Emile Habibi
Emile Habibi | |
---|---|
Faction represented in the Knesset | |
1951–1959 | Maki |
1961–1965 | Maki |
1965–1972 | Rakah |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 January 1922 [1] Haifa, Mandatory Palestine |
Died | 2 May 1996 Nazareth, Israel | (aged 74)
Emile Shukri Habibi (
Biography
Habibi was born in
Under the Mandate he became one of the leaders of the
In 1956, he moved from Haifa to Nazareth and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in 1996 in Nazareth, but in his will, he expressed his wish to be buried in his beloved home, Haifa. His will also asked that his tombstone include the phrase "remained in Haifa."[4]
Political career
Habibi was one of the leaders of the
Journalism and literary writings
"Habibi became one of the most popular authors in the Middle East as a result of works depicting the conflicts in loyalties experienced by Palestinians living as an Arab minority in the Jewish state of Israel. In such works as Strange Events in the Disappearance of Said Abu al-Nahs al-Mutashael (1974), the most notable of his seven novels, he explored the duality of those Arabs who, like himself, did not leave their homeland during the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war."[4]
Habibi began writing short stories in the 1950s, and his first story, The Mandelbaum Gate was published in 1954, though he did not resume literary writing until the late 1960s.
In 1972 he resigned from the Knesset in order to write his first novel:
"There is no difference between Christian and Muslim: we are all Palestinian in our predicament"[5]
Literary prizes
In 1990, Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO. In 1992, he received the Israel Prize for Arabic literature.[6][7] His willingness to accept both reflected his belief in coexistence, though his acceptance of the Israel Prize set off a debate among the Arabic intellectual community. Habibi was accused of legitimizing what they considered Israel's "anti-Arab" policy. Habibi replied to the accusations: "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets," he said. "It is indirect recognition of the Arabs in Israel as a nation. This is recognition of a national culture. It will help the Arab population in its struggle to strike roots in the land and win equal rights".[8]
Published works
1969: Sudāsiyyat al-ayyām al-sittah
1974: Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-gharībah fī 'khtifāʾ Saʿīd Abī 'l-Naḥsh al-Mutashāʾil (translated as
1976: Kafr Qāsim (Kafr Kassem)
1980: Lakʿ bin Lakʿ (play)
1991: Khurāfiyyat Sarāyā Bint al-Ghūl (translated as Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter)
References
- ^ a b "All Past and Present MKs", Knesset website
- ISBN 978-1-137-06667-1. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
- ^ Tsimhoni, Daphne. "Arab Christians in Israeli Politics". Archived from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ^ a b January 2017
- ^ Imīl Ḥabībī,Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter: A Palestinian Fairy Tale, Ibis Editions, 2006 p.169.
- ^ "Israel Prize Official Site – Recipients in 1992 (in Hebrew)".
- ^ New York Times 7 May 1992 Jerusalem Journal; To a Novelist of Nazareth, Laurels and Loud Boos by Joel Greenberg
- ^ Greenberg, Joel (3 May 1996). "Emile Habibi, 73, Chronicler Of Conflicts of Israeli Arabs". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
- ^ Ouyang, Wen-Chin (2012). Poetics of Love in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 97.
External links
- Emile Habibi on the Knesset website
- Emile Habibi: I Stayed in Haifa at IMDb