Filastini Footnotes. Palestinian Israeli Literature Across Time and Space

The Palestinian citizens of Israel have always lived between a rock and a hard place, watching as their country goes to war against their nation. A lacuna in research on this group continues to this day—a group sometimes perceived by the Arab world at large as turncoats, sometimes recognized as the core of Palestinian steadfastness, but consistently overlooked for their active influence from within the Israeli parliamentary system. This gap in representation persists despite their disproportionate contribution to Palestinian resistance culture, ranging from the resonance of I am an Arab within Mahmud Darwish’s poetry, to the staunch solidarity of Tawfiq Zayyad’s Unadikum, and Emile Habibi’s deeply nuanced Pessoptimist, to Azmi Bishara’s philosophical contributions and the pointed, defiant imagery in Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail and Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance. This lecture will delve into how intellectual and cultural production by the Palestinian citizens of Israel has travelled over space and time, seeking to better understand the extent to which the specific duality facing these unique literati is recognized.