REMEMBERING THE EVER-PRESENT: KHANAFANI
Ramallah, Sunday, July 17, 2022 -
KNOCK ON THE SIDE OF THE TANK
The Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, Dr. Mohammed Shtayyeh, said, “To Ghassan, We Say: We Knock on The Side of The Tank every day with everything we have. The day before yesterday, H.E. Mr. President, Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, made our long-standing position clear during the meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bethlehem. This position protects Palestinian national rights and guiding principles in ending the occupation, liberty, independence, self-determination, Palestinian statehood with Jerusalem as its capital, and the Palestinian refugees’ right to return.”
THE PRESIDENTIAL MEETING AND THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
His Excellency, The Prime Minister, stated, “Reliably and faithfully, Mr. President, Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, delivered the message and voice of the Palestinian people to the American President. Mr. Biden's visit was important, and so is the long-standing Arab position on the Palestinian cause. A position that was reflected at the Jeddah Summit through the speeches of Their Excellencies, Arab Kings, Princes, and Presidents' participating, who realized and said that the Palestinian just cause will always remain a key and a condition for peace and stability in the region.”
50TH ANNIVERSARY (1972 – 2022)
The Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, Dr. Mohammed Shtayyeh, made the previous remarks during his speech at a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Assassination of the Palestinian activist and writer Ghassan Kanafani Sunday in Ramallah.
PALESTINIAN POSITION AND PENDING POLITICS
Dr. Shtayyeh indicated that “Mr. Biden's visit is certainly symbolic. Still, earnest political results are pending. In spite of the vitality of stressing the two-State solution, desisting whatsoever jeopardizes the viability of Palestinian statehood, halting Israeli illegal settlement and wiping out every possibility of the same solution; is as vital. Asserting the ingrained Palestinian natives' deep roots in this land and Jerusalem – in particular – is substantial. Yet preventing the displacement of the city of Jerusalem's indigenous Palestinian people in all the forms Israel practices is of most significance. International assistance is, for sure, indispensable at such times, but our dignity is paramount.”
PASSING AWAY: LEGACIES, EULOGIES, AND THE LAND OF SAD ORANGES
The Prime Minister further stated, “Kanafani's revolutionary vision was not over-ideological; far from mottos, sided by national unity. His literature and art raised awareness and sharpened Palestinian determination and ambition after the 1948 Catastrophe, ‘Nakba.’ His resounding cry, ‘Why didn't they knock on the sides of the tank?’ was a call to stay vigilante, to refuse to surrender to reality, and to die in silence.”
His Excellency added, “Ghassan's novels: Return to Haifa, All That's Left to You, Umm Sa'ad, The Land of Sad Oranges, and Men in the Sun shaped our awareness of ourselves and of the generations that lived through the revolutionary era, documenting the miseries of dispersion and diaspora after the Palestinian Nakba.”
‘Blessed Shall Be…’
Dr. Shtayyeh proceeded, “Kanafani's assassination was grievous and shocking. Targeting a nation; The assassination of intellectuals and writers is. Nevertheless, Ghassan's literary, journalistic, and national presence immortalized him. On Ghassan's anniversary, we echo what our great poet, Mahmoud Darwish, said in his farewell:
“Blessed Shall Be The Body,
Whose Strewn Into
Cities”
Adding, “Ghassan sparks renewed hope in the hearts of all generations. Generations from which Homeland have not faded from their incandescent memory of the Right to Return to Palestine.”
The Primer concluded, “We have one choice: resistance and perseverance; we are men and women in the sun, in the mountains of Beita, Burqa, and Kafr Qaddum. We are plums and oranges of Palestine on trees that remain standing. Today's world may not be ours, but this homeland is always ours. Every woman is Umm Saad, and every man is Abu al-Abd. In Palestine, there is no monument to the Unknown Soldier. Our martyrs, as Ghassan Kanafani, are well-known: we know them, their mothers and children, and Palestinian prisoners as well; we preserve their names.”