq writers switched over to al-Ittihad or al-Jadid, or to the new independent nationalist periodicals that were emerging, such as al-Mawakib.

Given its semiofficial status, contributors to al-Sharq, like al-Mirsad and other Zionist party affiliated periodicals, were always going to hit a ceiling if their contributions were deemed too political or too Palestinian. Although al-Sharq’s editors did not interfere with writers’ political opinion, Ghanayim writes that they did all they could to prevent dragging politics into literature, and that was the reason they were not able to maintain their popularity during politically charged moments.32

Al-Aswar

Al-Aswar emerged in Acre in 1978, issued by al-Aswar Institute for Cultural and Social Development, which was headed by Yaqub Hijazi, who was also editor-in-chief of the magazine. Unlike al-Sharq, al-Aswar positioned itself as an independent Palestinian initiative and therefore had more freedom to cover topics such as prison and the intifada, and to delve into Palestinian literary and folk heritage. Besides issuing the periodical, al-Aswar Institute played, and continues to play, a crucial role as a publishing house for Palestinian literary works inside Israel, as well as literary studies, mainly focusing on

al-adab al-mahalli
. Local literature, such as that by Hanna Ibrahim, Emile Habibi, and Mustafa Murrar, was regularly featured, analyzed, and reviewed.33 Drawing lines of continuity with the past, al-Aswar commemorated massacres such as
Deir Yassin
as well as the poetry of
pre-Nakba literary figures
such as Abdelrahim Mahmoud and Ibrahim Tuqan.34

On its pages, al-Aswar fostered links with Palestinians living under Israeli occupation since 1967. In one of its issues in the late 1980s, al-Aswar carried news of

Fadwa Tuqan
attending an al-Aswar Institute event to honor Samih al-Qasim’s fiftieth birthday, and published a letter of congratulations from
Ali al-Khalili
.35 The same issue featured news of another event held in Acre to celebrate al-Khalili’s new poetry collection. Uniquely, al-Aswar included contributions from Palestinian refugee camps, such as the Dheisheh and al-ʿIzza camps in Bethlehem.36

Coverage of

imprisonments
and the Intifada further fostered the links between the semi-isolated Palestinian literary locales of the inside. Al-Aswar published news of al-Mutawakil Taha’s detention, calling for his release.37 Later issues featured a poem on the Intifada by
Michel Haddad
, as well as an analysis piece on the children of the Intifada by Ali Khalili, and a study of “
adab al-Intifada
” and the impact of occupation on the Palestinian short story.38 An event held in al-Taybeh to discuss the impact of the Intifada on
folk literature
was also covered by al-Aswar.39

Al-Aswar featured news and works of

diaspora
Palestinians, including Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Kanafani. In 1988, al-Aswar Institute organized a festival in Acre to commemorate the four year anniversary of the passing of Muin Bseiso. Al-Aswar referred to and reprinted material from diaspora Palestinian periodicals, such as
al-Yawm al-Sabiʿ
’s interview with Hanna Ibrahim and a piece by Mahmoud Darwish on the Intifada published in a 1988 issue of
al-Karmel
.40

Al-Mawakib

In the 1980s, a new independent magazine entered the scene. Al-Mawakib was issued in Nazareth in 1984 under the editorship of Fawzi Abdallah. Hanna Abu Hanna was involved in the founding and editing of the magazine. As its stated aim, al-Mawakib sought to advance the Palestinian Arab cultural reality and promote local Palestinian literature in Israel.

Al-Mawakib strongly advocated for free and open debate on its pages as the only way to advance cultural life. It also republished material from the Palestinian literary heritage by dedicating special issues to Abu Salma, Abdelrahim Mahmoud,

Samira Azzam
, Rashid Hussein, and others.41

Hanna Abu Hanna
often published aspects of his search for Palestinian literary heritage in al-Mawakib, for example his article on pre-Nakba literary periodicals in Palestine between 1908 and 1948, which was published in a 1984 issue of the magazine.42 Abu Hanna also published on Ishaq Musa al-Husseini, early pre-Nakba Palestinian novelists, and the Russian Teachers’ College in Nazareth. Al-Mawakib also featured other pre-Nakba literary figures such as Saif al-Din al-Irani and May Ziadeh.

A 1984 article by Fawzi Abdallah extends the term

al-adab al-mahalli
to
Palestinian literature before 1948
, including figures such as
Isaaf al-Nashashibi
,
Khalil al-Sakakini
, Ibrahim Tuqan, Ishaq Musa al-Husseini, and Abu Salma.43 A few years earlier, Abdallah contributed an article that focused on “al-naqd al-adabi al-mahalli” (“local literary criticism”) and on “shiʿrina al-mahllai” (“our local poetry”).44 The same category for poetry, “al-shiʿr al-mahalli” (“local poetry”) was also applied in al-Mawakib’s coverage of an event that took place in the 1967 areas, namely at Birzeit University in the occupied territories. In the same issue, al-Mawakib printed a lecture by Abu Hanna on al-adab al-mahalli.45 In the late 1980s, al-Mawakib printed a series of articles by Adel Manna on important Palestinian figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.46

The news and works of diaspora Palestinians were also printed on the pages of al-Mawakib. The death of Muin Bseiso and the assassination of

Naji al-Ali
in London were covered. In addition, the profile of
Asma Tubi
; short stories by
Najwa Qawar Farah
, Samira Azzam, and
Mahmoud Shukair
; poetry by Mahmoud Darwish; a piece by
Rashad Abu Shawar
, as well as analyses of
Ghassan Kanafani
’s works were regularly featured in the 1980s issues of al-Mawakib.

