Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 14)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 14)
- المحتوى
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Ghassan Kanafani
Lessons for the Revolution
Twelve years ago, on July 8, 1972, Ghassan Kana-
fani was killed by Israeli agents in Beirut, but his life
and works had already deeply influenced not only
the Palestinian revolution, but revolutionaries,
nationalists and humanists all over the Arab world
and abroad.
Writer, journalist, Palestinian leader and militant, Ghas-
san Kanafani was born in Acre in the North of Palestine on the:
9th of April, 1936. He lived in Jaffa until he had to emigrate with
his family in 1948. He then lived in several Arab cities like
Damascus, Kuwait and Beirut, where he finally settled down in
1960 and remained until assasinated.
For a while Ghassan worked as a teacher, both in Damas-
cus and Kuwait, and then entered the field of journalism at an
early age. In 1963, he became the editor-in-chief of one of the
Lebanese daily papers, but he continued to contribute articles
to several weekly and daily publications.
Ghassan joined the Arab Nationalist Movement in 1954,
and from that time on he was involved in the Arab-Palestinian
struggle, both in his commitment and his practice. When the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was formed,
Ghassan was among its leading cadres. In 1969, he became
the founding editor of its weekly paper, Al Hadaf. Later he was
elected a member of the Front’s politbureau and became its
official spokesman.
A proficient novelist, successful journalist and political
commentator, Ghassan was also a stimulating lecturer and
debator, as well as a sharp influential critic and a strong, prog-
ressive militant. He was also engaged in the art of painting,
which he taught in his early working life. He left quite a number
of well known water colors, oil paintings and posters, as well as
pencil and crayon sketches, which were later exhibited.
Ghassan was a very warm, likeable person with a bright
sense of humour and a straightforward and humble personal-
ity. He was loved and is remembered as a brilliant revolutio-
nary comrade who never lost sight of the main goals and
priorities in spite of all the fields in which he was active.
His works are still alive, not only as a source of inspiration
but as documented Palestinian history, art and _ political
analysis from a period now ended. His short stories and theater
focus on Palestinian experience of life under occupation and in
exile and the immense suffering caused by this situation. How-
ever he never appeals to the pity of bourgeois ‘good-doers’ ,
but carries this situation to its logical consequence: through
revolutionary struggle the Palestinian people reconquer their
pride and identity. His political analyses focus on issues which
are not less central for the Palestinian revolution today, than
when he wrote them.
Political Analysis
In «The 1936-1939 Revolt in Palestine» Ghassan
analyzes a period which is central for understanding the prob-
lems and possibilities of the Palestinian revolution. As he
states, «In the whole history of Palestinian struggle the armed
14
popular revolt was never closer to victory than in the months
between the end of 1937 and the beginning of 1939.» This
revolt was defeated, and Ghassan analyzes the reason for this
defeat. As Marx analyzed the reasons for the defeat of the
Paris Commune and Lenin analyzed the reason for the defeat
of the 1905 revolution, Ghassan clearly saw that the same
approach was necessary in order to strengthen the revolution
by learning from experience.
Ghassan analyzes the class composition of the Palesti-
nian nationalist resistance, of its leadership and of the mass
movement. He finds that the mass movement mainly consists
of poor peasants, workers and beduins, while the leadership is
dominated by feudal landlords, bourgeois and petit bourgeois
forces. All these forces do have conflicting interests with
Zionism and British imperialism, but «... the main outlines of
the fundemental role that the feudal-clerical leadership was to
play were established - it was to be a ‘struggle’ for a better pos-
ition in the colonialist regime. But they could not engage in this
‘struggle’ without rallying around their support, the classes that
were eager to free themselves from the yoke of colonisation.
With this end in view, they drew up a programme that was
clearly progressive, adopted mass slogans, which they were
neither willing nor able to push to their logical conclusion, and
followed a pattern of struggle which was quite out of charac-
ter.»(p.10) The leadership found its allies in the Arab rulers
especially in Transjordan, Saudi Arabia and lraq, but as Ghas-
san points out, the Arab ruling classes were forced to support
British imperialism against their counterpart in Palestine,
which was in effect leading the Palestinian nationalist move-
ment. The Brits managed to crush the revolt, mainly by «strik-
ing at the poor peasant revolutionaries with unprecedented
violence, and employing their extensive influence with the
Arab regimes which played a major role in liquidating the
revolt.» At the height of the revolt the Arab rulers were able to
make the Palestinian nationalist leadership stop the revolt: «In
obedience to the orders of the kings and emirs, the strike was
called off, and the activities of the revolt came to an end within
two hours of the call being published.»(p.20) The Brits had
been confident that Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Transjordan «were
prepared to use their influence with the Palestinian leaders and
put an end to the revolt» (p.20) - and they were, as Ghassan
shows, completely right in estimating that the Arab rulers
would give priority to their alliance with imperialism, not to the
Palestinian nationalists. At this early stage of the Palestinian
nationalist movement, Ghassan demonstrates how the Pales-
tinian bourgeois cannot lead the revolt to success; whatever
their intentions, their strategy leads to defeat because of their
dependence on their alliance with imperialism. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 5
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