In partnership with the Arab Culture Association – Haifa, the A. M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF) and Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) launched 11: Narratives from the Palestinian Displacement. In the presence of Dr. Ehab Bessaiso, the Minister of Culture, the book launch was held simultaneously in Beirut, Ramallah, Haifa, and Gaza.
The book includes 11 stories by Palestinian writers who live in refugee camps across Lebanon. These writers participated in a training workshop on creative writing, organised by the IPS. The event was organised with support from Selat: Links through the Arts, a project implemented by the AMQF Arts in partnership with the Prince Claus Fund.
In this collection, Palestinian refugees, aged 20 to 50 and living in Lebanon, tell their own stories which go beyond the borders of time, place, and events. These stories document and chronicle multifaceted experiences of the life of displacement, including all political, livelihood, and social implications.
The stories dive into the multi-layered worlds of day-to-day life: from the relation between man, place and things, to the daily relations between people, to the images and scenes of life in the refugee camp, and from childhood to old age. They reflect social and political developments and changes from the perspective of individuals. They also illustrate what events mean to a young adult or a child, who lives in the refugee camp and is sometimes incapable of monitoring the significant political dimensions related to the question of Palestine.
In the narrated stories, many details of life in the refugee camp are outlined: the walls coloured with national slogans, the narrow alleys and neighbourhoods, the tin roofs and the sound of raindrops, the prominent figures in the life of refugee camp residents, and the changes in people’s lives within the refugee camps depending on the events.
In his presentation, Dr. Bseiso said: “We need such books to feed into and document the Palestinian narrative. To stop writing means that the Palestinian narrative is disrupted.” Dr. Bessaiso added that “narrative cannot come to an end without restoring the Palestinian right.”
According to Perla Issa, IPS staff and initiator of the idea, “this book has brought refugees back to the centre stage of the Palestinian narrative through their unrelenting struggle. It gives them an opportunity to express their feelings and document their stories in their own language.”
Mahmoud Abu Hashhash, Director of the AMQF Culture and Arts Programme, stated: “This project seeks to restore the momentum of cultural life and weave the fabric of culture in all places regardless of the obstacles. It strengthens direct linkages between Beirut, Haifa, Gaza, and Ramallah as well as between all cities and institutions.”
Taha Younes, a contributor to the back, reflected on his experience of writing his story, which induced a plethora of feelings. Younes said: “The refugee camp is a station for struggle and a station for our return to Palestine. This book is written by different Palestinian generations who live in several refugee camps across Lebanon. However, the refugee camp appeared as one, but Palestine is particularly evident throughout these narratives.”
Palestinian author Antoine Shulhut concluded: “This is an unprecedented project in the history of the Palestinian library. It should be maintained in order to tell the Palestinian narrative and all its details. In spite of our different past and present, we all share one connecting link and one future, namely Palestine.”