by Ghassan Kanafani

Ghassan Kanafani was born in Acre on the northern Mediterranean coast of Palestine in 1936. After his family moved to Jaffa, Kanafani attended a French Catholic school. His father, a lawyer and anti-British Mandate activist, was expelled to Acre at the start of the 1936 Palestinian revolt. In 1948, when Kanafani was 12 years old, his family fled Acre empty-handed to a small village in southern Lebanon, near the border, hoping to return home after the fighting ended. Overnight life changed drastically, with the family’s plummeting from an upper to an under class. In 1952, Kanafani’s father moved the family to Damascus, Syria, where Kanafani worked during the day and continued his studies at night. He earned his high-school certificate, then enrolled in Damascus University. Attracted to journalism, Kanafani contributed to a number of periodicals, including al-Ra’y (The Opinion), organ of...