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<h1 id="reader-title">The second life of Ghassan Kanafani</h1>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr" style="text-align:
left;">July 12, 2017<br>
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<article class="node-21051 node node-story view-mode-full
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<figure id="file-48971" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-jpeg"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><img
class="media-element file-figure"
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2017-07/170712-ghassan-kanafani.jpg?itok=ptR1mnFv×tamp=1499885187"
alt="" title=""><figcaption class="group-caption
field-group-html-element">
<p>Ghassan Kanafani at his Beirut office. (<a
href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kanafanio.jpg"><em>Assafir</em></a>)</p>
</figcaption></figure>
<p>In the early 1970s, three Palestinian intellectuals –
Ghassan Kanafani, Majed Abu Sharar and Kamal Nasser –
collaborated to form the Palestine Liberation
Organization’s information office.</p>
<p>Within a decade, Israeli terrorists managed to kill
all three – Kanafani in 1972, Nasser in 1973 and Abu
Sharar in 1981.</p>
<p>The Zionist movement has never bothered to
distinguish in its killing campaigns between civilians
and military targets: in fact, on many occasions the
Israeli government (or even the Zionist movement
before the establishment of the occupation state)
targeted civilians on purpose to create terror among
the population. Presumably, Israel wanted to kill
Kanafani and silence his voice. Yet the plan did not
work as intended.</p>
<p>Forty-five years this month since his assassination,
Kanafani’s presence is ubiquitous.</p>
<p>On Arab social media, even among the young generation
who are not accustomed to reading books, one notices
him everywhere. His image is made the profile picture
of countless Arabs, and quotations from his articles
fill the social media space. His drawings, posters and
designs are quite common these days. They stand as
symbols for revolution and Palestine and more.</p>
<p>The publication of his love letters to Syrian writer
Ghada Samman (who conveniently never published any of
her letters to Kanafani) in 1992 produced a new image
of Kanafani. The love letters are quoted widely by
Arab women on social media, and his romantic yearnings
for Samman are now the stuff of love legends, in the
same league of Romeo and Juliet – or Qays and Layla
among the Arabs.</p>
<p>I never knew Ghassan Kanafani: he was murdered when I
was only 12. Yet I heard about him from an early age;
I don’t remember when I did not recognize his name. My
uncle, Naji AbuKhalil, worked with Kanafani at <em>Huriyyah</em>,
the mouthpiece of the Arab Nationalist Movement. The
magazine was the headquarters of avant-garde
intellectuals who spoke of arts, literature and
politics. Those were the people who introduced Arab
readers to French leftist writers and who spoke of the
Palestinian cause in peculiarly Marxist language – a
language which was sharply demarcated from the stale
and archaic language of orthodox Arab Marxists who
never recovered from their subservient approval of
Soviet support for the 1947 United Nations partition
plan for Palestine.</p>
<h2>Concerned with liberation of Palestine</h2>
<p>I remember how fondly my uncle would talk about
Kanafani, and how much his one-sided love story with
Samman bothered his friends. Kanafani was very popular
among men and women, and yet he was fixated on Samman.
His friends would urge him to end his fixation to no
avail: Samman occupied Kanafani’s heart but not his
mind, which was filled with concerns with the larger
project of the liberation of Palestine. Kanafani was
also seen as vulnerable: he suffered from diabetes and
would have to inject himself daily with insulin.
Sometimes he would faint, and had to be fed sweets.</p>
<p>Kanafani was known among the café society of Lebanon
and had a sense of humor. He and my uncle once
conspired to mock the new “free verse movement,” which
was championed by right-wing Lebanese who were
associated with <em>Shi’r</em> (Poetry) magazine.
Once, Kanafani and my uncle (among others, if I
remember correctly) sat together and patched various
disconnected sentences and sent it to a publication.
Sure enough, the poem was published with high praise
for the new talent of a person (using a fictitious
name of the conspirators).</p>
<p>But Kanafani was also known to us and others as a
prolific Lebanese columnist and journalist. He was
essential in the life of major publications at the
time. He edited the <em>Filastin</em> (Palestine)
supplement to the highly popular <em>al-Muharrir</em>
newspaper (<em>al-Muharrir</em> was an Arab
nationalist newspaper which represented the
counter-current to the right-wing <em>An-Nahar</em>,
which expressed the views of US and Gulf policies). <em>Al-Muharrir</em>
was essential in disabusing many young Lebanese of the
various Lebanese nationalist myths, and also in
inculcating us with strong convictions about
Palestine.</p>
<p>Kanafani also wrote in <em>al-Hawadeth</em> magazine
and also in <em>Al Anwar</em> newspaper. At <em>Al
Anwar</em>, Kanafani started the cultural weekly
supplement. He also wrote in <em>al-Hawadeth</em>
using the name Rabie Matar and used the name Faris
Faris at <em>Al Anwar</em>. But his mainstream and
very successful Lebanese media role came to an end
after 1967.</p>
<p>In the wake of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/shock-defeat-1967/20691">defeat
of the 1967 War</a>, the various branches of the
Arab Nationalist Movement were to transform into
country-specific Marxist-Leninist organizations. The
Palestinian branch would emerge as the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in late 1967.
Unbeknownst to many, the idea of the magazine which
came to personify him was not his own idea. It is
still not known that the man who launched <em>Al-Hadaf</em>
magazine, the mouthpiece to this day of the PFLP, was
none other than Wadie Haddad.</p>
<p>Haddad had a great media sense and knew that
information was part of the Palestinian struggle. He
was also concerned that most of the left-leaning
intellectuals of the Arab Nationalist Movement were
gravitating toward Nayef Hawatmeh, the arch-rival of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/george-habashs-contribution-palestinian-struggle/7332">George
Habash</a>, Haddad’s closest comrade and friend.
