Roundup: Palestinians celebrate literature festival, defying movement restrictions

Palestinians celebrated annual literature festival in the past week, with 33 artists and literary figures presenting alternative music, modern poetry, film screenings and book readings.

The Palestine literature festival saw South Africa's Nobel Laureate J. M Coetzee as its guest of honor. Coetzee, a novelist in the world of fiction, a critic in the world of literature and a translator of great literary works and memoirs, including those featuring today's life in colonial conditions.

Born in South Africa in 1940, Coetzee is seen by Palestinians as someone who understands their plight against apartheid. By taking part in this literature festival itself, he puts forward a political statement: breaking "cultural siege" imposed on Palestine.

Just before he spelled out his reading at the closing ceremony Thursday night, Coetzee said that "using the word apartheid is to describe the way things are here... using the word apartheid diverts one into an inflamed semantic wrangle which cuts short opportunities of analysis."

"To speak only of Jerusalem and the West Bank, we see a system of enforced segregation based on religion and ethnicity put in place by an exclusive, self defining group to consolidate a colonial conquest, in particular, to maintain and extend its hold on the land and its natural resources," said Coetzee in a profound voice. Before the audience applauded this political statement, he added imperatively, "draw your own conclusions".

For the ninth year, the literature festival was held in celebration of Palestine's cultural life, taking novelists, poets, critics and guests from the world for tours in different Palestinian cities in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and as well as in some Arab art centers in Israel.

Over the six days, the festival guests traveled six cities, experiencing the hardships of travel within the West Bank or into Gaza and Israel. The restricted movement, according to the festival organizers, is part of culture experience because it shows how a problematic existence and life under occupation can make part of Palestinian literature and cultural life.

Movement restrictions in the West Bank have seen increased military checkpoints, obstructing the movement between cities and towns and their access into East Jerusalem and Israel.

Therefore, the festival organizations said in a statement that it came with the intertwined aims of "showcasing and supporting cultural life in Palestine, breaking the cultural siege imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation and strengthening cultural links between Palestine and the rest o the world."

Yasmine Al-Rifai, producer of Palestine Literature festival, said "it's impossible to do an international festival in Palestine and not be confronted with occupation," adding that "the festival does try to travel the way that most Palestinians have to take; we don't take settler roads, we get off the bus to get through checkpoints, so they see as much of it as we can show them."

As an example of movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians, Egyptian writer and the founder of the literature festival Ahdaf Soueif said that Gaza-born British writer Ahmad Masoud was denied entry by Israel. He was supposed to read of his novel in the closing ceremony of the festival, alongside Coetzee and others.

Masoud's novel was about a child who lost his father in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and embarked on a mission to find him when he was only eight years old.

Arab writers and critics who have lived alongside Palestinian diaspora say the festival reveals an important opportunity to outgrow a lost sense of solidarity.

Prominent Iraqi writer and critic Haifa Zangana worked with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since the 1970's. Being a controversial painter and a writer, she said the festival offers the international renowned writers with a unique experience too, when they visit and tour around Palestine.

"It is a kind of bridge and an almost unique opportunity for all the people to gather together," said Zangana, explaining that "it is a big step to break the blockade on the nearly sanctioned Palestinians, especially with their movement."

But the cultural scene in Palestine is not as bright as its shows. While many art lovers attend cultural events and share a lust of art, the scene seems to get narrower.

Culture director of the Ramallah city council Sallly Abu Baker said that she is happy the city saw the opening and closing of this festival, but she highlights that literary events "are lacking in the city, where literature and poetry events is an unfilled platform," and that its impact is barely measurable.

However, this shall be the reason for current and future "cultural resistance," say local artists and critics, and bringing cultural practice into public circles.

"We all speak of culture as a priority, but within this political context in which we live unexpected happenings, culture is often marginalized, and hence our role is to bring the cultural closer to daily life by offering space and platforms for different activities," said Abu Baker.

On the other hand, screenwriter Reem Shilleh said that people "are hungry to come out to such events." She believed that while there are less platforms and less activities, there is opportunity to provoke alternative cultural productions and to impact international writers who are influenced by the life under occupation and making them more vocal about the political context. Endit