Al-Naqaʾ and Kanʿan

Periodicals began to emerge from smaller Palestinian towns, particularly what is known as the “Triangle area”, in the 1990s. In Taybeh, two periodicals were issued in 1991: al-Naqaʾ and Kanʿan. Although al-Naqaʾ was more political, it did include literary content in the form of poetry and short stories. Kanʿan was issued by the Arab Heritage Revival Center in Taybeh and featured substantially more literary content, focusing on featuring local literary talents but also digging into the literary heritage to revive forgotten or lost material.

Mawaqif

Toward the very end of this period, Hanna Abu Hanna issued his own literary periodical, Mawaqif, in 1993. Mawaqif had as its main focus the promotion of al-adab al-mahalli, especially serializing the novels of local writers in dedicated special issues. Al-Mawakib Foundation, which issued the periodical, also published the literary works of those literary figures featured in the magazine.

The network visualization below shows the overlap of contributors between the Palestinian periodicals issued inside Israel.

Based on node sizes,

al-Jadid
attracted the largest number of contributors. However, the most prolific contributor, whose work was featured in almost all the literary periodicals of this period, is
Hanna Abu Hanna
.

1967 Areas

After the Israeli invasion and the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza in the 1967 war, the Palestinian literary arena experienced a repetition of the cultural dissemination and stunting that had happened during the

British Mandate
and then also after the Nakba. The Palestinian literary scene, together with its periodicals, started from scratch after previous efforts were curtailed. Here, too, the same cultural isolation that Palestinians inside Israel experienced after the 1948 Nakba is experienced again by Palestinians in the areas occupied by Israel in 1967.

Under occupation, the links between Palestinians in the 1967 areas and Palestinians in Israel or in the diaspora were nearly severed. The literary scene was forced to become introverted, confined mostly to a second iteration of

al-adab al-mahalli
parallel to that of Palestinian literature inside Israel. While
prison
, persecution,
censorship
, and harassment of literary figures receded slightly in the 1948 areas, especially after many had left or were deported in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it intensified in the areas of Israeli military occupation after 1967. Censorship also heavily restricted coverage of the intifada and the effort to feature literary content that became known as
intifada literature
.

This period saw the expulsion of literary figures such as Mahmoud Shukair, who was banished to Lebanon after a series of arrests and administrative detentions by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Shukair
spoke about his persecution and his forced exit form Jerusalem in his podcast interview.

Fadwa Tuqan
is one of the only literary figures that connects all three periods of occupation, remaining in her hometown of Nablus.
Ali al-Khalili
and al-Mutawakil Taha emerged as important literary figures, editors, and critics during this period. The literary scholars Qustandi al-Shomali and Adel Usta were also present on the scene, contributing to periodicals in this period. Toward the end of this period, al-Shomali published an important study and literary bibliography of the pre-Nakba periodical
Falastin
.47 The novelist Sahar Khalifa also entered the scene in this period. However, Khalifa did not prioritize publishing her work in literary periodicals before turning them into books and was therefore not as active on the Palestinian literary periodical scene.

The literary periodicals that emerged in this period were all new; none of the periodicals from the previous period survived. The Jerusalem periodicals that stand out are al-Bayadir, al-Shiraʿ, al-Katib, and al-Fajr al-Adabi. Through these four periodicals we can trace the emergence of terminology and categories that developed specifically to define and discuss Palestinian literature on the inside. The use of terms such as “al-dakhil” (“the inside”) and “al-kharij” (“the outside,” or in exile), “adab mahalli” (“local literature”), “al-adab al-Filastini taht al-ihtilal” (“Palestinian literature under occupation”), and “adab al-Intifada” (“Intifada literature”) all emerge from the pages of these periodicals. One of the earliest periodicals of this period, al-Turath wa al-Mujtamaʿ, issued in the West Bank town of al-Bireh in 1974, was published by Inʿash, another association concerned with reviving Palestinian folk heritage. Many such associations and cultural heritage revival centers were popping up in various Palestinian towns across historic Palestine.

Although Jerusalem continued to carry the cultural weight during this period, a number of periodicals were issued in Ramallah and Gaza. In Ramallah, Afaq magazine was published, and al-ʿUlum, al-Usbuʿ al-Jadid, and Ishtar were issued in Gaza. The contributor network below shows the overlaps between the post-1967 Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Gaza periodicals.

