cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4579826
While Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, militarily and diplomatically supported by the U.S. and Western powers, imperialist rhetoric shapes the ongoing slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. And although it was written decades ago, Ghassan Kanafani’s impeccable and distinguished writing still articulates the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle with amazing clarity.
Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings (Pluto Press) was published in October 2024, a year after Israel’s genocide in Gaza began. Through a translated selection of Kanafani’s political writings, the reader is able to understand Palestinian anti-colonial resistance through his analysis. In the words of editors Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi from the book’s introduction, this resistance is “a confrontation between imperialism and an anti-imperialist liberation movement against brutal settler-colonialism.”
The writings are grouped into five main themes, each chapter distinctively showing how language is essential in conveying the meaning of anti-colonial resistance, the perils from within, and the necessity of looking at Palestinian anti-colonial resistance in terms of what it faces regionally and globally
Kanafani is synonymous with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and renowned for his literary works. It was not until 2005 that Israel admitted to killing him in a targeted assassination by a car bomb in Beirut in July 1972.
In light of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Kanafani’s succinct description of what Palestinians are up against holds absolute relevance.