“Literature Behind Bars”, a symposium held on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day 

“Literature Behind Bars” is the title of the symposium held by the Quneitra branch of the Arab Writers Union at the hall of the Arab Writers Union in Damascus on the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day. A number of writers and liberated prisoners participated in this symposium.

Director of the symposium, Samar Taghlibi, underlined the importance of talking about prison literature and publishing what the prisoners say and write in the prisons of the occupier, because it constitutes a struggle force in the face of the Zionist enemy, and contributes to the determination to expel the occupier.

On behalf of the prisoner, writer Kamal Abu Hanish, the poet Tawfiq Ahmed, Vice President of the Arab Writers Union read the speech of the prisoners, expressing the importance of the spread of prison literature because it monitors the misery that the prisoners have been subjected to in the occupation prisons and their insistence on defiance and pride.

In a video call from Ramallah, the two Palestinian writers, Iman Ziyad and Raed Hawary, talked about the steadfastness of the Palestinian novel and its focus on resistance literature, the oppression of the jailer, and the struggle of the Palestinian people to achieve victory and liberation, stressing that most Palestinian novelists are determined to do so.

The critic Omar Jumaa, in his presentation entitled “The Palestinian Novel Confronts Its Jailer,” said that the Palestinian people, with the launch of their contemporary revolution on January 1, 1965, engaged in the battle of armed resistance to defend their identity, land, existence, and destiny. So they carried out individual and collective military operations to confront the Zionist occupation gangs, its crimes, massacres, and its destruction of villages, cities, and towns.

In a statement to SANA correspondent, head of the Arab Writers Union, Dr. Muhammad Al-Hourani, stated that the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day is an occasion to emphasize the firm position of the prisoners and their sacrifices for the sake of their nation’s causes. He indicated that the prisoners’ ideas and convictions, especially the writers among them, are among the priorities of the union’s attention, stressing the need to publish their literary works to disseminate their ideas  among people to get the future generations acquainted what the prisoners have presented.

Inas Abdulkareem