Jerusalem

Al-Bayadir

Al-Bayadir was the first literary-cultural periodical to be published in Jerusalem after the Israeli occupation that controlled the entire city. It was founded in 1976 as a monthly magazine edited by Jacques Khazmo and financially supported by the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1981, it changed its title to al-Bayadir al-Siyasi in order to include more political content, although literary content continued to be central. The opening editorial of the first issue of al-Bayadir outlined the mission of the periodical as a venue open to all pens from all streams of thought, with a particular emphasis on building a new generation of nationalist writers who can effectively articulate and communicate Palestinian culture and thought.48

From the very first issue, the table of contents, masthead, and editorial information of al-Bayadir revealed the language of the

inside
. For example, the annual subscription information lists prices for “al-dakhil” (“inside”) and “al-kharij” (“outside”). The table of contents points to the category of local literature in reference to “al-masrah al-mahalli” (“local theater”) and “al-thaqafa al-mahaliyya” (“local culture”). In its April 1977 issue, we see mention of “al-qissa al-qasira al-mahaliyya” (“the local short story”).49 Later issues introduced a special category of local literature, literature under occupation, with a study exploring the features of “al-shiʿr al-filastini taht al-ihtilal” (“Palestinian poetry under occupation”).50

An important feature of al-Bayadir is the section entitled “Shahriyyat al-Bayadir” (“Al-Bayadir Monthly”), which is a repository and record for literary events, allowing unique insight into Jerusalem during that period. Another window onto this overlooked period of literary history comes in the form of a literary salon that al-Bayadir established in 1977. A member of the newly appointed editorial board, Asʿad al-Asʿad, contributed an opening editorial to the September 1977 issue that announced the launch of a monthly literary forum called “Kitab al-Bayadir,” (“Al-Bayadir’s Book”) the first of its kind to bring together Palestinian writers, intellectuals, artists, and academics living under occupation.51 The topics and debates were also reported in the periodical itself, providing a rare glimpse into the literary discussions at the time. Al-Bayadir was also the first periodical after 1967 to organize, host, and award a Palestinian literary prize.

Although most of the contributors were Palestinians from the inside, the masthead of al-Bayadir’s July 1977 issue included the artist

Kamal Boullata
as an editor and correspondent based in Washington DC.52 From the other inside, al-Bayadir regularly published news and contributions from Palestinians inside Israel, including a special issue dedicated to
Samih al-Qasim
.53 Due to the difficult circumstances of publishing in the occupied territories, the editors acknowledged a debt to other periodicals such as al-Jadid in Haifa, from which they regularly reprinted articles. In addition to analysis pieces by literary critics in the 1948 areas such as Mohammad Hamza Ghanayim, Faruq Muwasi, and Nabih al-Qasim (who later became one of the editors), al-Bayadir also regularly featured new publications issued by al-Aswar Institute in Acre. News of other cultural events, such as
Abed Abdi
’s 1976 art exhibition in Nazareth were also covered. In 1979 special issue of al-Bayadir, Sharif Kannana from Birzeit University, contributed an article specifically addressing the links between Palestinians in the 1948 and 1967 areas.

Al-Bayadir printed an exceptionally large number of contributions on or by Palestinian diaspora figures, including

Salma Khadra Jayyusi
, Mahmoud Shukair,
Fakhry Saleh
, Izz al-Din al-Manasra,
Issa Boullata
,
Mourid Barghouti
,
Ismail Shammout
, Rashad Abu Shawar, Kamal Boullata, Laila Alloush, Hisham Sharabi,
Yahya Yakhluf
,
Ghassan Zaqtan
, Rashid Hussein, and
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
. Ghassan Kanafani’s works attracted special attention, especially his novella
Men in the Sun
, and coverages of its performance as a play in Nazareth in 1978. Arab literary figures were also featured, primarily those known to be linked directly or indirectly to the Palestinian Revolution, such as the Jordanian poet
Amjad Nasser
and writer Ghaleb Halasa, the Iraqi poet Saʿadi Youssef, the Syrian poet
Hadi Danyal
and novelist Salim Barakat.54 News of massacres in the diasporas, such as
Tel al-Zaatar
, also elicited literary contributions on the pages of al-Bayadir.

Like its contemporaries, al-Bayadir also published pieces on pre-Nakba literary figures, such as Isaaf al-Nashashibi,

Iskandar al-Khoury al-Beitjaly
,
Khalil Baidas
, Khalil Sakakini, Ibrahim and Fadwa Tuqan, Abu Salma, as well as
Mahjar poets
of Palestinian origin.

Al-Baydir showed a special interest in folk literature and attempted, as much as was possible, to feature content on prison, as well as coverage of the intifada. Censorship, suspension between 1982 and 1985, restrictions on distribution, assassination attempts, and the imprisonment of the editors interrupted the publication of the periodical.55 Nonetheless, al-Bayadir continued to support the prisoner movement as one of its adopted causes. Poetry and letters smuggled out of prison were published in al-Bayadir, as well as studies on the relationship between literature and prison.56 In an overview article on the Palestinian cultural movement in the West Bank and Gaza since the Israeli occupation,

Ali al-Khalili
highlighted the link between the evolution of literature under occupation and the experience of Israeli prisons.57

“From Behind Bars” features poetry by William Nassar smuggled out of al-Ramla prison and published in al-Bayadir 1977, issue 11. First page of the opening editorial of al-Katib’s very first issue in 1979. One of the aims the editor lists is working to strengthen the connection between Palestinian literature inside and outside, in the diaspora. Courtesy of the al-Bireh Public Library (Palestine).

