Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 31)
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- Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 31)
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Ghassan Kanafani
This year marks the fiftieth anniver-
sary of Ghassan Kanafani’s birth in
Acca, Palestine, in 1936, and 14 years
since his martyrdom. Ghassan Kana-
fani was a member of the PFLP’s
Politbureau and the founding editor of
its weekly Arabic magazine Al Hadaf.
On July 8, 1972, comrade Ghassan and
his niece Lamis were murdered in
Beirut. Zionist agents had booby-
trapped his car, and it exploded as he
started the engine.
Ghassan’s contribution to the Pales-
tinian and Arab people’s revolution
was boundless, especially in the poli-
tical and cultural fields. Ghassan
played a leading role in laying the poii-
tical foundation for the PFLP’s trans-
formation into a Marxist-Leninist
organization. He wrote plays, novels
and short stories. He painted and drew
a number of posters. When we com-
memorate Ghassan, we always
remember the slogan he articulated to
be the guide for Al Hadaf’s foundation
and continuing practice: «All Facts to
the Masses.» This expresses the essen-
tial thrust of all his works.
Ghassan’s works were characterized
by dealing with the essential dynamics
of issues. To him, appearances mat-
tered only in relation to their influence
on the essence. In both his literary and
political writings, Ghassan frequently
addressed social issues which affect the
revolution’s development. As one
example, Ghassan wrote about what
was then known as the Abu Hamido
case, in an article printed in the August
12, 1972 issue of Palestine Affairs, the
journal of the PLO Research Center.
Abu Hamido was a fighter in South
Lebanon, who belonged to a non-
Marxist resistance organization. He
raped a woman, was sentenced to death
by a revolutionary court, and executed.
A shallow person would have read the
news of this incident and been content
with simply remarking that revolution-
ary justice had been done, but not
Ghassan.
Instead, Ghassan wrote: «...even if
Abu Hamido committed the crime of
rape, the conditions of the revolution
compell us to examine the crime cons-
ciously - if we want to consider it a
political crime as well. If we view it
through the consciousness of Abu
Hamido, we must examine the political
education in the organization to which
he belonged. If the political education
in that organization is advanced, if it is
based on revolutionary discipline and
behavior, and close relations with the
masses, the punishment for a person
committing such a crime would be dif-
ferent than in an organization without
discipline and political education.»
Ghassan was not satisfied with guilt
being assigned only to the individual
who had deviated, but wanted to exa-
mine the deeper causes for the crime.
He probed further into the revolutio-
nary organization’s responsibility for
the conduct of its members. This is
typical of many of Ghassan’s articles
which dealt with problems and short-
comings in the revolution, with a view
towards correction and improvement.
THE LEADERSHIP
PROBLEM
In his novel, Men in the Sun,
Ghassan depicted the impotency of the
bourgeois leadership of the early six-
ties, raising the question of the impact
of the class character of the leadership
at a time when few had addressed this
issue. In Men in the Sun, the Palesti-
nian people are symbolized by indivi-
duals trying to find a solution to their
problems by migrating to the Gulf
states. In their journey, they are guided
by an old man who had lost his man-
hood when fighting against the Zio-
nists, and since become involved in
smuggling migrants over the Arab
borders. The three end up suffocating
inside the tank of a truck, while the old
man waits for having his | papers
stamped at a border post. Their bodies
are thrown in a dump. The reader will
question why they died. The answer is
clearly woven into the story. They were
victims of the wrong way to solve their
problems, i.e., an individual solution,
and the wrong leadership. Ghassan
leaves the reader to think about the
alternative.
In his writing, Ghassan _ utilized
Marxism-Leninism as an analytical »
Ghassan Kanafani’s martyrdom was
commemorated in occupied Palestine
and in Palestinian communities in exile.
In Damascus, Syria, there was a cul-
tural event at the Soviet Cultural
Center, attended by many representa-
tives of the Palestinian resistance
organizations and unions, and of the
socialist countries. Also present was
Leila Kanafani, Ghassan’s daughter,
who was seated beside Dr. George
Habash, General Secretary of the
PFLP. The program included speeches
by Comrade Habash and by several
Palestinian writers, and a performance
by the Al Ard (The Land) folklore
group.
Comrade Habash began his con}
memoration of Ghassan by saying:
«Today, on the 50th anniversary of
Ghassan’s birth, I am glad to stand and
say, with great pride, that he is still
alive and fighting the enemy. Today,
Ghassan’s comrades salute him by
carrying out a heroic military operation
at Naharia, against the enemy that
murdered Ghassan and tried to wipe
out his memory from among us. Yet
Ghassan still makes the enemy toss in
his bed after his martyrdom, as he did
during his lifetime...»
Dr. Habash and Leila Kanafani
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- Democratic Palestine : 18
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