Haddad allocated the money and assigned Kanafani to
launch the project, which came about in 1969.</p>
<h2>Kanafani’s imprint</h2>
<p><em>Al-Hadaf</em> was not like any other magazine
before or since. It would leave its imprint on
revolutionary media worldwide. From the offices of <em>Al-Hadaf</em>
on Corniche al-Mazraa in Beirut, Kanafani designed and
produced some of the most spectacular posters of the
Palestinian revolution.</p>
<p>He made Arab Marxist revolutionary ideas cool and
trendy, unlike the boring media of the Lebanese
Communist Party. He combined art with literature and
information, all for the purpose of the liberation of
Palestine. The magazine was also keen on transparency:
it published all the financial contributions it
received from around the world. Sometimes they were
money transfers from Arab students in Western
countries (before that was banned as an act of
terrorism) to donations in kind from poor residents of
the Palestinian refugee camps.</p>
<p>The magazine, and Kanafani personally, were the first
to bring attention to the status of Arab poets
(especially <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-darwish">Mahmoud
Darwish</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-darwish">Samih
al-Qasim</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tawfiq-zayyad">Tawfiq
Zayyad</a>) to larger Arab audiences. He broke with
a silly taboo that looked with suspicion at those
Arabs who stayed behind living under the rule of the
Israeli occupation state.</p>
<p><em>Al-Hadaf</em> was the banner of the PFLP, and
people from around the globe flocked there to meet
Kanafani and also to join the organization. Kanafani’s
open-door policy was a weakness and many enemy
intelligence operatives were able to study him up
close and follow him. In the weeks before his
assassination, workers at <em>Al-Hadaf</em> noticed
that a more than usual number of Western women were
visiting <em>Al-Hadaf</em>, always posing as
journalists.</p>
<p>Kanafani never tired of explaining the Palestinian
cause to anyone who asked. His English was not fluent
but he managed to express himself clearly and strongly
(in this <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2-vMqgs5U">interview</a>,
for example, Kanafani is sharp and does not concede
one point to a journalist speaking from a mainstream
Western perspective).</p>
<p>Some dogmatic hardliners would sneer at Kanafani for
spending time with Western reporters and he would
always answer by explaining that he would not stomach
outbidding or one-upmanship from people who did not
understand his work for the Palestinian cause. He
would explain how he left a secure job at <em>Al
Anwar</em>, which paid him 2,000 Lebanese pounds, to
work for a job with the PFLP which paid him 700 pounds
(Kanafani would add that <em>Al Anwar</em> also paid
him a bonus month’s salary in addition to various
benefits).</p>
<p>Habash and Haddad both greatly admired Kanafani.
Haddad would interrogate him about the international
situation before he planned or executed any operation.
Kanafani would also share with both men latest debates
in the West about the Palestinian cause. Habash
considered him his closest friend and would say upon
his death: I lost half of me. Some would say that
Habash was never the same after the assassination of
Kanafani. When the PFLP held its Third National
Congress in 1972, Habash assigned Kanafani to write
the <a
href="http://pflp.ps/english/tasks-of-the-new-stage/">political
report</a> famously known as “Tasks of the New
Stage.”</p>
<h2>Israel’s calculation</h2>
<p>It was clear that the Israelis knew the talents of
someone like Kanafani and his services to the
Palestinian cause, even if he never played any
military role in the movement. Israel would rather
have people like <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-abbas">Mahmoud
Abbas</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-dahlan">Muhammad
Dahlan</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yasser-abed-rabbo">Yasser
Abed Rabbo</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jibril-rajoub">Jibril
Rajoub</a> around. Those people continue to damage
the Palestinian revolution while Kanafani served the
cause every single day of his life.</p>
<p>Declassified American archival reports show keen
interest in the case of Ghassan Kanafani. The
Americans and the Israelis were bothered by Kanafani’s
media role, and some US documents would make specific
references to press conferences he held. Weeks before
his assassination, Kanafani was roughed up by thugs in
West Beirut. <em>An-Nahar</em> published the story
and mocked the claim by Kanafani. When Wadie Haddad
heard of this, he was troubled. His associates would
say: but if this was the Mossad, they would have
killed him instantly. Haddad said at the time: not
necessarily. Not necessarily. Haddad’s hunch was
right.</p>
<p>It is not clear what the incident had to do with the
assassination which came weeks later. Kanafani never
took security precautions. He had a routine and it was
known where he went: to <em>Al-Hadaf</em> and to the
various coffee shops frequented by journalists at the
time. He also spent his Sundays with his family. His
enemies found it easy to track him, especially as he
lived (uncharacteristically) in East Beirut, a
stronghold of Lebanese right-wing, anti-Palestinian
parties.</p>
<p>Israel has never had to justify its killing of an
artist, poet, calligrapher and journalist. Israel (and
the Zionist movement before it) never bothered to
explain the pattern of killing, of targeting, Arab
civilians. People in the West said of Israeli murder:
but Kanafani was a politburo member of the PFLP at the
time of his death. The truth – rarely revealed – is
that Kanafani was posthumously made a member of the
politburo. Kanafani in his life had no patience for
the life of a member of an organization which is
consumed with long and boring meetings.</p>
<p>It would not be an exaggeration to say that
Kanafani’s legacy is enjoying a rebirth as he is
discovered by a new generation of Arabs. Various
websites are dedicated to him, and his books are
published in various editions (and pirated in various
editions). Who would believe that a man who was only
36 when he died would have such a lasting influence?
Count that as yet another Zionist miscalculation.</p>
<p><em>As’ad AbuKhalil is a professor of political
science at California State University, Stanislaus.</em></p>
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