Al-Shiraʿ

Al-Shiraʿ appeared in Jerusalem in 1978. It was suspended by the Israeli occupation authorities in 1983. Although access to only a limited number of issues was possible, the periodical showed interest in reflecting on the state of Palestinian literature, for example in an article by the editor, Marwan al-Asali, entitled “Where Does the Palestinian Novel Stand?” in a 1978 issue.58 Like al-Bayadir, it sought to publish literature emerging from prison or articles reflecting on writing in prison.59 In a way reminiscent of pre-Nakba periodicals, al-Shiraʿ ’s editors sought to write about and encourage a new literary

nahda
in
al-adab al-mahalli
.60

As well as publishing news and works by Palestinians inside Israeli, such as Emile Habibi and Samih al-Qasim, al-Shiraʿ uniquely featured literary contributions from Gaza. From the diaspora,

Ishaq Musa al-Husseini
in Beirut was a regular contributor to al-Shiraʿ. Besides publishing poetry by Mahmoud Darwish, coverage of Palestinian literature in the diaspora mainly consisted of news items on new publications by
Salma Khadra Jayyusi
,
Elias Khoury
, Mahmoud Shukair, as well as Ghassan Kanafani’s
Men in the Sun
, and new translations of his works.

Front cover of al-Shiraʿ 1978, issue 4، featuring the headline “Ayna taqif al-riwaya al-Filastiniyya” (“Where Does the Palestinian Novel Stand?”). Courtesy of the Hebron University Library (Palestine).

Al-Katib

A year later, in 1979, al-Katib was issued in Jerusalem, edited by Asʿad al-Asʿad, who was previously a regular contributor to al-Bayadir. The opening editorial of the first issue is an important record of the

censorship
and difficulties faced by Palestinian literary figures living under occupation. Al-Asʿad recounted the enormous trials and tribulations he had to overcome simply to secure a license for the publication of the periodical. As it turns out, licensing an Arabic-language literary periodical in the occupied Palestinian territories required a court ruling from as high up as the Israeli Supreme Court. The details of the court proceedings are documented in the editorial for their “historical importance,” as al-Asʿad asserts.61

Before detailing the legal drama that ensued, al-Asʿad laid out the mission of the periodical to enrich the Palestinian literary and cultural movement by embracing the intellectual and humanist issues of “al-jamahir al-ʿarabiyya al-mahaliyya” (“the local Arab audiences”); linking local literature to exilic Palestinian literature, and to Arab, socialist, and progressive culture and thought more broadly.62 Particularly, al-Katib sought to appeal to “al-muthaqqafin al-mahaliyyin” (“local intellectuals”), students, laborers, and women.63

First page of the opening editorial of al-Katib’s very first issue in 1979. One of the aims the editor lists is working to strengthen the connection between Palestinian literature inside and outside, in the diaspora. Courtesy of the al-Bireh Public Library (Palestine).

No doubt al-Katib featured some of the same contributors as al-Bayadir. The works of Gharib ʿAsqalani from Gaza began to appear on the pages of al-Katib. The magazine also featured the the news and works of Palestinians in the diaspora, such as Mahmoud Darwish, Izz al-Din al-Manasra, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Majed Abu Sharar, Ghaleb Halasa, Naji al-Ali, Mahmoud Shukair, Muin Bseiso, Rashid Hussein, as well as literary criticism by

Abdelrahman Yahgi
and literary news from
al-Karmel
. Al-Katib also marked tragedies occurring outside Palestine, such as the massacres in the
Tel al-Zaatar
Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon,64 as well as those inside such as commemorating the thirtieth year anniversary of the
Kafr Qasim
massacre.65 With time, however, al-Katib leaned further toward covering labor and union issues, meetings of various Communist parties around the world, and social and political topics, in addition to publishing short stories, poetry, and literary studies.

Like the other Jerusalem periodicals of this period, al-Katib was engrossed in promoting Palestinian folk and literary heritage, and it paid special attention to the issue of prison and the administrative detention of Palestinian literary and political figures.66 Editors published literary works smuggled out of prisons, including the prisons in Nablus, Naqab, and Beersheba. It particularly promoted the publication of what it labeled as “al-adab al-filastini taht al-ihtlal” (“Palestinian literature under occupation”). In 1987, a special issue was dedicated to the topic of Palestinian literature under occupation.67 Because of its leftist orientation, the special issue included literary figures from the other inside, particularly those affiliated with the Communist Party, such as Emile Habibi, Samih al-Qasim, and ِEmile Touma. Later issues highlighted studies exploring the features of Palestinian literature under occupation.68

In that sense, al-Katib held a special mission to create a unified Palestinian literary scene across the different types of occupation, and to try to bring the two insides closer together. The speech that the editor, Asʿad al-Asʿad, gave at the third national literary festival for Palestinian literature in the occupied lands, entitled “Nahwa haraka adabiyya muwahhada” (“Toward a Unified Literary Movement”), is printed as the opening editorial in al-Katib’s 1987 special issue.69

Al-Katib not only sought to unify the fragmented Palestinian literary scene, but it also sought to draw lines of continuity with Palestinian literature before the Nakba. In 1986, al-Katib published a contribution by Habibi to commemorate fifty years since the general strike and

revolt of 1936,
drawing parallels between their contemporary situation and that of British colonialism during the pre-Nakba period.70 In a similar vein, al-Katib sought to represent the history of Palestinian literature as one impacted by occupation even before 1948. For example, in an article on the short story under occupation, works of pre-1948 figures such as
Najati Sidqi
, Aref al-ʿAzzuni, Mahmoud al-Irani feature alongside post-1948 writers.71 In 1981, al-Katib celebrated the one hundredth year birthday anniversary of
Iskandar al-Khoury al-Beitjaly
.72

Al-Fajr al-Adabi

Al-Fajr al-Adabi was one of the last literary periodicals to appear in Jerusalem before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, when Ramallah became the Palestinian cultural capital moreso than Jerusalem. Al-Fajr al-Adabi was a monthly periodical and literary supplement of the daily newspaper al-Fajr, founded by Hanna Siniora and

Ali al-Khalili
in 1980. The stated aim of the periodical was to widely disseminate
al-adab al-mahalli
, develop a progressive Palestinian literary movement in the occupied territories that could transcend its difficult context, support local literary figures, and stay in sync with the literary movements in the Arab and wider world. 

In the opening editorial of the March 1982 issue, “Hamish fi marhalat al-ʾistithnaʾ ” (“Margin on an Exceptional Phase”), Palestinians under occupation are described as living under siege and oppression during a period that is referred to as a phase of exception.73 Despite these extenuating circumstances, al-Fajr al-Adabi states its commitment to bringing about the meeting, through its printed pages, of Palestinians both

inside and in exile
, as well as Arabs and other peoples struggling against exceptional conditions, in the hope of contributing to a culture of progress and peace worldwide.74

In spite of the communication hurdles between the Palestinian inside and outside, al-Fajr al-Adabi featured contributions from Palestinian literary figures in Beirut and Tunis, as well as writers from the Maghrebi and the Paris Arab literary circles. For example, besides publishing several poems by Mahmoud Darwish,75 it also features interviews with Ahmad Dahbour,76 and news and contributions by now well-established figures such as Rashad Abu Shawar, Muin Bseiso, Mona Saudi, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Fakhry Saleh, Mahmoud Shukair, Yahya Yakhluf, Mourid Barghouti, and Ghassan Kanafani. Coverage of a major diaspora event in Paris involving a number of Palestinian literary figures such as

Edward Said
,
Ibrahim Abu Lughod
, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, and Sahar Khalifa was featured in a 1984 issue of al-Fajr al-Adabi.77

Like al-Bayadir, al-Fajr al-Adabi reported on local literary and cultural events in a special section entitled “Nadwat al-ʿadad” (“The Issue’s Symposium”). It also included a special section for exploring Palestinian literary heritage and folk literature, as well as introduced a new section specifically dedicated to young authors entitled “Kitabat Shabba” (“Up and Coming Writers”). Later, sections dedicated to theater and the visual arts were added. Prison as a topic was unavoidable given the political circumstances and the Israeli occupation authorities’ persecution of Palestinian literary and political figures. The periodical also marked occasions such as Palestinian Prisoner Day on its cover pages,78 and paid special attention to women prisoners.79

A unique feature of al-Fajr al-Adabi is its emphasis on

pre-Nakba literature
. Izzat al-Ghazzawi contributed a series of articles on early printing presses, novels, and periodicals, highlighting
Khalil Baidas
’ literary magazine
al-Nafaʾis al-ʿAsriyya
and Ishaq Musa al-Husseini’s early novel, Muthakarat Dajaja (Memoirs of a Chicken). In addition, Adel Manna contributed a series of encyclopedia-style article entries on Palestinian literary and cultural figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The West Bank

Al-Turath wa al-Mujtamaʿ

In the West Bank, an important periodical appeared on the scene in 1974 and continued to be published well into the twenty-first century. Different from the Jerusalem periodicals, al-Turath wa al-Mujtamaʿ was totally devoted to the

Palestinian folk heritage
. Issued by the Committee for Social Research and Palestinian Folk Heritage based in al-Bireh, the periodical sought to feature, promote, and explore all aspects of Palestinian folk culture, including stories, songs, flora and fauna, proverbs, traditions and rituals, food, and popular art.

In this way, al-Turath wa al-Mujtamaʿ is similar to other initiatives that were popping up in small Palestinian towns of the other inside, such as the Taybeh-based periodicals issued by folk heritage revival and preservation centers.

Afaq

Ramallah was home to the emergence of the periodical Afaq in 1988. It was edited by the poet al-Mutawakkil Taha, who was formerly a contributor to al-Katib, and was the editor of al-ʿAwda magazine in Jerusalem. Taha was also imprisoned by the Israeli occupation authorities. Afaq distinguished itself from the Jerusalem periodicals of this period by taking a more academic interest in Palestinian literature, primarily publishing research and analysis pieces.

Gaza

al-ʿUlum, al-Usbuʿ al-Jadid, and Ishtar

Al-ʿUlum was issued in Gaza in 1975 as a weekly magazine dedicated to publishing the works of Gaza-based writers and poets. Al-Usbuʿ al-Jadid was initially published in Gaza in 1979 but relocated to Jerusalem in 1982 and came under the editorship of Hanna Siniora who was also editor of al-Fajr al-Adabi. From the limited issues accessed, the two periodicals engaged with coverage of the intifada and prisons, as well as devoting special attention to Palestinian folk heritage and literature.

Toward the very end of the period, an important literary magazine appeared in Gaza in 1993. Ishtar was issued by Shuʾun al-Marʾa fi Gaza (Women’s Affairs in Gaza) and focused on women’s issues, as well as publishing the works of Gazan women writers and poets.

Prison

A new phenomenon of handwritten

prison literary magazines
emerged during this period, particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s. Political prisoners in administrative detention in Israeli occupation military prisons, who exponentially increased after the outbreak of the 1987 intifada, became extremely active in issuing their own periodicals out of prison. After the Naksa of 1967, Israeli occupation authorities established several new prisons in the West Bank and repurposed other prisons that were established during the British Mandate period. These included the prisons of ʿAsqalan, al-Ramla, Sijn Ghazza al-Markazi, but there were many more.80 The latter refers to Gaza’s central prison, originally established by the British occupation authorities, later used by the Egyptian authorities, and renovated for use by the Israeli occupation authorities in 1967.

Hunger strikes regularly took place in Israeli occupation prisons, the most famous of which was “al-Idrab al-kabir” (“the big strike”) in Nafha prison in 1980. One of the crucial demands of this and other strikes was the lifting of the ban on bringing books, paper, notebooks, pens, and periodicals into prisons, as well as writing of letters to family. Israeli occupation authorities were confronted with a massive prisoner movement and eventually gave in to the demands, resulting in the establishment of prison libraries and periodicals.

Literary magazines that emerged from Israeli occupation prisons were handwritten in school-style notebooks. Many are without titles and lack years, issue numbers, contributor names, or political affiliation. Hundreds of prison magazines exist in this format. Although they mostly focus on political topics, many of these magazines feature literary content, including poetry, short stories, and literary studies. Some prison magazines adopted the titles of periodicals published by the political factions with which they were affiliated. For example, al-Hadaf and Ila al-Amam were titles of prison magazines inspired by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) periodicals that were issued in Beirut and Damascus.

The phenomenon of Palestinian prison magazines, although understudied, is crucial in the context of what Abdelrahim al-Shaikh called the “

sixth geography
” that prison represents in a literary geography that includes the 1948 areas, Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the diaspora.81 Given the massive number of Palestinian political prisoners who languished in Israeli detention, this “
Filastin tahta Filastin
” (“Palestine underneath Palestine”), as the Lebanese novelist
Elias Khoury
referred to it, needs to be acknowledged as a parallel site of Palestinian experience and literary production.82

A small number of prison magazines specialized in literature. An example is Nafha al-Adabi (issued in Nafha prison), affiliated with the Fatah movement. Poetry featured in the magazine had a clear revolutionary, political, and

resistance
spirit, such as the poem “Fath al-Thawra” (“Fatah, the Revolution”). Each issue ended with “Nidaʾ al-Majalla” (“The Call of the Magazine”), where the editor encouraged prisoners to continue writing, stating that “the revolution is not just a rifle but also the pen, the word, and the poem.”

Image 1 of 3

Table of contents of the prison handwritten magazine Nafha al-Adabi. The issue is undated and the prison unidentified, although the title of the magazine implies a connection with Nafha prison. While some of the contributions to Nafha al-Adabi are signed, mostly by pseudonyms, editorial information is not available. Courtesy of the Abu Jihad Museum for Prisoners’ Movement Affairs (Palestine).

Prison magazines reflect the knowledge that prisoners had of outside events such as the massacres of

Sabra and Shatila
,
Land Day
, and the intifada through poetic or literary works dedicated to these events. Prisoners were also engaged in Palestinian literature published outside prison walls, such as
Mahmoud Darwish
’s work. For example, an article on Darwish as the poet of resistance provided an overview of his life and included verse samples from various poems. Short stories featured in Nafha al-Adabi include pieces based on prisoners’ life experiences. One short story by an unknown author entitled “Rad ʾiʿtibar” (“Returning the Favor”) depicts the suffering of Palestinian workers in Israel. Special issues also appeared in prison magazines; for example, an issue of an untitled PFLP-affiliated magazine was dedicated to the cartoonist
Naji al-Ali
one year after his assassination.

Image 1 of 5

Front cover of the notebook in which the prison handwritten magazine Fajr al-ʿAsifa 1989, issue 5 appeared. Courtesy of the al-Asir Library Nablus (Palestine).

In addition to the issuing of magazines, specialized pamphlets were also handwritten and circulated in prison, some of which were devoted to literary and cultural issues. The pamphlets aimed to educate prisoners on specific topics and to promote knowledge of their cultural and literary heritage. For example, individual pamphlets were dedicated to premodern literary figures such as al-Mutannabi, Ibn Tufayl, and al-Jahiz. Some pamphlets focused on reviewing literary works, such as Darwish’s poetry or novels by local writers. Other pamphlets by unsigned authors were dedicated to the poetry of prisoners under headings such as “

Shiʿr al-iʿtiqal
” (“Detention Poetry”) and “
Shiʿr al-Intifada
” (“Intifada Poetry”). Reportage pamphlets covered the cultural movement inside prison, such as “Taqrir ʿan al-haya al-thaqafiyya dakhil al-iʿtiqal” (“Report on Cultural Life in Detention”).

The visualization below gives an overview of the temporal evolution of prison literature after 1967. In comparison to prison literature produced between 1948 and 1967, this period shows a marked increase in prison experiences that make prison literature integral to the development of Palestinian literature.

Footnotes

  1. Ibrahim Taha, Al-Buʿd al-akhar. Qiraʾat fi al-adab al-mahalli (Nazareth: Rabitat al-Kuttab al-Filastiniyyin fi Israʾil, 1990).

  2. Samih al-Qasim, Mataliʿ min antologia al-shiʿr al-Filastini fi alf ʿam (Haifa: Dar Arabesque, 1990).

  3. Al-Adib 1945, issue 5.

  4. Najib Nassar, Riwayat Muflih al-Ghassani. Safha min safhat al-harb al-ʿalamiyya, ed. Hanna Abu Hanna (Nazareth: Dar al-Sawt, 1981).

  5. Abdelrahim Mahmoud, Rawhi ʿala rahati. Diwan, ed. Hanna Abu Hanna (al-Taybeh: Markaz Ihyaʾ al-Turath, 1985).

  6. Hanna Abu Hanna, Dar al-muʿallimin al-Rusiyya fi al-Nasira “al-Siminar” (1886–1914) wa atharuha ʿala al-nahda al-adabiyya fi Filastin (Nazareth: Daʾirat al-Thaqafa al-ʿArabiyya, Wizarat al-Maʿarif wa al-Thaqafa, 1994).

  7. Hanna Abu Hanna, Thalathat shuʿaraʾ. Ibrahim Tuqan, ʿAbdelrahim Mahmoud, Abu Salma (Nazareth: Majallat Mawaqif, 1995).

  8. Hanna Abu Hanna Diwan al-shiʿr al-Filastini (Haifa: Jamʿiyyat al-Tatwir al-Ijtimaʿi, 1991).

  9. Hanna Abu Hanna, Rihlat al-bahth ʿan al-turath (Haifa: al-Wadi li al-Tibaʿa wa al-Nashr, 1994).

  10. Abu Hanna, Rihlat al-Bahth, 44. (My translation)

  11. Mahmoud Ghanayim, The Quest for a Lost Identity: Palestinian Fiction in Israel (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008), 12.

  12. On the administrative detention of Fouzi El Asmar, see al-Jadid 1971, issues 1–2.

  13. “Samih al-Qasim,” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (https://www.palquest.org/en/biography/14239/samih-al-qasim).

  14. Tawfiq Zayyad, Sujanaʾ al-huriyya (Nazareth: Muʾassasat Tawfiq Zayyad, 1994), 5–6.

  15. Al-Jadid 1974, issue 3 and 1974, issues 9, 19.

  16. Al-Jadid 1988, issue 6.

  17. Al-Jadid 1980, issue 8.

  18. Al-Jadid 1980, issue 8.

  19. Al-Ittihad 1983, issue 39.

  20. Al-Jadid 1984, issues 6–7.

  21. Al-Jadid 1967, issue 8.

  22. Al-Jadid 1975, issues 1–2.

  23. See, for example, a piece on how the folk environment appears in literary fiction in al-Jadid 1975, issue 5, and on Ali al-Khalili and the turath in al-Jadid 1978, issue 7.

  24. For reportage pieces on the Intifada see al-Jadid 1989, issue 2–3. For poetry dedicated to the Intifada see al-Jadid 1989, issue 4 and 1989, issue 5. Pieces reflecting on literary and cultural production during the Intifada include al-Jadid 1989, issue 5 and 1989, issue 6.

  25. Al-Jadid 1989, issue 10; 1989, issues 11–12; and 1990, issues 11–12.

  26. Al-Jadid 1988, issue 37.

  27. Mahmoud Darwish, Ahmad Dahbour, and Izz al-Din al-Manasra were featured in al-Jadid 1991, issue 40; 1991, issue 3; and 1990, issues 5–6, respectively.

  28. Al-Jadid 1988, issue 37.

  29. Al-Jadid 1988, issue 6.

  30. See, e.g., al-Jadid 1972, issue 9 and al-Sharq 1972, issue 11.

  31. Ghanayim, Quest, 11.

  32. Ghanayim, Quest, 11.

  33. See for e.g., a study on the evolution of local literature in al-Aswar 1989, issue 3.

  34. See for e.g. al-Aswar 1989, issue 3 and issue 5.

  35. Al-Aswar 1989, issue 4.

  36. Al-Aswar 1989, issue 5.

  37. Al-Aswar 1989, issue 3 and issue 4.

  38. Al-Aswar 1989, issue 4 and issue 5.

  39. Al-Aswar 1989, issue 4.

  40. See for e.g., al-Aswar 1989, issue 3.

  41. On al-Mawakib magazine, see synopsis provided by al-Manar newspaper's online portal: https://www.manar.com/page-9295.html.

  42. Al-Mawakib 1984, issues 5–6.

  43. Al-Mawakib 1984, issues 1–2.

  44. Al-Mawakib 1984, issues 5–6, and 1985, issues 7–8.

  45. Al-Mawakib 1986, issues 5–6.

  46. See for e.g., al-Mawakib 1987, issues 7–8.

  47. Qustandi al-Shomali, Al-Ittijahat al-adabiyya wa al-naqdiyya fi Filastin. Dirasa li hayat al-naqd al-adabi al-hadith fi Filastin min khilal jaridat Falastin (Jerusalem: Dar al-ʿAwda, 1990).

  48. Al-Bayadir 1976, issue 1.

  49. Al-Bayadir 1977, issue 4.

  50. Al-Bayadir 1977, issue 10.

  51. Al-Bayadir 1976, issue 9.

  52. Al-Bayadir 1977, issue 7.

  53. Al-Bayadir 1976, issue 10.

  54. See, e.g., al-Bayadir 1979, issue 6 and 1980, issue 2.

  55. See al-Bayadir’s online page: http://www.al-bayader.com/viewpage.aspx?pageid=1.

  56. For poetry from prison see al-Bayadir 1977, issue 11 and 1980, issue 87; for letters from prison, see al-Bayadir 1979, issue 2; and for studies on literature and prison, see al-Bayadir 1976, issue 10.

  57. Al-Bayadir 1979, issue 1.

  58. Al-Shiraʿ 1978, issue 4.

  59. See, e.g., al-Shiraʿ 1984, issue 62.

  60. See editorial in al-Shiraʿ 1982, issue 7, and coverage of an event in Jerusalem discussing the need to intensify efforts for a new literary nahda in al-Shiraʿ 1984, issue 62.

  61. Al-Katib 1979, issue 1.

  62. Al-Katib 1979, issue 1.

  63. Al-Katib 1979, issue 1.

  64. See, e.g., al-Katib 1980, issue 12 (featuring Mahmoud Darwish) and 1980, issue 7 (on Tel al-Zaatar).

  65. Al-Katib 1987, issue 79.

  66. See, e.g., al-Katib 1985, issue 62 and 1988, issue 103.

  67. A special issue on Palestinian literature under occupation appeared in al-Katib 1987, issue 89.

  68. See, e.g., the study on the short story under occupation in al-Katib 1980, issue 6.

  69. Al-Katib 1987, issue 89.

  70. Al-Katib 1986, issue 76.

  71. Al-Katib 1980, issue 6.

  72. See the cover of al-Katib 1981, issues 1–2.

  73. Al-Fajr al-Adabi 1982, issue 7.

  74. Al-Fajr al-Adabi 1982, issue 7.

  75. See, e.g., al-Fajr al-Adabi 1982, issue 21; 1984, issue 51; and 1989, issue 69.

  76. See, e.g., al-Fajr al-Adabi 1983, issue 38 and 1986, issue 65.

  77. Al-Fajr al-Adabi 1984, issue 48.

  78. See, e.g., al-Fajr al-Adabi 1983, issue 32.

  79. See the serialized story about a female prisoner by Izzat al-Ghazzawi that appeared in several issues of al-Fajr al-Adabi, for e.g., 1983, issue 35–36; 1983, issue 39; and 1984, issue 42.

  80. Iman Masarwa, “Al-Sujoun wa al-muʿtaqalat al-Israʾiliyya,” Tarikh adab al-sujoun fi Filastin (Umm al-Fahm: Muʾassasat Ansar al-Dad, 2018), 40–59.

  81. Abdelrahim al-Shaikh, “Nadwat al-haraka al-Filastiniyya al-asira. Al-Jughrafiyya al-sadisa,” Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya 128 (Autumn 2021): 9.

  82. Elias Khoury, “Filastin tahta Filastin,” Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya 128 (Autumn 2021): 8.